Kull the Conqueror (1997) Kevin Sorbo, Tia Carrere, Thomas Ian Griffith, Litefoot Movie Review

Kull the Conqueror (1997)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Kevin Sorbo in Kull the Conqueror (1997)

Kull the King of Cheese

Following a battle with the King, barbarian warrior Kull (Kevin Sorbo) of Atlantis finds himself becoming king after the man he killed hands him the crowd. This doesn't go down well with the dead king's heirs who seek to seize back power by bringing witch-queen Akivasha (Tia Carrere) back to life to use her power to destroy Kull. But the plan backfires with Akivasha planning to allow demons to rule the kingdom.

I am not the biggest fans of modern sword & sandal/ fantasy warrior movies or at least modern in the sense of those from the 80s and 90s where it all seemed to be about big muscles and actors trying to come over as serious warriors but sounding like they couldn't deal with the dialogue. But when it comes to "Kull the Conqueror" my struggles with the whole fantasy genre are pushed to one side because simply, "Kull the Conqueror" is cheesy fun.

Tia Carrere in Kull the Conqueror (1997)

Now technically "Kull the Conqueror" does what every other fantasy movie does, we have an action hero who gets to wield a big sword, whilst using something else presumably big to bed a maiden or two. There are some bad guys trying to kill him, of course a quest and a series of sets daubed out with over sized statues and so on. I would say that if I had a list of must haves "Kull the Conqueror" would tick a lot of them.

But then "Kull the Conqueror" has a few extra things which set it apart from other fantasy movies starting with a hilarious heavy metal soundtrack to accompany the action and it is so full on that you wonder what genius thought it worked. Don't get me wrong as every time the death metal guitar starts going it I can't but help smile but man is it wrong. But what we also have in "Kull the Conqueror" is a collection of actors who embraced the fact that the action and dialogue was both cheesy and pretty much played their characters with their tongue firmly lodged in the side of their mouths. It makes "Kull the Conqueror" more akin to one of "The Mummy" movies than the serious nonsense of the fantasy movies of the 80s and it makes it entertaining in a cheesy way.

What this all boils down to is that "Kull the Conqueror" is entertaining but only in the fact it is bad nonsense. If you watched expecting a genuinely entertaining fantasy/adventure movie full of excitement and mythology you are going to be disappointed.


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