Knights of Badassdom

I thought I would watch 5 minutes and then turn it off, ended up watching the whole thing. It was a very odd movie overall, and probably takes the right mindset to enjoy. Basically take a movie with the plot described, but written by high schoolers. Then give them some decent actors, a decent director and a decent film crew. Then have the high schoolers make sure they include the "good" stuff and you pretty much have this movie. So it is a weird hodge podge of decent B-movie, with some A-actors, and a high school film project. I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't great and at times pretty uneven. BTW there is quite a bit of blood and gore, but it isn't super graphic despite that.

LARP's on a lark get chewed up and spit out for laughs in "Knights of Badassdom" (BTW: a terrible title!). The elaborate medieval role players are nothing but gore fodder, the production values are surprisingly high (the costumes are brilliant) and one of my favorite actresses (Summer Glau) is a highlight as she vamps it up in a pretty-good bad movie. This movie is made to order for Riff Trax, or just gather your nerdiest friends for a night of (deliberately) cringe-worthy dialogue and as fine a rednecks vs. nerds battle as has ever been filmed.

I would compare this movie to "Sharknado" in that both give the impression of being movies that were originally written as serious genre films (disaster and horror respectively) and someone had the sense to make them so over the top as to become entertaining camp.

If you enjoyed "Zero Charisma" then chances are that you will also like "Knights of Badassdom". And, of course, if you are a super geeky LARP enthusiast, then you will definitely enjoy this movie. As a player of Dungeons & Dragons, but with no possible interest or understanding in the LARP thing, then I still found the movie to be enjoyable.

The story is about a bunch of geeks coming together in the forest for a weekend endeavor of LARP (Live Action Role-Playing) when an in-game sorcerer accidentally unleashes a succubus into the mortal world. Things quickly turn bloody and foam-weapons need to be exchanged for steel.

There are some really fun and inside references to everything nerdy in aspects of being a roleplaying game enthusiast; such as the Manowar and King Diamond references. Not to mention the namedropping of various monsters and races from the Monster Manual. Those who play D&D will surely pick up on those throughout the movie.

Despite the movie's budget, then director Joe Lynch actually managed to put together a fun and enjoyable movie. The storyline was geeky, yes, but it was nice and fun to watch. And despite the nerdy geekness, then the storyline was actually very entertaining.

It should also be said that the movie had some nice talents to it, and people did great jobs with their given roles and characters (in every sense of the word). And the actors and actresses really helped the movie along quite nicely.

The effects in the movie were quite alright as well, and the demonic version of the succubus was actually quite cool, looking like something of a mixture between (and here comes one of those things only RPG nerds will understand) Tanar'ri, Baatezu and a gremlin from the "Gremlins" movies.

"Knights of Badassdom" is well worth watching if you are into roleplaying games, LARPing, or if you just had a geeky nerd hidden somewhere in your heart.

As much as I detest LARPing, then I tried not to let that color my impression of the movie. For its entertainment value, then I am rating "Knights of Badassdom" 6 out of 10 stars.

OK, if you were expecting Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.... did you even watch the trailer? This was meant to be on the same level as Army of darkness (Good ol' Bruce) and Role Models. I find most of the complaints of the other reviewers shine more negative light on them than the movie.

Why do the rednecks hate the nerds? If you've made it to middle school, you already know the answer to this question. And yet someone presented this as if it was a major plot hole. :roll: Why does the one nerd know a dead language? If you know any nerds, you know the answer to this question. Most the reviewers here seem to be more "nerdy" than any of the "nerds" in the film.

In the end, most of the "flaws" the other reviewers complain of fall into these two categories: A) you didn't realize its SUPPOSED to be a B-flick or B) you're playing dumb to miss the obvious social interactions that most people live with from grade school on up.

Now, for the movie itself: yes the effects are B level. And not bad, if you expect that. The plot is kinda simple. Not only is that normal for a B flick, and indie films on the whole, there isn't too much you can do in a film thats supposed to cover a weekend. you get enough "character development" to care who dies, and not much more. "Gone with the Wind" this ain't, nor was it intended to be. Dinkle had to shoot this during the short break from his real gig. Many of the others had similar constraints.

