This was a really nice rediscovery on UK DVD for me; I remember I've watched 'Arabian Adventure' on TV in the 1980s but not since then. I mean, you get flying carpets, jinns, belly-dancers, a beautiful princess to save and Christopher Lee as an evil wizard turning people into toads ("You call yourself my servant?") - what more could you ask for? 'Arabian Adventure' knows the genre standards and delivers. Lest I forget, fire-breathing metal monsters and Peter Cushing with a silly beard are in it as well. One has to admit that the limited budget shows in the set decoration, as the palace looks more like cardboard than marble, and then some effects like the superimposed jinn are rather TV quality than big screen. But fairy tales from 1001 Nights don't need realism that much, I found I could successfully switch into fantasy mode and simply enjoy it. It's an old-fashioned production like they did in the 1940s and 50s, maintaining the same naive charm and that's fine for such kind of things.

The film though done with a limited budget is a classic and the last of a kind we do not see anymore as I will explain. Before the 1970s Arabs and other nations of the Middle East were represented in an exotic and romantic manner with a curious interest of the areas culture in terms of the literature of the Arabian Nights classics and European accounts of the Classical Arab Empire.

The film is well produced with a good cast especially Christopher Lee, Emma Samms and Oliver Tobias who can pass as Arabs and do a good representation and acting along with the rest of the costume and background setting of the film with protocol and respect. The story is interesting and takes its inspiration from the original stories that fascinated Europe with Arabic literature on its themes of adventure, mysticism and imaginative content looking for a rose along with good chemistry with the differing characters protagonist and antagonist.

The film is not politically incorrect or prejudice rather it a fair and positive representation of Arabs and Muslims at their classical zenith that is entertaining and interesting. The minor faults i find with the film is the characters are slightly clichéd and in some parts it is cheesy that only targets a particular audience rather then a broad one. With the negative stereotyping of all things Middle Eastern in today's Films and Media this film deserves more credit and attention then is given.

An unimaginative title is a pre-warning that this movie isn't much cop, and it even makes Kevin Connor's previous outings - which include the incredibly tacky AT THE EARTH'S CORE - look like Oscar contenders. A kiddie fantasy film full of stock characters, an overload of cheap effects work, poor comedy, and cardboard sets conspire to sink it from the start. I usually get a kick out of this genre, but everything is so by-the-book and unimaginative - did I mention cheap? - that it just doesn't offer up any interest whatsoever. Even the fight scenes are boring.

The biggest disgrace is the waste of a good cast in this dull outing. Whoever decided to cast Milo O'Shea (THEATRE OF BLOOD) as an Irish Arab needs shooting, but that's just the start of the problems that plague this movie. Oliver Tobias (COBRA MISSION) is handsome but ineffectual as the leading man, his acting weak. Christopher Lee makes one of those embarrassing latter-day performances that plague his career (POLICE ACADEMY 7 anyone?) as the evil Sultan, Alquazar, but the film doesn't stretch his talents at all - instead he just looks bored, with silly headgear, a villain distinctly lacking in villainy.

Elsewhere we have a bland love interest, an annoying cute Indian kid and his pet monkey, a before-he-was-famous appearance from Art Malik, and of course wasted turns from British character actors including Shane Rimmer. Even Peter Cushing puts in a cameo role as a prisoner (!),only two years after STAR WARS and he was reduced to this level - a sad state of affairs.

The special effects are typically appalling, the nadir being the magic carpet rides which are achieved via some really poor and unconvincing back projection. There's supposed to be a "chase" between these carpets, but they move at a snail's pace so any excitement is non-existent. There's also a sandstorm in which people supposedly fly through the air but are instead suspended by really obvious wires and a giant genie which is just a bald overweight man with his face painted blue superimposed over the background. What the?!

On the plus side, there's a cool scene in which three mechanical fire-breathing monsters appear over the top of a mountain range to menace our heroes like they're come from some Toho flick, some interesting matte work and good location scenery, and colour filters which give the setting an other-worldly look. Unfortunately these aren't enough; ARABIAN ADVENTURE is a waste of talent and money, and a sad reminder of the level British cinema had fallen to by 1979.