KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

On DVD from director Joe Lynch and Entertainment One comes the epic tale of what happens when you’re a member of the KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM.

This film tells the story of Joe (Ryan Kwanten), a man who has recently broken up with his high school girlfriend. Distraught and leaning toward a bottle of alcohol and a dark room, his roommates Hung (Peter Dinklage) and Eric (Steve Zahn) decide to save him.

Dragging him out into the woods, Joe realizes he is in the middle of a group of LARPers (for those NOT in the know that’s Live Action Role Players). Eric reminds Joe that he is a legend in the LARPing community and he should retake his title. About to argue Joe sees Gwen (Summer Glau) and decides he is going to join in the games.

As Eric reads from a book he bought off eBay to give Joe his new rank something strange happens. The sky gets weird and the wind blows which gets Hung all worked up with excitement.

What they haven’t discovered quite yet is that the gibberish Eric thought he was reading was really a spell bringing a demon forth! Leader Ronnie (Jimmi Simpson) knows this is about to go wrong. This particular demon happens to look like Joe’s ex-girlfriend Beth (Margarita Levieva). 

Now all hell has literally broken loose and the game just got real!

FINAL WORD: Kwanten really has come full circle from playing the brother of a fairy, to a cop dealing with organized crime, to a dude wondering if it’s time to be a father, back to a guy whose heart get’s broken so – he goes LARPing! Kwanten has the look of innocence that works but at the same time is buff enough to be a little badass.

Zahn as the quirky Eric is adorable. Of course leave it to that adorableness to buy a book from hell off ebay! He is another actor that has characters that are adorable yet he’s not limited to that. I just loved watching his horrified expressions all through the film until it was time to be a badass and, along with Kwanten, it became a dynamic duo!

Dinklage as Hung takes his LARPing seriously. Of course he is kind of cheating since he knows the lingo from his GAME OF THRONES work as well as a little sword play. That being said I don’t recall his character in THRONES throwing around a sword as good as he was in the film. I adore Dinklage and nothing or no one is going to change my mind about it. Just having the name Hung cracked me up from the beginning. 

Glau as Gwen gets into it pretty quickly. From her outfit to her ability to throw down she has the character of Gwen down pat. It’s pretty cool to see a chick grab a sword and run into a prom date from hell to give her what for! Levieva as Beth is an angry demon in what would have been a cute prom dress, yes joking. She gets the chance to instead of breaking a few hearts – rips them out instead! Simpson as Jimmi is funny as he runs around the grounds mapping and making rules. I’m sure the events of the evening aren’t in any LARPing manual!

Other cast include: Douglas Tait as Abominog, Kim Stodel as Ira, Jose Rufino as Reginald, Danny Pudi as Gilberto, Brandon Petty as Jake, Aaron Ocheltree as Cleric, Brendan McCreary as Joe, Joshua Malina as Travis, Basil Harris as Eddie, Khanh Doan as Andie, and Tom Hopper as Gunther.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM four tubs of popcorn out of five. Are you kidding me? This is hilarious and totally badass (which means the title is spot on!). It’s a lot of fun to watch and has some of my favorite actors as Peter Dinklage leads the way. It’s nice to see he doesn’t take his Lannister role so serious that he can’t throw down a little sword action in this comedy.

Listening to them speak ‘medieval’ just cracked me up and they captures a lot of the seriousness of LARPing before things went a little astray. This is the type of film that is absolutely meant for fun with friends and a Friday night of laughs – keep the swords checked!

In the end – ‘tis about to get medieval up in here!