These days, Jason Statham is known for playing bruisers in hit down-and-dirty action movies like “The Beekeeper” and “A Working Man.” But early in his career, Statham hopped around different genres, with many of these efforts flopping hard. But arguably Statham’s worst foray into sci-fi and fantasy has to be a little-remembered video game adaptation co-starring the late Ray Liotta (who was still filming several movies at the time of his death). We are, of course, talking about 2007’s “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,” a film that’s decidedly not among Statham’s best movies.
Directed by Uwe Boll, whose entire career consists of flop after flop, “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale” is only loosely based on the video game franchise, “Dungeon Siege.” It also features a bizarrely stacked cast, led by Statham as Farmer, a medieval warrior, “Mallrats” star Claire Forlani as his wife Solani, Leelee Sobieski as their daughter Muriella, and Ray Liotta as the villain Gallian. John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard, and Ron Perlman play fellow warriors, while Burt Reynolds and Kristanna Loken star as the king and a woodland nymph, respectively.
As you can imagine, “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale” isn’t very good — a cheap-looking “Dungeons & Dragons” style fantasy romp produced on a relatively low budget. Along with being a box office bomb, it remains Statham’s worst movie by far, with a 4% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Despite bombing, In the Name of the King received multiple sequels
Along with being infamous for making some of the worst video game adaptations, director Uwe Boll has a knack for birthing franchises from his monstrosities. And like “BloodRayne,” “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale” received a number of sequels, even despite the first film’s horrendous reviews and bombing at the ticket counter.
Unlike the first movie, though, the two sequels to “In the Name of the King” don’t feature Jason Statham or Ray Liotta. In fact, nobody from the original comes back for either installment, and the two follow-ups have almost nothing to do with the Jason Statham film beyond the title. “In the Name of the King: Two Worlds” instead stars aging action hero Dolph Lundgren as a modern-day Special Forces soldier who is transported back in time, where he must do battle with an evil witch in the Middle Ages.
The third film, “In the Name of the King: Final Mission,” stars Dominic Purcell of “Prison Break” fame as another modern-day soldier who finds himself thrust into the past. There, he must protect a village from a monstrous dragon. Unsurprisingly, both sequels are just as bad as they sound.