If you want a funny, Saturday afternoon waster, this is great. Its even better if you LARP or some sort of reenactor, and can point out people you know like (X).

There's something refreshing about a film that is only made for a certain, small audience. They usually know precisely what they are, and therefore the audience ends up enjoying themselves all that much more when they watch it. But every once and a while, there are movies of the sort that have so much potential and yet the end up squandered and falling short. While not the complete case here, "Knights of Badassdom" definitely needed another draft or two on its script. As much as I wanted to love this movie, I just couldn't. At least, not fully.

"Knights of Badassdom" is about a group of friends whom, after one of the three getting dumped by his girlfriend, go to a LARP festival for the weekend to get his mind off her. What is LARPing? Live-action-role- playing. Imagine a bunch of dudes in armour and robes with foam weapons playing out scenarios from Dungeons and Dragons. This alone was enough to get me interested in the film. I've always considered attending one of these events, if just for the experience. The money and passion some people put into this stuff is out of this world. And even the most anti- fantasy person could get down with swinging around a sword of any type against other people without consequence. It taps into a child-like imagination that I think really ups the enjoyment in the film for me. Had this been any other type of event where the plot happened, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much I think.

The second things that got me into wanting to watch this knight's tale is the cast. "Game of Thrones"' Peter Dinklage (who also produces this film) and Summer Glau of "Firefly" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (two of my favourite TV shows) are both featured. No matter what these two do, I'll always watch it. And they are without a doubt the best parts of the movie. Not just from a fan-based perspective, but they have the two most interesting characters in my opinion. Dinklage is an accidental millionaire who is a regular attendee and enthusiast of LARPing, while Summer Glau plays chaperone to her hardcore LARPing cousin whom she watches after, due to him having a mental disability. Quite touching for a movie that didn't really require any emotional depth to the characters, but it's highly welcomed and appreciated that the film actually took this next step and made it more logical for a drop-dead gorgeous woman to attend something like this. Not to say LARP women can't be attractive, it's just in media, the stereotype works against that.

So how is the acting in the film? Well, it's hit and miss. Some characters are great, others aren't. Our main hero is Joe; a heavy-metal singing guy who just wants to live a normal life, despite his eccentric friends. Actor Ryan Kwanten does him decently, but his characters archetype is so clichéd that I can't help but barely care for him. I don't know if he didn't do as great of a job because of the weak nature his portions of the script were, or because Kwanten himself just isn't that great an actor. Either way, mediocre to say the least. For me, the biggest disappointment was Steve Zahn as Eric, the most dedicated of the company. I like Zahn in what I've seen him in, especially the highly underrated (in my opinion) "A Perfect Getaway". Here, however, his character was flat, annoying and expendable. I think this fault is more on the writers and director Joe Lynch, as whenever Eric makes a joke it always falls flat and I wind up hoping for his scenes to end.

The two final things I want to address here are the special effects and the climax. I feel like with a film like this, it's important to point out how impressed I was with these elements. The special effects are almost all practical, with a little bit of low-quality CGI. However that kind of works with the half-assed nature of LARPing and the characters costumes in general, so I can run with it. In the end of the film, there is a giant monster that goes on a killing spree. And I was so joyed to see it was rubber suit. Too many low-budget horror films use almost all their spendings on terrible CG to make their creatures, or they try to make sure the monster is in the film, but just rarely or never show it to "add mystery". It's so refreshing to see this art has not completely died out. Considering the nature of this film, I think they nailed this perfectly. Also, the climax of this film is great. It's a fun little field battle, speeches and all. The comical nature of legions of grown people waving foam swords around had me thoroughly entertained and I think it was the best part of the whole film. Also, the way the monster is defeated completely lives up to the title of 'badassdom' and is one of my favourite film kills as of late.

In the end, I didn't completely love nor hate "Knights of Badassdom". I'll say it was worth the watch, but I'm unsure whether I'd buy it. Maybe if I saw it for $5, as Dinklage and Glau definitely add rewatchability to it and the overall premise is amusing. Not as good as it could have been, but it didn't fail in its purpose either. Now, if these knights select to go on a second quest, I would most certainly accompany them once more.