Sunday, January 13, 2008

In The Name Of The King


I didn't know much about this film as it had just opened this weekend and I hadn't seen any reviews on it, but the poster outside the lobby looked kinda cool. Not knowing what to expect, I went on in.
Briefly, it's a rip off of Excalibur, Krull and any other medieval-based futuristic fairy tale you can think of. Not a scene goes by where I'm not thinkin "I seen this before". You've got the anonymous young dirt dweller, who is unbeknown st to himself the heir to the throne, who leads a rag tag band of commoners to rescue his maiden in distress and avenge the death of his son, all the while a Merlin/Magi character runs interference on his behalf against the evil rebel warlord, who has his own "magi guy" pulling levers against the kingdom. Oh, I and can't leave out the tree dwelling,vine swinging forest nymphs.
You got all that?

Featuring a cast of mid-stars and used-to-be-stars who don't even bother to speak the same dialect as one another. You'd think at least Burt Reynolds would've tried to lose the southern accent that served him well in his "Smokey..." days. But no. The 'king' of the medieval kingdom is obviously just a washed up redneck playing 'dress up' for a paycheck.
"Stars", and I use the term loosely, include the afore-mentioned Burt Reynolds,John Rhys Davies, Ray Liotta, Claire Forlani, Leelee Sobieski, Ron Perlman and a bunch of others who would just as soon rather not be remembered for this job.

Rated PG-13, meaning nobody over the age of thirteen would take this movie seriously.

12 comments:

Brian said...

What's funny is that I looked at the poster and mistook Burt Reynolds for Sean Connery.

And the "cast of mid-stars and used-to-be-stars who don't even bother to speak the same dialect as one another" still made perfect sense to me.

Gino said...

burt was doing the connery look-alike act in this one, but everytime 'the king' opened his mouth, the Bandit came out.

burt has been one of my favorite actors since the smokey days, but i never fooled myself into thinking he could act.

RobertDWood said...

Hmm.
I wanted to see this... wound up watching Juno instead, mostly because nobody else wanted to watch this.

Were the fights any good?

Gino said...

yes, good fights.
i enjoyed the show, taking it for what it was.

Guitarman said...

I take it you didn't like Robin Hood prince of Thieves then either. As you may remember that acting giant Kevin Costner didn't even bother to use same accent throughout the movie! I've got the right movie reference here don't I?

Bike Bubba said...

I was also thinking of Costner's minimum nadir here, not to mention the opus "Men in Tights." ("unlike some Robin Hoods, I have a real English accent!")

But hey, if Reynolds' drawl surfaces, maybe there was a hope for a cameo appearance by the General Lee?

Darn.

Mercy Now said...

Ha! Thanks for saving me time and money.

Anonymous said...
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Gino said...

SPAMBOTS ARE EVERYWHERE!

Anonymous said...

It always amused me that these kind of tales always
have a king who is a king unknown to himself.........etc but who always becomes king.
Its never just a plain good ole boy who rises above his station to become king..
The socialist in me might suggest that is an obvious
message to the lower classes to know their place etc.

just sayin eh..

Chills...

Jade said...

I'm not sure I could take a movie seriously that has Burt and Ray Liota in it. Thanks for the warning... I'll just go watch "Men in Tights" instead.

Strolling Amok said...

The tip off here is the "A Dungeon Siege Tale". Movies based on video games = major suckage.