Movie Review: Knights of Bada**dom

Hi everybody, Dave here, and welcome to another evening at the movies (review).

Tonight's feature is Knights of Badassdom:

I knew practically nothing of this movie going in, just the basic premise of three friends accidentally summoning a demon from hell during a L.A.R.P tournament. Oh, and that Peter Dinklage (a.k.a. Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones) was going to be in it. Which, to be fair, was basically the main reason that I wanted to watch the movie.

Beside Dinklage were great actors: Steve Zahn, Summer Glau, Danny Pudi (Community), and Ryan Kwanten (True Blood). Now, granted, on paper, this movie seemed like it was going to be a comedy and it probably would've done better as a comedy, but as it turns out, I think it was suppose to be a action/thriller/spoof.

Let me put it this way, did you ever see Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny? It had a feeling like that; there was action, a bit of comedy here and there, a demon overlord seeking to rule the world, and geeky friends trying to stop it. None of those things are inherently bad, mind you, but it was the execution that was lacking in this movie for me. And looking back on it, everyone did a really great job of playing their parts; from Summer Glau being kick-a**, to Steve Zahn and Danny Pudi being crazy, everyone was on point. Maybe with the exception of the main character, or at least I think he was suppose to be the main character: Ryan Kwanten. His character was this hard core, metal rocker guy who used to be into the whole D&D (dungeons and dragons) thing, but "moved on" when he found his woman. And it is here, I think, that I felt the disconnect - throughout the movie were these hard rock ballads in the background, especially during the action scenes, which worked great, mind you, but honestly and again, if this was shot as a comedy - would've made it work even better.

I mean, picture this: a group of people dressed as knights, fairies, wizards, etc., running at each other with heavy metal music playing in the background - could be good, right? Well, I don't know because I didn't feel like it was done right in this. 

Overall: the action was over-the-top with the "demon;" I felt like the music was good but could've been better if the movie, as a whole, was shot differently; the demon itself looked like something out of an episode of the Power Rangers; and I honestly can't tell if the characters were better off in the end.

Dave's Score: 4.0/10