Arabian Adventure

Veteran of a long series of fantasy-adventure films that were not especially sophisticated, sound editor turned director Kevin Connor closes out the decade with a mangled Arab-themed movie no one could possibly have thought was a good idea. Conceived as a family film, “Arabian Adventure” mainly demonstrates a lack of pacing and imagination (the movie clumsily and thoroughly rips off the world of fairy tales, starting with timeless works such as “The Thief of Bagdad”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and “Snow White”).

The screenplay is a bottomless pit, the characterizations are uniformly listless (we could charitably exclude the fine Christopher Lee, who at least manages to inject a modicum of color into his role as the painfully stereotypical caliph), and even the action is choppy – the sum total unavoidably ends up triggering deadly boredom in anyone who imprudently watches this movie.

Unfortunately, the visual elegance and attention that typify the art direction and costumes are powerless in the face of meager content and obvious inability to imbue the overall movie with even the slightest sense of adventure.

As for the cast, we would cite the presence of fine actors such as Peter Cushing (completely squandered here) and Mickey Rooney in supporting roles.

Coma-inducing.