I overlooked this one when it was released, and I was surprised to learn that the release date was 2009. I thought it was only a couple of years ago. Time flies when you're old.While Solomon Kane is based on Robert E. Howard's character, it's not based on his stories. It's yet another origin story, and while I'm tired of those, I thought this one was okay. In fact, I was more impressed with the whole production than I thought I'd be. It's a low-budget film, but it looks terrific right up to the end. More about the end later.
The performances are uniformly good, and it was great to see James Purefoy as Kane, a very different character from Hap Collins on the TV series that Purefoy currently stars in. He's very good as the conflicted Kane, and it's a shame the movie didn't do well enough to generate a couple of sequels.
Now about that ending [SPOILER ALERT]: Way too over the top with a CGI demon that doesn't fit at all with the rest of the movie, which for the most part is realistic, muddy, bloody, rainy, and generally down to earth. The demon almost spoils it for me, but not quite. I'm glad I finally got around to seeing this, and if you missed it and like some good old-fashioned mayhem with swords and pistols, you might want to give it a try.
9 comments:
Speaking of how quickly time slips by, one of my kids was just telling me that it's been ten years since that guy had the "Leave Brittany alone" meltdown on YouTube. If you'd asked me, I would have said it happened about five years ago!
/I wonder what that guy is doing these days.
You're kidding, right? That was only a month or so ago. Right? Right?
Not REH's Solomon Kane, but a fairly entertaining movie taken on its own merits. I watched it at the Cross Plains Public Library, a few blocks from Howard's house, which is something not many people can say.
I agree, James. Not Howard's character, but maybe he would have evolved into that role in the sequels if they'd ever been made.
Sounds like the only thing the movie was missing is Nicolas Cage.
Since Deb asked:
Leave Britney Alone guy, 10 years later.
I only seen the first five minutes of the film that came after A Bridge Too Far so I can't speak to the quality of the film. I know Howard purists hate it. Personally, I would combine Red Shadows and Wings in the Night for the script. Also, it would have a younger than he his now Clint Eastwood as Kane. I can just see Eastwood saying "Men shall die for this!"
I also have an idea for the cast of Shadow of the Vulture if it was made during Hollywood's golden age. Maureen O'Hara as Red Sonya, John Wayne as the German Knight who is the main character. Yul Brenner would have a role too. It would have been directed by Howard Hawks and written by Leigh Brackett.
Why I come up with these ideas I don't know.
I waited for a VERY long time for this movie to come to town and when it did, it played in one theater in all of Atlanta and that theater was nowhere near my home, I planned to see the movie anyway but that weekend my mother went into the hospital. It turned out that Mother was not seriously ill, just having a bad reaction to a new medication so I joked with her that she ought to buy me Solomon Kane on blu-ray when it came out. And she did!
Agreed--not particularly memorable, but significantly better than some Howard-inspired movies (coughRED SONJAcoughcoughCONAN THE DESTROYERcough). But nobody other than Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck could say "Men shall die for this!" with a straight face and get away with it.
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