Absolutely brilliant

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A common-or-garden supernatural-horror movie disguised as a medieval drama. Unoriginal and dull.

It's 1600. Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) leads a British privateer ship into battle in North Africa. His men are massacred by demons and he comes face to face with the Devil's Reaper. He escapes back to England. After giving away his wealth to an abbey, the monks send him away to his ultimate destiny. He heads for home despite his conflict with his father and the death of his older brother. He joins the Crowthorns (Rachel Hurd-Wood, Pete Postlethwaite, Alice Krige), a Puritan family traveling to the new world. He had renounced violence until the attack of the evil sorcerer Malachi's men.The story is a dark mix of fantasy and history. Purefoy keeps it compelling. I like Postlethwaite and the movie gets a bit muddled without him. It would have been nice to keep him and Krige with Purefoy as they go rescue their daughter. This is a fine example of a mid-level budget adventure but it's not superior. The good is that there is nothing obviously bad here.

While not a stunning movie, SOLOMON KANE is another serviceable entry in the sword-and-sorcery genre, and is based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, more famous for creating Conan the Barbarian. The plot is rather simple and works as a sort-of origin story. The opening scene establishes the character in a rather cool way, but the rest of the movie details his quest to find the purpose/meaning in his life. Having been a mercenary most of his life, he renounces that and vows to be a man of peace, so that his soul won't be damned to hell. On his journey, he meets a Puritan family, and when their daughter is kidnapped he promises to rescue her. The mechanics of the story suffice, although the pacing was a little bit too "stop-start" for my tastes. There could have been 10-15 minutes shaved off of the run time. Also, being what it is the movie is rather predictable and sometimes falls into cliché. However, where the movie excels is several well-filmed and brutally violent battle scenes. These were some of the best sword fights I've ever seen. There also wasn't too much CGI used, with the exception of two scenes: one at the beginning, and the other at the end. Particularly in the opening scene, the sub-par CGI kind of took me out of the movie. Still, despite the shortcomings, this was a solidly entertaining fantasy-action film.

This was a good one. It's worth seeing if your local video store has it. One of the attributes of the character is pretty much standard. A guy that has seen too much violence in his life and decides to make a break from it and take the path of righteousness. He's not a complex character. You'll not spend the entire film trying to figure out why he does what he does. Sibling rivalry does enter into the movie ( you'll just have to watch it). Some of the characters in the movie have the ," he's just a has been. Don't put your faith in him". While other characters in the movie have the ,"Solomon.We're all counting on you to deliver us from evil",opinion. You kinda feel bad for the guy. He makes an honest attempt at redemption,but it don't quite pan out. It also has the "save the damsel in distress" option added on here. Fairly typical,but like I said ," the mans trying to redeem himself".