08/29/97
MOVIE REVIEW: Kull the Conqueror
'Kull' reeks of rehash, but its hunky hero has a sense of humor

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

*1/2 (out of five)
Starring Kevin Sorbo, Tia Carrere, Thomas Ian Griffith, Litefoot, Roy Brocksmith, Harvey Fierstein, Karina Lombard. A Universal Pictures release written by Charles Edward Pogue, based on the books by Robert E. Howard, directed by John Nicolella. Rated PG-13, contains violence, sensuality. Running time: 95 minutes.

Kevin Sorbo's Hercules has become such a big hit in TV syndication that it was inevitable that moviemakers would try to capitalize on his popularity.

In Kull the Conquerer, Sorbo doesn't go too far afield as a barbarian chieftain who comes to rule the kingdom of Valusia, loses his crown and then tries to regain it.

There are swordfights aplenty, including one done blindfolded. There's also an ice cave, a column of fire, dank dungeons, flaming swords, slave girls, a 3,000-year-old mummy who returns to life as a treacherous queen and all the other sword-and-sorcery mumbo-jumbo made popular in the 1980s thanks to the success of the two Conan the Barbarian movies.

Although Kull is based on books by pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard, who also created Conan, it seems cheesier and sillier than the films made from those books . . . played out on ugly sets in Slovakia. Kull often comes out as a tongue-in-cheek affair, although it's not clear whether that is intentional.

Sorbo plays it with easy charm, though, and you can't help but laugh when Kull is told that his bride is more than 3,000 years old and he replies perplexedly, "She said she was 19." When the lovely slave girl-fortuneteller-card reader Zareta (Karina Lombard) approaches Kull in his bath and asks whether she should disrobe, he says, "No, shuffle." And she takes out her magic cards.

Certainly it was someone's idea of a zany goof to cast Harvey Fierstein as a treacherous pirate who offers Kull and Zareta a plate of fish eyes for supper and leers at Kull, "Come, you bulging bag of muscles!" But he's not the real treacherous queen of the film.

She's played by Tia Carrere as a sort of '90s version of Maria Montez, the siren of 1940s jungle movies. Carrere's Akivasha is a 3,000-year-old witch who comes back to life to spread her evil, getting power from that column of fire. One of the film's funniest sights is of Carrere leaping into the flames and floating around like a toasted marshmallow.

Most of Kull reeks of the musty smell of a rehash. It's designed to appeal solely to undiscriminating kids who've made Sorbo a star in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys on TV.

Sorbo is a TV star, but the question is whether his young fans will pony up the money to see him in something much like what they can get for free at home. Positioned to open at the end of the school vacation season, it seems that the studio doesn't have much confidence that they will.

Yet Sorbo does cut an impressive figure as Kull, a dashing hero with a sense of humor. And he's not a bad actor. He plays Kull straight, an honorable man who was freed from slavery and now wants freedom for his people. With better material, who knows?