In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (DVD)

It's fashionable now to bash Uwe Boll for his films regardless of whether you saw them or not. In the Name of the King made only $4.7 million at the box-office, but I am sure you could go online and find plenty of people that will tell you it is terrible even though they never saw it based only on the fact it is from director Uwe Boll. On top of that, if they say they saw it and are still bashing it you have to wonder why they wasted their money on a movie they already knew they were going to hate. It makes no sense and it is the way of the Internet, you gotta take it with a grain of salt and ignore the majority of what you read.

As for me, this is the first Uwe Boll movie I had ever seen. I expected the worst, and while In the Name of the King isn't good I would list off several films from top filmmakers I would say are worse than this one. From what I can tell a Uwe Boll film is meant to be a mindless diversion and somehow he gets money and actors for all of his projects.

In this one you have Jason Statham who plays a battle-trained farmer tending to his land until an evil sorcerer played by Ray Liotta unleashes his band of baddies that highly resemble the Lord of the Rings Orcs on the land. They kill and kidnap people and his wife (Claire Forlani) is nabbed and along with two of his pals (Ron Perlman and Will Sanderson) Statham sets out to save his wife and ultimately gets involved with the king of the land (Burt Reynolds) and learns who he really is.

Liotta gives an entirely uninspired performance; Matthew Lillard proves he can only play idiots; Leelee Sobieski makes me wonder why anyone would cast her; and Kristanna Loken looks incredibly hot. It's an up-and-down kind of film. The story is flimsy, the effects are decent and the direction is mediocre, but I didn't expect much and came out mildly satisfied. This isn't a film you are going to buy, but a rental won't kill you if you really want to shut your brain off completely.

As far as features go you get a few deleted/extended scenes and what basically boils down to b-roll posing as a making-of featurette. None of it is impressive.

This film has the feel of a bigger budget made for TV movie. Go into it with bottom of the barrel expectations and you may actually enjoy yourself.