The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)

Such a frustrating disappointment

One of my all time favorites.

Crappy film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I wanted to like The Librarian, I really did. I do like the action/fantasy/adventure genres, and thought it would be halfway decent. But apart from some nice locations, a rousing score and some good subtly deadpan performances from Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin, The Librarian just didn't cut it for me. The effects were excessively used and at best mediocre in their quality, and the editing could have been much more focused, at times it seemed rather frenzied for my tastes. The script is poor with unfunny in alternative to humorous jokes and a lot of the dialogue itself is trite beyond belief. The story is never suspenseful or enthralling, instead it is convoluted, derivative(of Indiana Jones except without the thrills and fun) and dull. It also never knows whether it wants to be Sci-Fi, adventure, fantasy or action, it constantly switches between all of those and it gave such an all-over-the-place feel. The action sequences are unexciting and not all that memorable, and the characters are clichéd and not developed enough to make us empathise enough for them. Of the acting, only Newhart and Curtin are close to good. Noah Wyle is stiff in the lead, Sonya Walger is sexy but not much else and Olympia Dukakis and Kyle MacLachlan are underused. All in all, a movie of its genre that doesn't have enough of what a movie of the genre needs and comes across as bland instead. 4/10 Bethany Cox

So I just saw this movie; only 7 years after it's release...As the last reviewer mentioned, it has a lot of typical Indiana Jones' "things" to it; riddles, conspiracies, ancient secret artifacts, and of course the same kind of humor, amongst other. All of which makes it a quite entertaining and enjoyable family movie. I must say that I'm a sucker for adventures like the ones the movies characters are going on. Probably brings me back to my childhood fantasies. You know: Being the brave and smart hero, saving the world, and getting the girl. All of these things make me forgive the extremely lousy fight scenes, all the fake studio-shot outdoor scenes, the unrealistic animations, and bad key-framing.But for me a movie is fortunately not just a science in making the viewer believing that the story is true. It is all about bringing me into a wonderful new adventure, where everything is possible, and only hindered by the movie makers fantasies.It is now 1.22 am, and I'm about to watch The Librarian 2. Hope I will enjoy jet another "cosy" reality flight.

I have enjoyed all of the films in The Librarian series, but so far the first one "Quest for the Spear" is (in my opinion) the best. Noah Wyle, Olympia Dukakis, Bob Newhart and Jane Curtain are especially wonderful in this. The film has a lot of entertaining and original concepts, with good to excellent dialog, a decent plot, plenty of action and humor, beautiful sets and great special effects, all of which I loved. The film definitely camps it up in a few spots and even devolves into something of an Indiana Jones parody in a few scenes - in my opinion this doesn't quite work and would have been better either left out or pushed with some tongue-in-cheek IJ references, but on the whole the film is good enough (and different enough) to get past that. "Quest for the Spear" is definitely several levels above most made for TV movies and, while it is not an A+ (like all the Indiana Jones movies), it is at least a solid B movie - and I personally give it an A-. Lots of fun and definitely recommended.And yes, it is a great family film which manages to be reasonably funny and intelligent without ever having to throw in the bathroom toilet to get there.

'The Librarian: Quest for the spear' stars Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen a rather geeky full-time Student who still lives with his mother and gets given a mysterious invitation for an interview at the Metropolitan Public Library. After his interview the library employee (Jane Curtin) and library head Judson (Bob Newhart) give Flynn the mysterious and secretive position of the 'Librarian' a job which has existed for centuries and its purpose is to protect historical and sometimes magical objects in a secret, well guarded section of the Library. Among the objects contained inside include Pandora's Box, Excalibur, The Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.Soon after Flynn takes the job on thieves belonging to the evil serpent brotherhood break into the Library and steal one of the parts of the 'Spear of destiny' and whoever holds all three pieces can control the entire World, so Flynn is given the task of finding the other two pieces somewhere in the World before the Bad guys do.A tough Lara Croft-type Library employee (Sonya Walger) joins Flynn on his expedition to try and keep him out of harms way as they travel deep into the Amazon Rainforest.The Librarian: Quest for the Spear is hugely enjoyable with plenty of Action & Adventure that isn't a world away from Indiana Jones in vein, Wyle is likable and the rest of the cast do a really good job - and while this was a Made for Cable Movie, a fair bit of money was spent and it has pretty good special Fx - I can't find many if any faults with it.Followed by The Librarian: Return to King Soloman's Mines & The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.