In the Name of the King - A Dungeon Siege Tale (2008)

name of king

In the Name of the King - A Dungeon Siege Tale
great movie as allways jason good acting June 16, 2008

Avoid...

I can generally watch anything, this I couldn't. I seriously stopped almost a half-hour into the movie as I began to think to myself, I have work around the house I should be doing. I'd rather wash dirty dishes than watch this mess. Best way I could describe the first 25 or so minutes, real live actors following a screenplay based on a 6-and-under children's cartoon. I realize it's based on a video game, but it's not even to that level.
Pass this one by, nothing to see here, choose another movie you've seen 20 times, at least that won't hurt. June 15, 2008

Can't even describe it!!

This was by far, the worst movie I've seen in a long time.
I really like Jason Statham and in this movie he does what he does, as well as Ron Pearlman... but that's it!! Everything else is terrible.
The dialogues are incredibly bad, the make-up is worse, the acting of everyone surrounding Jason and Ron is a joke!
Really, I could go on and on about how bad this movie was, but I have a headache as I just finished watching it. Do yourself a favor and NEVER watch this movie. June 14, 2008

What a piece of ****

Oh man this movie really blows. Just finished watching it and I'm thinking to myself, there's 2 1/2 hours of my life wasted. There's so many things wrong with this movie, to list everything would take another 2 1/2 hours, so I'll just discuss the major issues that bothered me. Number 1 has to be the casting of this film. Everyone was pretty lousy, but Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds take the cake. These guys didn't mesh with the movie at all and really felt tacked on because of their acting status from previous films. Second issue has to be the very poor fight choreography throughout the entire film. The only reason I even picked this up was because Jason Statham is the lead role and he's excellent in all his other films. The fighting in this is the worst ever, and is definitely not going to improve his career as a martial arts action star. My last issue is with the overall story, can you say snooze fest ? I literally fell asleep 1 hour into the movie, no joke. Well thats all I have to say, avoid this turd of a movie at all costs. June 9, 2008

WHAT IN THE WORLD???

Yes, this one is really, really bad. Uwe Boll has developed something of a garbage can reputation in recent years, and turkeys like this aren't going to get him out of the dog house with many fans.

The plot: an evil sorcerer has raised a bestial army and is working with a traitor in the King's court to conquer the land. But when he steps on the innocent family of a farmer named...well, Farmer...he makes an enemy more dangerous than anybody could have foreseen. Can Farmer and some newfound allies (the King's wizard, his somewhat precocious daughter, a clan of female tree sprites) put an end to the evil uprising before all is lost?

It sounds generally Tolkien-esque, but please don't even go there. This might have made a good movie if certain things had been handled properly, but poor writing, direction, and questionable casting doom this picture from the get-go.

Mind you, I don't uniformly hate all of Uwe Boll's pictures. Boll has his faults, but he can also sometimes capture some very unique shots that bring a fresh perspective to movie action and suspense. Alas, IN THE NAME OF THE KING deserves all the negative reviews it got. There are so many things gone wrong in this movie I'm not sure where to even start. The dialogue is often laughable, sometimes painful. The action is usually poorly choreographed so that what should be exciting is instead simply boring. There are a few asides concerning war and its cruelty but certainly never anything thought-provoking, just trite. And the aforementioned cast...just look at all the great actors in this one: Jason Statham as Farmer, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies, Ron Perlman, Kristianna Loken, Matthew Lillard, Brian J. White, Burt Reynolds...but it's all for naught. Whether it's just the poor script or the director's inability to motivate his actors or both, the fact is most of the performances are way below par. Statham is the star, and certainly an adept action performer, but his character is too stupid to stand a chance. His fight scenes are way over the top, even by the standards of fantasy/action. How does a farmer learn what amounts to medieval kung-fu out in the sticks? He never wears armor, carries pedestrian weapons, and has no formal training in combat whatsoever--and yet he's a worldbeater. Ray Liotta is usually a can't-miss prospect as anybody's bad guy, but he comes off as a poor caricature of himself in this one with some of the film's very worst lines.

There are a few plusses, though not many. The set design and special effects are of good quality, so that at least everything looks nice and suitably medieval. The music is pretty good and helps set the right tone. Every now and then there's a neat stunt or action scene, and the magical climax is visually impressive. That's about it.

I have seen worse movies, and I can't say I regret renting IN THE NAME OF THE KING because it's one of the film's that's so bad it's kind of fun. The thing is, with a fairly large budget and so many talented performers involved, this should have been a really good movie. Well, maybe...but it's not. June 6, 2008

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