ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996                 TAG: 9606030132
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER 

AVOID THE DRAGON `DRAGONHEART' IS TOO BLOODY BORING - FOR KIDS AND PARENTS

Parents, beware the friendly dragon of "Dragonheart." He'll trick your children into movie theaters, where they'll witness much lopping and impaling and many graphic, bloody battle scenes.

Not that the filmmakers behind "Dragonheart" are the first to cut a wide swath across intended audiences in the interest of making money. But at least "Jurassic Park" left most of the worst stuff to the imagination.

"Dragonheart" is by turns creepy, boring and dim-witted. It's about a knight (Dennis Quaid) who goes out on a quest to kill all of the dragons in the world to avenge a betrayal by a particular dragon, voiced by Sean Connery.

What the particular dragon did was bring back to life an evil prince, Einon (David Thewlis), the son of an evil king, on the promise that Einon would rule justly.

Einon turns out to be just as bad as Dad, and the knight, Bowen, is way offended. Hence, the dragon-hunting.

Finally, after a series of super-choppy, light-hearted dragon-slaying scenes, Bowen meets the last of the dragons who, as it turns out, is the first of the dragons.

Somewhere along the way, a funny monk named Gilbert (Peter Postlethwaite) attaches himself to Bowen and becomes the chronicler of the quest. He's about the only bright spot in this spaghetti-western-dragon-buddy movie, with his awful poetic outbursts and crack archery.

Which leads to the two key questions: What are Julie Christie (Einon's mother, the queen) and the wonderful Postlethwaite doing in this wretched movie? Connery, at least, only had to lend his voice to the proceedings. And does so with admirable amiability.

The rest is a mystery. Children under 10 really shouldn't see it. Children over 10 will be bored by it.

That leaves us, the parents, to suffer the consequences of this ill-conceived effort. And we want our money back.

Dragonheart

* 1/2

A Universal Pictures release showing at Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall. Rated PG-13 for violence. 108 minutes.

LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Sean Connery provides the voice of the dragon, and 
          Dennis Quaid is the knight in ``Dragonheart.'' color.