In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

“In the Name of the King” could have been a better movie, assuming you like sword and sorcery movies, but for three things: 1) overacting on the part of some of the actors, 2) cheesy special effects, and 3) its excessive length. Farmer (Jason Statham) lives on a farm with Solana, his wife (Claire Forlani) and his son. This peaceful existence ends when a band of marauding krugs attacks the nearby village, killing Farmer’s son and capturing Solana. Vowing revenge, Farmer, accompanied by his neighbor, Norick (Ron Perlman) and Solana’s brother, sets out to rescue Solana from the krug and find those responsible for his son’s death. However, this story is about more than one man’s tragedy. The land hovers on the brink of war. On the side of good are King Konreid (Burt Reynolds), his loyal mage, Merick (John Rhys-Davies) and the commanders of his soldiers. On the side of evil are the wicked sorcerer, Gallian (Ray Liotta), heir-to-the-throne Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard) and an army of krugs. In an attempt to create an epic tale, director Uwe Boll has assembled a strong cast, but Liotta and Lillard overplay their roles to the point of being ridiculous. And Lillard is downright irritating. Statham is typically the strong, silent type (but able to kick a lot of krug butts) and Rhys-Davies is effective as the king’s magician. The krug look suspiciously like Peter Jackson’s orcs, but their faces are blurred. The battle between the humans and krugs was filmed in such a way that we aren’t supposed to notice the limited number of participants and the shots of the king’s army are obviously computer enhanced. And with a running time of 125 minutes, this movie is at least 25 minutes too long. I happen to like sword and sorcery movies, and really good one are hard to find. Unfortunately, “In the Name of the King” isn’t one of the good ones. (1/14/08)