Lazda: Low Fantasy

Showing posts with label Low Fantasy. Show all posts

The Scorpion King (2002)

Director: Chuck Russell
Writers: Stephen Sommers (story), Jonathan Hales (story)

In an ancient time, predating the pyramids, the evil king Memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress Cassandra to fortell his great victories. In a last ditch effort to stop Memnon from taking over the world, the leaders of the remaining free tribes hire the assassin Mathayus to kill the sorceress. But Mathayus ends up getting much more than he bargained for. Now with the help of the trickster Arpid, tribal leader Balthazar and an unexpected ally, it's up to Mathayus to fufill his destiny and become the great Scorpion King.

The Scorpion King was notable for two main reasons. First, this is a spinoff of The Mummy franchise, which was initially a big success for Universal. The second is this being Dwayne Johnson's (The Rock) first leading role.

Dwayne Johnson does a pretty good job here in his first big role. He has definitely improved over the years. But I'm a pretty big fan of most of the stuff he does. I think Dwayne Johnson just reaks of charisma and he uses it well here.

Of course, I can't do one of these mini-reviews with talking about the ladies in the film. Kelly Hu is stunning and I fell in love with her from the first time I saw this in the theater. She's a decent actor as well. There are other pretty faces here, but none of them hold a torch to Kelly.

The rest of the actors are pretty good. I always enjoy Michael Clarke Duncan when he's on screen. Grant Heslov is quite entertaining as well.

The Scorpion King doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, and I think that was a good choice. This is just good clean fun. The action is well done, and the humor is well placed. There's no nudity or blood and gore here, so I think this would be fine for some older kids.

So far, there have been three Scorpion King movies. I think I saw the second, but don't remember it too well. The third just came out and I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure I'll be reporting on those soon.

Overall I think The Scorpion King is alot of fun and kind of gets a bad rap. This is not meant to be anything more than what it is and I think it does a good job at entertaining.

Verdict: Recommended

The Cast

Dwayne Johnson ... Mathayus

Kelly Hu ... The Sorceress

Steven Brand ... Memnon

Grant Heslov ... Arpid

Michael Clarke Duncan ... Balthazar

Bernard Hill ... Philos

Peter Facinelli ... Takmet

Ralf Moeller ... Torak

Tutu Sweeney ... Street Urchin

Sherri Howard ... Queen Isis

Branscombe Richmond ... Jesup

Adoni Maropis ... Doubting General

Roger Rees ... King Pheron

The Scorpion King (2002) Link Free Download

The Barbarians (1987)

Director: Ruggero Deodato
Writer: James R. Silke

The young orphans Kutchek and Gore have been adopted by a tribe of clowns, jugglers, and entertainers. The tribe is led by the queen Canary and its wealth stems from her magical belly stone. The evil ruler Kadar desires Canary and her stone, and attacks her clan's caravan to gain possession of them. Before the clan's defeat one of the clansmen sneak away to hide the stone. Canary is locked up in Kadar's harem, Kutchek and Gore in his quarry to be trained as gladiators, and the rest of the clan is to live as outlaws in the woods. When Kutchek and Gore have grown up to VERY big gladiators, they run away and break into Kadar's harem with the aid of the young woman Lemone. Canary quests them to find "The Old King's Weapons" and with these kill the dragon that guards the hidden belly stone. Afterwards they should find a new queen and give her the stone, to restore the tribe to its former glory.

So, here's another "classic" from the 80's trying to feed off the success of Conan The Barbarian. As you know, there are a number of these, and most of them I quite enjoy. The Barbarians is one that I know I saw as a young kid, but didn't quite remember alot of it. I do remember enjoying it as well, but the details were quite sketchy.

Does this one hold up at all? Well, first of all, this doesn't seem to be available on DVD, at least not one I can find. So, my copy of this movie is pretty damn crappy. I would love to see this cleaned up with a proper release.

The production value is along the lines of other movies from this time period, not too terrible, but not great either. This one comes out of Italy and has quite a few Italian actors in it.

The acting of course is pretty terrible. The barbarian brothers are not good actors at all, however, I found myself enjoying them. I chuckled quite a few times. This movie is very tongue in cheek and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, which in my opinion makes the movie more enjoyable. I do think that the gorgeous and adorable Eva La Rue is excellent. She would go on to a prosperous career. You probably know her from CSI: Miami.

The action is awful, and there's not much nudity to be had here. However, there is plenty of eye candy to go around.

The fact that The Barbarians doesn't take itself seriously makes this a better movie that what it is. I didn't think I'd enjoy this on my recent watch, but found myself smiling through the movie.

Verdict: Recommended

The Cast

Peter Paul ... Kutchek

David Paul ... Gore

Eva La Rue ... Kara

Richard Lynch ... Kadar

Virginia Bryant ... Canary

Sheeba Alahani ... China

Michael Berryman ... Dirtmaster

Franco Pistoni ... Ibar

George Eastman ... Jacko

The Barbarians (1987) Link Free Download

Solomon Kane (2009)

Written and Directed by: Michael J. Bassett

Based on characters by: Robert E. Howard

James Purefoy stars as Solomon Kane, a wandering 16th century hero whose haunted past forces him to redeem himself by battling a growing evil in his homeland in this big-screen incarnation of Robert E. Howard's cloaked pulp character. Deathwatch's Michael J. Bassett directs from his own script, with Max von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alice Krige, and Mackenzie Crook co-starring.

I struggled with deciding if I wanted to add this movie to my blog. I generally don't want guns in my fantasy flicks. However, after watching this film, I decided that it needed to go in. Take out a small handful of gun-shots, a reference to "the new world", and ignore the date, and this is totally a "fantasy flick".

It is extremely unfortunate that this movie was never released and is not available in the United States. It is, however, available with more nefarious means. If you can get your hands on it, I do recommend this movie. As usual, I'm not saying this is a masterpiece, but I think it's quite good and deserves to be seen. I do not understand why this movie was never released.

The film-makers do an excellent job here with a relatively small budget. The film does have a few disjointed quirks, but they can be easily ignored. The story flows nicely and you should never be bored.

The action is quite good and nicely violent. I like the fact that while being "Hollywood" action, they try to add a little realism to the fight scenes. In one instance a "beheading" takes more than one swing, while Kane's sword is difficult for him to remove from a victim.

The acting is pretty damn good as well. I have no complaints here. James Purefoy is always one of my favorites and he does not fail here. I've never read the books, but I think he plays this perfectly. The rest of the cast is also quite good.

Overall, I definitely recommend you try and get a hold of a copy and watch this. I think I can make an exception to the use of guns in this film as it is a "fantasy flick" through and through.