In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Ludicrously overblown, overacted and overlong, "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" (Freestyle) is yet another fantasy adventure based on a video game.

Our hero is a peaceable peasant named, with a singular lack of imagination, Farmer (Jason Statham). He lives a medieval "Little House on the Prairie" existence with his wife, Solana (Claire Forlani), and their son, Zeph (Colin Ford), until their uneventful rural lives are torn apart by an invasion of mutant dogs who kill Zeph and kidnap Solana.

These creatures, known as Krug (unrelated, one assumes, to the champagne manufacturers) are controlled by an evil wizard (here called a magus) named Gallian (Ray Liotta). He's conspiring with smarmy aristocrat Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard) to overthrow Fallow's uncle, the wise King Konreid (Burt Reynolds). Working to defend the king's throne against such machinations is his chief adviser, the good magus Merick (John Rhys-Davies).

As Farmer goes off in pursuit of Solana, he is joined on his quest by brother-in-law Bastian (Will Sanderson) as well as by Norick (Ron Perlman), the man who raised him. Along the way, the stubbornly independent Farmer must decide whether to fight on his own or ally himself with Konreid, as Merick implores him to do.

Director Uwe Boll's epic is banal and lumbering. The battle scenes are effective, but otherwise the film has virtually nothing to offer. Long before the merciful end of its 127-minute duration, one is forced to ask, "In the name of the king, why?"

The film contains fantasy violence, an implied nonmarital sexual relationship and one crass insult. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops