- If you ever found yourself daydreaming about pro wrestling and electric guitar riffs during a lecture on the ancient world, The Scorpion King may be the film for you. Directed by Chuck Russell but inauspiciously produced by Vince McMahon and WWF Entertainment, the film tells the fictional tale of an Akkadian named Mathayus (The Rock) and his struggles against the villainous King Memnon (Steven Brand). Stock fantasy characters include a barely-dressed sorceress (Kelly Hu), a funny foreign-sounding friend (Grant Heslov), an Archemdes-type inventor (Bernard Hill), a reluctant confederate (Michael Clarke Duncan), and a treacherous son (Peter Facinelli). While the film is never as embarrassing as it could have been, it is neither good enough to be enjoyed like a Conan movie nor bad enough to be enjoyed like a Hercules movie. I suppose it is mediocre enough to be enjoyed like a Mummy movie, though.
