DATE: Saturday, September 13, 1997          TAG: 9709130107

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

FANTASY FILM ``KULL'' LACKS SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOR

WHO WOULD give up being Hercules to be . . . Kull?

To get a big-screen stint, TV's threadbare Hercules becomes ``Kull the Conqueror.'' The film is a puzzling return to the sandals-and-sorcery formula that dates back to Steve Reeves' more-muscular Hercules and Arnold Schwarzenegger's ``Conan the Barbarian.'' The result is a B movie with A-quality production values.

The major flaw is that it takes itself much too seriously - not even allowing us to laugh at the foolishness that passes as fantasy.

As Hercules goes, Sorbo is a pretty puny specimen compared to the original Reeves or ``Ah-nuld,'' who was in a forgettable flick called ``Hercules Goes to New York.''

Sorbo, though, looks more like a regular guy than a bicep-pumped oddity and there is some hint that he possibly could act. But you'd never know that from either ``Kull'' or TV's hit ``Hercules: the Legendary Journeys.''

The Hercules TV show is a hit primarily because of its wit, which uses modern asides, many of them sexually suggestive, to spark the ancient setting. In spite of its low budget, the TV show succeeds because it makes fun of itself. In contrast, ``Kull'' has an expensive look, but not an ounce of wit.

Tia Carrere plays Akivasha, a 3,000-year-old sorceress who tricks Kull into marriage. Eventually, of course, he has to go on the usual journey to find a weapon to combat the forces of darkness. It looks exciting in the preview reel, but that's because of compression. Harvey Fierstein, who should be spending his time writing plays, is tiresome as a gravel-voiced, rascal-along-the-way.

``Kull'' seems aimed at the heavy-metal teens of the '80s, but producer Raffaella De Laurentiis seems to have forgotten that they've grown up, and perhaps need a bit of sophistication with the flexing. That audience has long since been through ``Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,'' cut their hair, and thrown away their tight black pants.

``Kull'' will have a hard time finding an audience until it gets to the low-rent video shelf. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW

``Kull the Conqueror''

Cast: Kevin Sorbo, Tia Carrere, Harvey Fierstein

Director: John Nicolla

MPAA rating: PG-13 (fantasy action violence, sensuality)

Mal's rating: **

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