The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines

**1/2 - This second of three movies in “The Librarian” series of ‘Indiana Jones’-lite films brings back the wormy guy from “ER” (whose name I have just learned is Noah Wyle) as the title character for another adventure in search of some sort of mythical object. This movie doesn’t add a great deal to the genre that hasn’t been covered in the time since Harrison Ford’s request of Alfred Molina to “throw him the whip”, but much like the first movie in this trilogy it is competently constructed and a decent way to pass the time. With the exception of an ending that delved deeply into the supernatural with flying ghosts, time portals and a big Kenyan guy named Jomo, this is largely a rehash of the first film with some minor plot alterations. Add to that strange and somewhat confusing direction from TV’s Jonathan Frakes (TV’s Commander William Riker from TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation) and this one is a notch or so down in entertainment value as compared to the last one. Being about 15 minutes shorter helps to make up for that, though.