CONAN THE BARBARIAN (Marcus Nispel). 112 minutes. Opens Friday (August 19). See Listings. Rating: NNNN
Conan The Barbarian offers almost everything you could want in a pure trash sword-and-sorcery flick: non-stop action, hardcore violence, epic sweep, gaudy villains, a grim sense of humour, some nudity and sex.
The main flaw lies is the casting of Jason Momoa as Conan, a barbarian in a mythic age seeking vengeance on the bandit chief turned world dominator who killed his father. Momoa has the brutal attitude and a convincing frown, but his body looks too gym-shaped, his skin too soft and his face too civilized. Filmmakers have semi-successfully worked around this by giving him a variety of rugged costumes and a few of the iconic poses from Frank Frazetta’s 1960s paperback covers.
The villains, Stephen Lang as the world-beater and Rose McGowan as his daughter, fare better. There’s dignity and intelligence behind his battle-scarred face, while she goes right over the top as the slinky, kinky sadistic mystic.
Along with the usual sword fights and punch-ups, director Marcus Nispel pulls off a good horse-and-carriage chase, a battle with sand demons vaguely reminiscent of the skeleton fight in Ray Harryhausen’s Jason And The Argonauts and an underground struggle with a tentacled horror. The 3-D enhances the highlights but otherwise adds little.
movies@nowtoronto.com
