Knights of Badassdom (2013)

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).

Fmovies: After reading the other reviews, I can only conclude that either the reviewers were paid to say complimentary things, or else they saw a completely different movie than the one that got filmed.

"Knights of Badassdom" is disappointing. The plot is that of a very standard evil-monster movie, with no surprises. Normally, it would disappear without a ripple and never see the light of day except on DVD for fans of obscure, poorly-written films. The acting is mediocre, the filming is average, and the production values are, at best, unexceptional.

The only bit of novelty here, and indeed, the only bright spot in the film at all, is the fact that the producers chose to make the lead characters be live-action role-players. This is indeed unusual, and the humor in the film comes about nearly exclusively from the parody of the various clichés of role-playing, and gaming in general. Some of this was reasonably well done, and is entirely why I gave the film a rating of 5; without it, the film would have gotten a 3, as being a standard, low-budget, gore-filled monster movie.

Considering the respectable amount of effort put into the production, the result is rather sad; one would think that they could have come up with a better and more interesting script.

Ultimately, the movie is mildly entertaining, but for the wrong reasons. It's funny mainly because it's so ridiculous in its portrayal of the characters. The audience laughs frequently - but mostly when someone gets killed. Kind of the way you laugh at a really inept home video. This is unfortunate in a movie where the actors and crew worked so hard.

Overall, the film is only notable for being one of the few to mention LARPers at all. Fans of LARPing will be tickled. Fans of phony blood will enjoy seeing plenty of it scattered around.

Other than that, it's completely forgettable. Save your money.

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

Knights of Badassdom fmovies. This was one of the biggest let downs of recent memory. After reading all of the positive reviews, and seeing the incredibly high rating, I really thought I would be in for a treat. The movie wasn't funny, except for a few mild smiles here and there. The special effects, especially towards the end, were atrocious. And the characters were wooden with nothing brought to the screen. And the main premise for the demon was a cringe worthy rip off of the Necronomicon from Evil Dead. The movie has a incredible cast with Peter Dinklage, Summer Glau, Ryan Kwanten, and Steve Zahn. But unfortunately they totally failed to use almost any of their characters to their full (or any) potential. Ryan Kwanten was the only one who was even half way interesting. There were countless times that they could have made something humorous, or even hysterical, but instead it fell totally flat and was just bland. (Where was them humor after the games began and they set it up so obviously for Dinklage?!) I can understand fans of larping enjoying this film, as that unique aspect was the only half way saving grace of this snore-fest. But I can't imagine anyone else could even find it more than mildly entertaining.

3/10 stars and that's being generous.

I was extremely lucky to attend the world premiere! The screening was held at the "Icon" festival (sort of the Israeli version of comic-con) in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The screening began at midnight on the night of Sep. 24-25 2013.

The movie was introduced by one of the producers. She got on stage, said a few words about the film and then dropped the bomb on all of us - This was the world premiere! The theater ERUPTED! Clapping and hooting for a good 2 minutes before she could keep on talking.

What can I say? It was a theater packed with geeks and everyone went wild! the film is fantastic! The cast is brilliant and I laughed out loud at least 20 times (Even though on this page it doesn't say that the movie is actually a comedy - it totally is!). People were even clapping and cheering at many key moments. The feeling in the room was electric. We don't know which cut we got to see though, but it didn't feel too long - just right, in fact.

Peter Dinklage is wonderful as usual and Summer Glau's performance - she was was fantastic. She is every geek's wet dream of course.. But she really delivered the whole "I'm not really into this but I'm playing along with it" role. She looked amazing in her costume! Her on screen chemistry with the other characters was excellent. She is definitely one of the underrated actresses out there.

The film itself has some great plot twists and even though it had a very low budget - it manages to escape the feel of a B-movie. It even had some pretty good CGI animation.

At the end everyone was clapping and as I walked out of the theater, feeling giddy - EVERYONE was smiling, laughing, reminiscing and all in all I didn't hear a single person saying anything negative about it. The only reason this film gets a 9 is because a 10 is reserved for maybe 5- 10 movies in my life. If you are a geek, were a geek, or simply have a little bit of geekyness in you - don't hesitate when it is released - it's worth every penny! Go with friends who appreciate this kind of stuff. I was never much of a role-playing fan and still felt completely connected to this film. Well done!!

I had pretty high hopes for this movie. The premise seemed good, I love geek humor, and Peter Dinklage is nothing short of awesome. Unfortunately, the movie fell flat on pretty much all fronts.

The characters were boring and had no depth. The plot was non-existent. The paranormal stuff felt out of place, and the low budget special effects made it look like a campy B movie (but not in a good way). Majority of the jokes were neither geeky nor especially funny.

If you're into LARPing, you *might* get something out of this. For others the movie will most likely be a disappointment. If you haven't seen them yet, I'd recommend checking out Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) or The Cabin in the Woods (2012) for a similar (but better) comedy/horror experience.