I was recently told by a friend of mine that someone actually started a petition to stop studios from giving Uwe Boll money to make movies. What a lot of people don’t know is while his films don’t do well in the U.S. box office, they do very well over seas. Such was not the case with this disaster, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, a film that cost around sixty million to make, where most of the money I would assume went in to casting big name actors.
The film is about a man named Farmer (Jason Statham) whom is in fact a farmer living the simple life with his family and friends, however one day the dark kingdom of Gallian (Ray Liotta) attacks the village and farmer must fight the evil that is threatening his family and village. Meanwhile Gallian real plan is to over throw the kingdom of King Konreid (Burt Reynolds) while he is also seducing his daughter Muriella ( Leelee Sobieski) and has recruited the King’s nephew Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard) to help him with his evil plan. However Farmer after losing members of his family along with his friend Norick (Ron Pearlman) go to try to rescue Farmers wife Solana (Claire Forlani) from Gallians kingdom. However farmer meets up with some of the kings allies and joins forces with the King to help fight Gallian and his evil army and save the kingdom.
The script for this film is so-so, the storyline is written pretty well and it start off pretty well story wise but got long and redundant towards the end of the film. The dialogue was very bad, to the point where it effected many of the performances in this film. speaking of the acting, for a film that spent most of it’s money on getting big name actors, they were very poorly cast. Ray Liotta playing an evil wizard! Seriously! Liotta’s a guy who plays good bad guys but he was terrible in this role. I didn’t buy Burt Reynolds as a king, and it seemed like the rest of the cast just did this film for the large paychecks they were getting. I will however admit that the best performance in this film is from Ron Pearlman, who fit the part well and made it his own. Jason Statham was not that bad either, but the martial arts he brings to the film does not fit the medieval feel of this film and it took away from that overall feel.
When it comes to production value you can call In the Name of the King the poor mans Lord of the Rings. Funny thing is that John Rhys-Davies of Lord of the Rings fame does actually have a role in this film. But getting back to my point while watching this film, I noticed that it’s overall production value was similar to that of Lord of the Rings, but failed at giving us that overall look. I will admit that the costume design was very well and the overall on set locations and sets fit the bill, but the make-up effects and CGI were nothing great.
Overall, while many people would blame Uwe Boll for the downfall of the way this film was put together, he can’t take all the blame, the script was very poor to the point where it affected the whole overall production. It has some great action sequences and it has some fun fill fantasy moments, but from a filmmaking perspective it fails on so many levels.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
