Reign of Fire

There's a lot of lowbrow, bad B-movie entertainment value to be had in this post-apocalyptic dragon slayer flick, in which stars Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey chomp considerably more scenery with their acting than fire-breathing monsters barbecue with their breath. Buffed and sweaty bad-asses, they set out to bring down the dragons that have taken over the world since their awakening some 18 years previous. The complex, action-packed hunting scenes--using skydivers as bait, launching chain mail nets at the beasts, then dramatically harpooning them--are unquestionably the highlight of the movie, but make no mistake, Bale and McConaughey are not about to be upstaged by a fire-breathing special effect, and they seem to delight in battling each other for the overacting crown, bugging out their eyes as they bark their lines in affected, raspy-rugged whispers. McConaughey wins this battle, hands down. The moment he spits his cigar stub on the ground and hollers "lock and load!" you know he loves the smell of brimstone in the morning. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include the nine-minute featurette “Breathing Life Into the Terror” on creating “realistic” dragons, the 15-minute “Below the Line: If You Can't Take the Heat…” featurette on special effects and pyrotechnics, a 12-minute director interview segment “Conversations with Rob Bowman,” and the trailer. Bottom line: a standard extras package on a guilty pleasure flick.] (R. Blackwelder)