While the credits role, this John Goodman vehicle sets up its promising premise: a freak accident during the photographing of the Royal Family--a sputtering cable in a light rain--fries the entire bloodline. The search for a new King leads to America, where a Las Vegas lounge crooner named Ralph Jones (Goodman) is about to be fired from yet another job. Much to his amazement, the thoroughly Americanized Ralph is offered a unique promotion: King of England. With the set-up established in the opening minutes, a virtual red carpet of satirical opportunity is rolled out. But, by and large, writer/director David S. Ward ignores the potential in favor of simple audience-pleasing exaggeration. Rather than make Ralph an interesting character struggling with a most unusual situation, Ward gives us an American moron who escapes from the palace in order to attend stripshows and guzzle beer. In fact, whenever a prime situation arises the script opts for the quick and easy bit of mild profanity rather than anything approaching clever dialogue. When Ralph becomes enamored of a former stripper, the bad guy, Lord Graves (John Hurt), tries to discredit the new king, and this becomes the driving plot of the film. As Willingham, Ralph's private secretary and tutor, even Peter O'Toole seems bogged down by the uniform flatness of the script. Although King Ralph offers a few good sight gags, it's much more common than royal when it comes to comic heritage. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)
King Ralph
color. 96 min. MCA Universal Home Video. (1991). $92.95. Rated: PG Library Journal
King Ralph
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