“Krull” Podcast Movie Review

By Daniel Barnes on June 23, 2020

Krull – Dare Daniel Podcast Episode 66

“It’s not the Glaive, it’s you.”

Is it a heroic fantasy or a science-fiction swashbuckler? Or is it just a bald-faced Star Wars knockoff with touches of Lord of the RIngs and Excalibur? In this coffee-addled podcast episode, Daniel and Corky confront the confusing world of Krull.

Krull is a two-hour movie written like a 22-minute TV episode and filled with the pointless, dead-end quests of a video game. Genre-hopping director Peter Yates was never going to make a cookie-cutter Star Wars clone, and the soundstage stuff feels incredibly clunky. It doesn’t help that he got saddled with lead actors devoid of charisma and chemistry. However, the film comes to life whenever it travels outside of the studio, and generally exudes old-fashioned charm.

Elsewhere, Daniel and Corky discuss emo cyclops, fire mares, archetype gangs, and Krull 2 Kickstarter campaigns.

NEW DARE

Johnny Mnemonic (Brad from The Cinema Guys)

KRULL FACTS AND FIGURES

Theatrical release date: July 29, 1983

Domestic box office: $16.5 million (production budget: $30 million)

Critic scores: 32 on Rotten Tomatoes; 45 on Metacritic

This week’s craft coffee: Tree House Coffee Company’s Peru Estrella Divina

This week’s darer: Heather Smith

Why did Heather dare Daniel and Corky to watch Krull? “This is a story about a prince, who is going to marry a princess, and a large Cthulhu creature captures her, for some reason, it’s not important. The special effects are awful. You might catch explosive diarrhea from all the constant, jarring cut scenes. It feels like it was made by someone who was on a lot of acid. Or, a six-year-old telling a nonsense story that goes on and on and makes no sense, and you wish the kid would just get to the ending already. This movie is confusing and awful, so of course, I love it. I hope you fellas will enjoy it too.”

IMDB synopsis: “A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.”

This week’s referenced movies: The Jerky Boys Movie; Forbidden Zone; Bullitt; John and Mary; The Friends of Eddie Coyle; Breaking Away; The Dresser; Star Wars movies; Excalibur; Lord of the Rings movies; Ice Pirates; Any Which Way You Can; Warcraft; Rawhead Rex; National Lampoon’s Animal House; The Warrior and the Sorceress; West Side Story; Battlefield: Earth; Free Solo; Osmosis Jones; Erik the Viking; Love on a Leash; The Man Who Killed Don Quixote; The Neverending Story; Blazing Saddles; Beauty and the Beast; Clash of the Titans; Harry Potter movies; Braveheart; Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom