Review: Knights of Badassdom

Title: Knights of Badassdom
Cast:
Peter Dinklage ... Hung
Summer Glau ... Gwen
Brett Gipson ... Gunther
Ryan Kwanten ... Joe
Steve Zahn ... Eric
Margarita Levieva ... Beth
Jimmi Simpson ... Ronnie Kwok

Summary:
Joe's girlfriend, Beth, just broke up with him and he gets dragged to a live-action role playing event by his housemates while in a drugged out, drunken stupor. When Eric, one of said housemates, accidentally conjures up a demon from hell the role playing suddenly turns out very real.

Okay, I admit it, I thought this was going to be terrible. Rob and I only turned it on because we had nothing else to watch and Peter Dinklage is in it. HOW WRONG we were - this film is AWESOME.

It's silly and it's corny and it's downright wrong in places, but it is also brilliant.

First thing it has going for it, is the message that it doesn't matter if you're male or female, tall or small, atheist or Jewish, walking or in a wheel chair - you still get to play. This is never thrown in the audience's face, but the cast is very diverse. Frankly there are three badass warriors and one of them is Peter Dinklage and another is Summer Glau, so, yay for diversity.

The plot is ridiculous and yet so entertaining. It also hold together within it's own rules. No gaping holes in this one.

The cast have their comic timing down brilliantly, but this isn't simply a comedy, at one point it's truly heartbreaking and the actors are superb.

The only thing that is not the greatest is the monster at the end. It's not CGI, it's prosthetics and animatronics and, well, it's not what I would call totally there. It'd good, but it's not Jupiter Ascending good, but that, I assume is the difference between a budget in the hundred of millions and whatever they had for this film ;).

The fight scenes are cool, whether they are with foam weapons or real ones and the stunt guys did a great job.

I have LARPed in my time and our games master was never as much of a prick as Ronnie (Jimmi Simpson), but the fun of the whole thing is definitely in the film.

I think the thing I liked most about this movie was I didn't see how it would end at all. That and the characters, who I really became fond of, even the ones who are assholes :).

This is not a deep film. It is not a literary classic, but it is wildly entertaining. Not a movie for kids though, mostly because of adult bad behaviour and some gore. I have purchased the blu-ray because Rob and I liked it so much.

Have you seen it? Have you LARPed?