This is a little movie I figured I'd plug because it's fun. In the summer of 2010 a bunch of people who are in pretty popular tv shows all got joined up and filmed a movie in my backyard. The trailer hit the internet the next year and got a lot of coverage and excitement and then...nothing happened. Something happened within the company who made the movie and they ended up re-cutting the film and finishing it, looking for a distributor in spring 2013. They then started showing the movie in a few movie screens here and there in the summer of 2013. Last month the movie came to our independent movie theater and this last week it hit VOD. That movie is called Knights of Badassdom.
The basic plot is that a bunch of Live Action Role Players, (LARP for short) which is essentially live acting Dungeons and Dragons accidentally summon a succubus from hell and must actually kill a real monster to save the world. That's really all you have to know to know if you're going to like the movie. A more detailed synopsis however is that our main character Joe (played by True Blood's Ryan Kwanten) is a man who works a crummy job, loves Metal and lives in a Castle-house with his two nerdy friends. His high school girlfriend breaks up with him and his two best friends, played by Steve Zahn and Peter Dinklage (Game of Throne's Tyrion), take him to their weekend LARP-ing event, where they'll force him to get his mind off of his ex-girlfriend by re-igniting his love for the game. Zahn's character is a wizard and he has an ancient book in a different language that he reads to cast a spell, and through some unfortunate circumstances, the book actually has real power and summons a succubus that looks like Joe's ex-girlfriend. They must band together to destroy the evil hellspawn and save everyone.
Let's get this out of the way right here. The movie isn't good. It's bad. But it's so bad it's good. They knew when they were making this that they weren't going to be nominated for an Academy Award, they just went in to make a goofy, nerdy movie and everyone in it looks like they're having fun. The writing is often times dumb as bricks, but some of it is pretty funny, and quotable. The movie is pretty damn short too, an hour and 25 minutes if I'm not mistaken. It feels too short. As much as I like what we got, the pacing feels way off in the film. By the time we're done with our character introductions and into the actual LARP-ing event we're already a half hour into the film, which is a little more than a third of the way through the movie. The final setpiece of the film takes up roughly 20 minutes and the book-ending and credits take 4-5 minutes. That means that the middle of the movie, where we just live and breath the world and set-up for the end is just a half hour, and then we're into the final battle.
I remember reading that with the re-cutting in 2012-13 they took out 20 minutes, and you can definitely tell. It sucks because I have a strong feeling that 20 minutes came from the middle of the movie, and that's the section I wanted most of. The film starts off as a low-rent comedy and once the characters summon the succubus it's supposed to start incorporating horror into the comedy. While I think it works, I really wish we had more time just hanging out in the world of the movie before our heroes find the creature, because really the difference is only about 15 minutes.
Another problem I had with the movie, which was pointed out by my good friend who showed me the film was the sound mix. The sound editing and mixing are odd and at points plain bad. Early on I think there's a tendency to score every scene with something, when it would have been better for certain ones to have no score. It's true that music accompanying a scene can make you believe and invest in the scene more than you would have, but it can also take you out of it too. My biggest gripe with the sound is actually the final battle. A song that within the movie is supposed to be of the utmost importance is playing, but anytime the monster is hit the song gets dropped way down in the mix and you hear the sound effects at maximum volume. It really sucks that they did that, because at that moment you're getting a fucking awesome track by composer Bear Mcreary (the guy who did the Walking Dead theme song) and it keeps getting relegated to the background so you can hear sword clangs and hurt monster growls. Still a great scene, but it's sad that you know it could be way more awesome if they essentially just switched the volume of the sound effects and the song.
The score is awesome. Bear Mcreary did a great job both with the Ren-Faire music for the LARP-ing event and the Metal music. If Bear and his brother (who did the vocals) ever wanted to just do a Metal album I would be first in line to buy it. The cinematography is also pretty damn good. The only time I think it fails is when it comes to post-production editing choices, like using slow-mo where it's not necessary, and some poorly composited shots towards the end. The monster suit however looks great and all the blood is cool. Our main cast has of course Zahn, Kwanten and Dinklage, but Danny Pudi, (Community) Jimmi Simpson,(House of Cards, It's Always Sunny) and Summer Glau (a million cancelled shows) are also in it and they all do a fantastic job. It was pretty comical seeing Jimmi Simpson especially, because during the second season of House of Cards he plays a clever and conniving badass hacker, and here he's equally convincing as a LARP Game Master. It feels like everyone just got to come out and film during their time off in the summer and have fun making a stupid movie. I plan on showing this to all my friends and I would not be surprised if it became a part of themed game nights where we bust out the D&D and Metal music and just have a blast with it.
Knights of Badassdom is available now on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play's Video On Demand services and is scheduled for a DVD/Blu-Ray release on April 1st. I'm hoping it gets to Netflix soon, because that's the only way this surefire cult classic will ever reach the people it was made to please.
Check out the trailer below
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