Warrioress

Cecily Fay leads a cast of hugely talented UK martial arts performers on a Roger Corman-esque low-budget fantasy adventure shot on the gorgeous island of Guernsey. The fight scenes are exciting, fast-paced and plentiful. Cecily also provides the compelling score to the film.

Downloaded and watched this last night - in a hurry and couldn't find anything better.Read the IMDb reviews first so had an idea what to expect.I don't mind this sort of film usually - the trick is to lower your expectations and try to meet it on its own level.There will always be something to enjoy - some interesting scenery,amusing dialogue,a very pretty girl,a good bit of action or a story which holds the attention but oh dear what a dog's breakfast. Rotten dialogue,unintelligible plot,primary school nativity play acting,seedy production and direction.I just managed the first half and spent the rest of the evening staring at the wall and enjoying the relief.Cecily Fay is a champion in the Indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat and she was 35 when this film was shot.She "wrote" it as well and obviously it was designed to be a vehicle for her to show off her skills and nothing else (and to be fair there was nothing else so it succeeded on that front and for that reason I gave it a 3) Surely people in the film industry (and presumably there must have been one involved in this debacle) must by now realise that you cannot make a medieval/fantasy/martial art type film with a molecular budget- it is never going to work.This is a film that should never have been made.

You have to go into this with low expectations. It's not a great movie by any stretch of imagination. It's a low-budget B movie with an unoriginal story and pretentious dialogue. The acting looks bad mostly due to the fact that it's hard to pull off this kind of dialogue without looking silly.

While fighting in most B movies is usually ridiculous, it actually looks real and functional here. Sometimes you can see the actors are too obviously avoiding hurting one another, but for the most part, it looks good. The little warrioress Cecily Fay (143 cm) certainly knows how to move around and fight. And that's what this is all about. The whole movie is just an excuse to see Cecily fight, and fortunately there's quite a lot of that in the movie.

I won't get into the story, because there's really nothing new there. A warrioress, a quest, an ancient prophecy, blah, blah... It's all a bit silly and predictable.

If you want to watch a good movie, skip this one. But if you like fantasy, medieval-ish setting, and fighting with swords, and if you know what you can expect, it's not too bad.

Pros: The fight scenes are good and the actors actually know martial arts. The story line and concept are really good. Shes short and probably would beat you in a fight, makes for a unique character.

Cons: The acting is sometimes bad and laughable which still provides entertainment. The budget is low and it often shows, but a bit of imagination holds it together. Better establishing shots could be used for the scene with CGI at the evil dudes base. Also, wheres the ending? Did the budget run out or a sequel was planned but not made?

My quick rating - 3,8/10. The women that fought in this movie were actually quite good, especially Cecily Fay, but beyond that, it wasn't a movie. They attempted to piece together a plot but to no avail. It was more of a showcase of what I can only assume was a group of people, mostly women, that trained at a martial arts dojo of some skill and decided to make a movie. If there was a tiny budget, and some written story, the actresses (i do not mention actors, the men in this were horrid) could have pulled it off. Remember her name though, she should get some work at some point for a good look with well rounded fighting skills.