COURTNEY SOLOMON
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.
USA/Czech Republic, 2000. New Line Cinema, , , , Screenplay by Topper Lilien, Carroll Cartwright, based on the game by E. Gary Gygax. Cinematography by Douglas Milsome. Produced by Thomas M. Hammel, Kia Jam, Courtney Solomon. Music by Justin Caine Burnett. Production Design by Bryce Perrin. Costume Design by Barbara Lane. Film Editing by Caroline Ross.
I’ll give director Courtney Solomon credit for having the guts to purchase the rights to the popular role-playing game at the age of 19 and spend years raising the funds to make this film. That impressive detail aside, however, and all you have is a laughable sword-and-sorcery adventure that takes you back to the good old days of Red Sonja. In a mythical land split between Mages (magic users) and common folk, a commoner (Justin Whalin) and his offensively goofy companion (Marlon Wayans) go on a quest to save their country from an evil wizard (Jeremy Irons) and restore an awkwardly stiff queen (Thora Birch, who speaks as if her mouth has been sewn shut) to her rightful place on the throne. The visual effects are cheesy, the performances awkward and stiff, and the dialogue atrocious. Irons keeps getting louder the more embarrassed he is to be in this movie, while Wayans’ character is a racist throwback to stepnfetchits. The only reason to watch it is because, well, sometimes a movie this bad is also fun.
