Film File - Conan The Barbarian

An oldie and not so goodie. The world's most famous barbarian returns to the big screen, continuing a pop culture legacy that has spanned nearly eight decades and inspired generations of artists in fiction, comics, video games, animation and television. First introduced in 1932 in a series of short stories by pulp fiction writer Robert E Howard, Conan the Barbarian helped establish the 'sword and sorcery' genre. Since then, he has become a bona fide cultural icon, capturing the public imagination as an idealised vision of unbridled masculinity, a tough, implacable hero with brute strength and a seasoned warrior's skill. While no Conan feature can ignore director John Milius' 1982 original, current director Marcus Nispel sees this 2011 version as a small part of a much larger Conan universe that has continued to develop over the decades since his inception. Taking it back to the mythological Conan as he's described in the Robert E Howard stories and giving the people what they want but not what they expect has been his guiding principle. With a recent welter of films like 'Clash Of The Titans', 'Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time' and the comedy 'Your Highness', the genre has gotten a major push over the past two years, but still not up to the buckets of blood flash of memorable 1980s outings like 'The Beastmaster'. With that in mind, this Conan is clearly no puff pastry with enough blood-splattered scenes to keep even Hannibal Lecter happy. There are decapitations, disembowelments, gruesome tortures, dismemberments and plenty of battlefield violence - in short, pretty much what you'd expect it to say on the can with one of popular culture's more enduring creations. Did I mention horrific monsters? They're there, too. With director Nispel already having cut his bloody teeth on 2007's under-rated 'Pathfinder' - a carnage fest of American Indians going spear-to-spear with the Vikings - he seems the perfect guy to helm this one. Jason Momoa takes the title role, complete with biceps and a six-pack to make Beckham weep, determined to avenge the murder of his father by evil, power-mad Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang). Conan's entire philosophy is summed up in one of his pithy observations: "I live, I love, I slay, I am content." Pretty much like any Saturday night outside the local chippie, then? Rachel Nichols plays Tamara, Conan's love interest, while Rose McGowan has the meatier job as Marique, Khalar Zym's lunatic daughter, who harbours an unnatural desire to please her father. All in all, the perfect line-up for some serious bloodletting and brutality.