The Scorpion King

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * )

Funnily enough, the first thing on telly after getting home from the Scorpion King preview the other night was Xena looking like the Queen of Sheba and sword-fighting in some West Auckland sand dunes which were a stand-in for North Africa, complete with four-wheel drive tracks.

The Scorpion King might be a prequel to The Mummy and the The Mummy Returns as well as a movie vehicle for WWF star and one-time Grey Lynn resident Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but it pretty much comes from the same sandpit as our Lucy's old show.

It too is an entertaining mish-mash of ancient myth, cartoon violence, gymnastic stunts, heaving cleavage, and goofy sidekicks. Arguably his day job requires more acting, but the Rock is especially impressive in his many variations on the expression "ouch". Especially as he spends a good deal of the movie pulling arrows from his vast, polished hide.

In pre-pyramid Egypt, his Mathayus is a master assassin hired by a group of nomadic tribes for a hit on a sorcerer who consults to an evil warlord Memnon (Brand). Only, it turns out she's a sorceress instead (Hu) and a saucy one at that. So he kidnaps her in the hope of dragging Memnon out into the open.

Like the Mummy movies, this cribs from all over, even Memnon's henchmen could have stepped out of Raiders of the Lost Ark and one daring escape is a direct steal from another Indiana Jones flick. Funnily enough, our hero's camel sounds exactly like Chewbacca too. But unlike the two Mummies, this doesnt rely on mediocre special effects for its visual thrills but, predictably on its back-to-back fight sequences, which are of course reminiscent of the stars day job and just occasionally interupted by plot.

Care of its go-nowhere story, it does start to flag half way through but like all good WWF stoushes it perks up towards the end.

It's a fun old stunt-athon with no pretensions to be anything else. Just don't expect The Scorpion King to have any sting in its tale.

Cast: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu

Director: Chuck Russell

Rating: M (medium-level violence)

Running time: 90 mins

Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas