KULL THE CONQUEROR (Universal) Starring: Kevin Sorbo, Tia Carrere, Karina Lombard, Thomas Ian Griffith, Litefoot. Screenplay: Charles Edward Pogue, based on characters created by Robert E. Howard. Producer: Raffaella DeLaurentiis. Director: John Nicolella. MPAA Rating: R (violence, sexual situations, adult themes, profanity) Running Time: 92 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I was feeling a bit under-prepared as I walked into KULL THE CONQUEROR. After all, I had never seen a minute of the syndicated series "Hercules: The Legendary Journies," and consequently I was completely unfamiliar with the work of Kevin Sorbo. What sort of action hero would this fellow be? Did he have the stuff to make it on the big screen? What sort of appeal could he bring to a creation of Robert E. Howard, who also created that _other_ barbarian, a surly chap named Conan?
Well, Sorbo's got the goods, all right, and he shows them off in the surprisingly high-spirited KULL THE CONQUEROR. He plays the title character, a barbarian warrior whose attempt to join the royal guard of the kingdom of Valusia is rebuffed by the nasty captain Taligaro (Thomas Ian Griffith). Instead, Kull ends up with an even better job in Valusia: as the king lies dying from a wound Kull has inflicted, the monarch names his murderer as his successor. This wee departure from the rules of succession makes Kull rather unpopular with some who would see themselves on the throne, including Taligaro himself and a demon sorceress named Akivasha (Tia Carrere) who sees to it that she becomes Kull's queen. Only a fortune-telling slave girl (Karina Lombard) and a benevolent holy man (Litefoot) can help save Kull's life and his crown.
Standard sword-and-sorcery stuff, to be sure, but for a while KULL provides enough satisfying spins to the material to keep you grinning. Director John Nicolella adds some amusing bits of business, like the triumphant and newly-crowned Kull receiving discreet advice from his protocol minister to hold his scepter in the other hand. He also gets a lot of mileage out of the year's prime contender for Incongruous Casting Choice of 1997, Harvey Fierstein as an old pirate pal of Kull's. Fierstein chews up every goofy line he's got, including the most obscure -- and crudest -- sexual double-entendre in Charles Edward Pogue's script.
Most of all there is Kevin Sorbo, he of the prominent and prominently featured pectoral muscles. Sorbo leaps into the role with enthusiastic good humor, deciding he's going to find the pleasure in playing the hero. It would have been easy to play KULL as camp, to keep winking at the audience to make sure we understood he's really in on the joke. Rather than making fun of the genre, Sorbo opts for finding the fun _in_ the genre. The result is the kind of energetic action which evokes Richard Lester's Musketeer films, with Sorbo providing considerably more than mere pecs appeal.
KULL THE CONQUEROR appears to have so much going for it early on that the final half hour comes as a crashing disappointment. All the energy leaks out of the film, the pacing abruptly drops to a crawl, and the appealing riff on creaky fantasy motifs gives way to creaky fantasy motifs. Every line of dialogue becomes a piece of exposition, explaining everything twice so that even the most obtuse viewer might be able to keep up. Chances are they may not want to, though, not with the narrative reduced to resolving a second-rate "Dungeons and Dragons" scenario. Sorbo's efforts deserve better; he gives KULL the charismatic spark a good adventure needs. Now it's time to catch up on the Sorbo oeuvre. Anyone know when the season premiere of "Hercules" might be?
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 barbarians at the gate: 6.
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