Geekscape Movie Reviews: ‘Knights of Badassdom’

Knights of Badassdom is definitely one of those movies that viewers could either love or hate. I could see why someone would love this movie, especially someone into live action role playing (LARP). But it’s equally easy to imagine the viewers who don’t love it finding a lot to hate about this film.

Me, I’m not into LARP, but the movie wasn’t so bad, and there were plenty of funny moments in the film. The storyline is pretty simple; a group of friends band together to fight in a huge LARP event in the middle of the woods, forcing their friend Joe (Ryan Kwanten) to join them after a heartbreaking end to his relationship with Beth (Margarita Levieva). One of his friends, Eric (Steve Zahn), who considers himself the wizard of the fictional group, buys an ancient book on eBay as a prop. As he reads from it, he fails to notice that it is an old book of magic, and he releases a demon that goes on a killing rampage in the middle of the imaginary war in the woods.

Of course, enter the heroine and future love-interest of Eric, Gwen (Summer Glau), who is only there because she accompanies her insane cousin who honestly thinks these wars are real. She is another reason to watch the film; besides being incredibly beautiful in her old-time garb, her character really places what some would consider an average person into the middle of the battle.

The film’s best character was played (naturally) by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage as Hung. He is truly the character who best earns the title of badass in the movie. As a matter of fact, according to IMDB, the whole cast got training at LARP, and Dinklage was the obvious master of the group. At times funny, often endearing, Hung really made the film worth watching.

The movie had a bit of the same feeling you get from watching The Big Bang Theory, in that you can’t decide if the film is making fun of geeky/nerdy types, or if it is a tribute to those that love the role playing events. It’s entirely possible it is made this way on purpose, so that it would not alienate anyone watching the film.

Overall, if you have fun LARPing, or like some of the actors (or at least Summer Glau) the film is absolutely worth checking out. It’s available on Amazon now.

Grade: 2/5, but fun.

Watch the trailer:

http://youtu.be/6DcRUEiVp-Y