THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 1996 TAG: 9606050595
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 65 lines
AT THE HEART of ``Dragonheart'' is the dragon.
There isn't much else.
With the help of a burring and understated vocal performance from Sean Connery, the technical wizards at Industrial Light and Magic have created another memorable movie image with Draco, the noble, majestic and philosophical dragon. It's too bad that the humans in the film don't fare as well.
Dennis Quaid, looking much too modern, plays Bowen, a 10th century idealistic knight who befriends Draco, the last of the dragons, and sets about getting rid of a tyrannical king. Quaid, with a silly laugh and a voice so deepened that he sounds as if he's dubbed, is much more mechanical than the dragon.
The production, with some cheesy battle scenes and threadbare, earthy costumes, looks about as cheap as one of those Italian sandal-epics that once featured Hercules. The plot, which borrows from Robin Hood, Don Quixote and the Arthurian legends, has been seen often before.
Everything is fine, though, when the dragon is on screen. Some 18 feet tall and 43 feet long, he flies, he spits fire, and children under the age of 10 will love him. (Although the film is rated PG-13 because of several scenes of violence).
In the film's best sequence, Draco and the knight form a protection racket scheme in which the dragon threatens folks and then is vanquished by the traveling knight. For protection, the rubes have to turn over a bag of gold, in advance. Too bad this scam was dropped in favor of getting back to the evil king, played by David Thewlis, the latest of the respected British actors who have cashed in by becoming Hollywood villains (joining Tim Roth and Alan Rickman).
The resident girl is Dina Meyer of TV's ``Beverly Hills 90210.'' She is required mainly to model soiled costumes and appear plucky. Pete Postlethwaite, an Oscar nominee for ``In the Name of the Father,'' gets lost in the noise as a monk who is something like what Sancho was to Don Quixote.
A surprise, and a somewhat sad one, is Julie Christie, in a rare screen appearance, as the evil king's troubled mother. There is little of the vibrancy she had back when she played Lara in ``Dr. Zhivago.''
Dragons are almost as sure-fire crowd pleasers as dinosaurs but the children will get tired of the talking adults and the adults are likely to wish things weren't quite as predictable. Both will want more of the dragon, a quite amazing movie creature. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS
Dennis Quaid as a dragon-slaying knight and Dina Meyer as a peasant
girl in ``Dragonheart.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Dragonheart''
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Julie Christie, Sean Connery, David Thewlis,
Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer
Director: Rob Cohen
MPAA rating: PG-13 (action, violence)
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Cinemark, Greenbrier 13, Chesapeake; Janaf, Main
Gate, Norfolk; Kemps River Crossing, Lynnhaven 8, Surf-n-Sand,
Virginia Beach by CNB