World Famous Comics: The Librarian - Quest for the Spear
The Librarian - Quest for the Spear
Starring: Noah Wyle, Sonya Walger, Bob Newhart, Kyle MacLachlan, Kelly Hu Directed By: Peter Winther Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Turner Home Ent Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 30, 2005 Running Time: 106 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 05, 2004
Product Description: To be a librarian you must master the Dewey Decimal System ace internet research and if you're new librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) save the world! Wyle (ER) heads a sterling cast in a fun fantastical special effects-laden adventure that soars around the world from the Metropolitan Library to the Amazon jungle to the Himalayas. Geeky Carsen lands a job as the Librarian keeper of such top-secret Met treasures as Excalibur and Pandora's Box. Then the Serpent Brotherhood seeking world domination steals one of three parts of the magical Spear of Destiny from the library. Only Flynn aided by a gorgeous bodyguard has the knowhow to thwart their plan. But does he know how to be a hero? He will - even if he has to gouge kick punch brave Mayan death traps and plunge off icy precipices every inch of the way!Running Time: 106 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 053939690125
Amazon.com: Broadcast to record ratings on the TNT cable network, this Raiders-esque adventure does not go by the book, staring with its atypical action hero and his decidedly uncool profession. Flynn Carsen (Noah Wylie from E.R.) is a thirtysomething perpetual student who still lives with his mother (Olympia Dukakis). When his exasperated professor finally ejects him into the real world, Carsen's Holmesian deductive acumen lands him a job as the librarian at the Metropolitan Library. This is not an ordinary library. It houses history's most mythic artifacts, including the Ark of the Covenant, Pandora's Box, and the sword Excalibur. The fate of the world is in Carsen's hands ("That's so sad," he observes) when the dread Serpent Brotherhood steals the library's Spear of Destiny, and Carsen must retrieve it. His reluctant, and antagonistic, partner is Nicole (Sonya Walger), who is as skilled in martial arts as Carsen is schooled in the Dewey Decimal System. Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin add welcome comic relief, with Newhart, of all people, getting into the action by film's end. The humble hero (who would rather be known as "Flynn, the rather pleasant at parties"), somewhat cheesy special effects, and corny comedy make The Librarian a fun guilty pleasure. As Carsen proclaims, "Being a librarian is actually a cool job." This looks like the beginning of a beautiful franchise. --Donald Liebenson
Fun for everyone This is a fun movie. It is well balanced entertainment for older kids and adults.
Great fun! Flynn Carson is the classic professional student. He's 32, lives with his mother, doesn't date, reads voraciously, and has racked up 14 years in college and 22 degrees. Then, halfway through a project to build an exact one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid (including the long-missing golden capstone), his professor throws him out of the class with no comprehensible (to Flynn or the viewer) reason except that it's time for him to go out and experience life in the real world. Less than 24 hours later, he receives a magical-seeming letter (somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter's acceptance to Hogwarts) that tells him he's been invited to interview for "a prestigious position at the Metropolitan Public Library." When he gets it, he learns to his amazement and delight that the Library is a lot more than just a repository for books: it's the latest incarnation of an institution whose history goes back to Alexandria, and among its treasures are wondrous and magical objects ranging from the Ark of the Covenant and Excalibur (how the sword was recovered from the mere is never explained), through a live unicorn and the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs, to a functioning jet-pack and H. G. Wells's original Time Machine. And it has its enemies, including the ruthless Brotherhood of the Serpent, which longs to possess some of those treasures for the sake of the occult power they contain. On Flynn's first day on the job, he finds that one of them--a piece of the Spear of Destiny, the weapon that pierced Jesus' side on the cross--has been stolen by a Serpent task force. And it's up to him--geeky, clumsy Flynn--to get it back. Why? Because he's "The Librarian." What follows is a chase from the Amazon Basin to the Himalayas and back to New York, infused with elements of Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Young Sherlock Holmes in about equal measure, and with the Serpents ever breathing down his neck. Accompanying him as bodyguard is the gorgeous and deadly Nicole Noone, who blames herself for the supposed murder of Flynn's predecessor. And Flynn, somewhat to his own amazement, proves more than equal to the challenge thanks to his broad store of esoteric knowledge. (He discovers romance too).
Flynn is a charming character, and his improbable adventures are so well done that suspension of disbelief is very easy. The movie was originally a TNT presentation and therefore, despite several hard-charging martial-arts sequences, no scarier than a Potter or Jones movie and suitable for all but the youngest and most sensitive children. It may also inspire interest in some of the artifacts the Museum owns, and parents who buy it may find that they've inspired a Flynn of their own. I enjoyed it tremendously and definitely plan to get the sequel The Librarian - Return to King Solomon's Mines as soon as I can.
Unsophisticated But Very Entertaining. The plot, actors and production are unsophisticated, and even predictable. But there is a continuous mix of comedy and action that keeps viewer interest and makes the movie entertaining. It is also more family friendly than most contemporary movies.
I want more!!! Loved Noah Wyle as reluctant Indiana Jones, I just hope there are more of these to come!! great fun movie!!!!
Poorly Done and Not that "Family-Friendly" I have to respond to this movie being called "family friendly" by so many reviewers. I took a chance on this on Netflix because of that oft-repeated term - and was very disappointed. I understand that the movie didn't have as much cursing and the blood a lot of films do - but those films shouldn't be watched by young kids, anyway. I can't call this "family-friendly" with an comedically-staged sex tryst between the leading man and lady in the middle of the movie! So what if they didn't "show it." How is it "friendly" for my kids to be constantly bombarded with propaganda that sex is just a natural part of dating; no commitment, no "protection," no real knowledge of each other - just jump in the sack!? (And it's clearly implied that the heroine did the same thing with the other "librarian.") Besides that, the plot of this thing was absolutely ludicrous and the special effects laughable. It would take too long to list the plot holes, even if the viewer is trying to buy into the cuteness of the library idea. (For religious viewers, Christianity is denigrated throughout the film by quietly being put on the same level as mythology and fairytales or directly attacked - especially in the scene where the "secret name of God" is revealed to be "Me" - teaching that we are each God.) Under all the "fun" of this goofy film are themes that I don't want my kids absorbing, just for a passing laugh.
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