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#198 - Knights of Badassdom
Joe Lynch, 2013
A group of LARPers run into trouble when one of their number accidentally summons an actual succubus during a tournament.
I tend to be skeptical of any film that seems like it's trying too hard to pander to a geeky demographic, and Knights of Badassdom doesn't do much to counter that first impression. First, the film takes one of the most stereotypically geeky hobbies in existence - live-action role-playing, which here amounts to acting out Dungeons and Dragons campaigns in a park. Second, it assembles a collection of actors from beloved geek shows - most notably Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Danny Pudi (Community), and Summer Glau (Firefly)- and throws them together. Finally, it invokes the familiar horror plot of a bunch of clueless characters accidentally summoning a force of evil to a closed-off area with the intention of playing things for laughs more so than scares. Unfortunately, Knights of Badassdom squanders what little promise its horror-comedy classification and star power might imply by not having enough in the way of good jokes or good scares.
I can't really fault the effects work given the film's low budget, but it's sparingly used and not to its full potential. There's enough gore to justify it being an R-rated horror, but none of it is disturbing or even funny. Dinklage is easily the best performer here, but he is seriously wasted as the film emphasises less amusing characters such as Ryan Kwanten's handsome but emotionally vulnerable straight-man protagonist and Steve Zahn as his goofy best friend. The jokes aren't especially funny either - I get that this is supposed to be an affectionate parody of LARPing and the surrounding community, but that doesn't necessarily translate to good humour. The film makes endless variations on the same joke about the disparity between the fantastic imaginary world the characters create and the mundane real world they actually inhabit, running it into the ground in the process. That's a good summary of the film, actually - a one-joke movie that can't even make the joke work. All the geeky references in the world can't make up for that.
Joe Lynch, 2013
A group of LARPers run into trouble when one of their number accidentally summons an actual succubus during a tournament.
I tend to be skeptical of any film that seems like it's trying too hard to pander to a geeky demographic, and Knights of Badassdom doesn't do much to counter that first impression. First, the film takes one of the most stereotypically geeky hobbies in existence - live-action role-playing, which here amounts to acting out Dungeons and Dragons campaigns in a park. Second, it assembles a collection of actors from beloved geek shows - most notably Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Danny Pudi (Community), and Summer Glau (Firefly)- and throws them together. Finally, it invokes the familiar horror plot of a bunch of clueless characters accidentally summoning a force of evil to a closed-off area with the intention of playing things for laughs more so than scares. Unfortunately, Knights of Badassdom squanders what little promise its horror-comedy classification and star power might imply by not having enough in the way of good jokes or good scares.
I can't really fault the effects work given the film's low budget, but it's sparingly used and not to its full potential. There's enough gore to justify it being an R-rated horror, but none of it is disturbing or even funny. Dinklage is easily the best performer here, but he is seriously wasted as the film emphasises less amusing characters such as Ryan Kwanten's handsome but emotionally vulnerable straight-man protagonist and Steve Zahn as his goofy best friend. The jokes aren't especially funny either - I get that this is supposed to be an affectionate parody of LARPing and the surrounding community, but that doesn't necessarily translate to good humour. The film makes endless variations on the same joke about the disparity between the fantastic imaginary world the characters create and the mundane real world they actually inhabit, running it into the ground in the process. That's a good summary of the film, actually - a one-joke movie that can't even make the joke work. All the geeky references in the world can't make up for that.