Summer of Netflix Day 61 - Knights of Badassdom

Jason: This is a classic tale of a movie that is deemed by the proverbial man to be  “too out there for audiences” and “won’t have enough sell in the market” and thus gets run around in production hell. All the while, leaked images and info are whipping the cult crowds into a frenzy, who hope the film will come out soon! It was delayed for nearly two years while it was cut and re-cut to be more acceptable. And even after all this, it still didn’t see a full big screen release. And that’s because it’s a niche movie. And boy is it my niche!

I don’t know how much you all know about actual LARPing but I gotta say, this is pretty darn close. You have you absolute die-hards who are all in 100% of the time, the badass tanks who are the size of football linebackers and are there for the physical exercise, and the everyday common nerds who are just out to have some fun. And then there are the Summer Glaus. This movie is clearly picking on LARPers in the loving and admirable way. There is nothing quite like having one of your best buddies call you a dork while you’re both running through the woods in plastic armor. And then, there is the finale. Defeating the demon with METAL! It is so hardcore! It really spoke to me on a deeper level.

So if you enjoy a riveting tale of good vs. evil, magical vs. mundane, and Peter Dinklage vs. a bag full of mushrooms, this is also your niche.

Joel: If you will dig into the archives of IBA you can find a story where I talked about this movie coming out back in July of 2011. It’s been a long time coming for this review so the question is was the long wait worth it? Well, some parts were worth it I suppose, but not all of it. In a movie like this it’s really easy to go overboard on making fun of the LARPers and while the movie does toe that line from time to time, it never really crosses it. The jokes at the expense of the LARPers still feel loving in their ridicule. Honestly the problem came from the actual supernatural aspect of the movie. Based on the description of the plot from four years ago I really thought that the idea would work out well, but in practice the introduction of an actual demon caused most of the LARP aspects of the movie to take a back seat. I would have been more interested in the group’s struggles to pull off a successful LARPing weekend with a larger focus on the aspects of LARPing itself. Someone on the creative process clearly knew a great deal about the community and I would have been interested to see them get a chance to dive more into that aspect of the movie. Still not a bad movie, it just kinda felt like the potential best parts were missing.

Chris: Bonus points for not avoiding the easy “lightning bolt” reference and it let you know that this isn’t a film that’s taking itself too seriously. I enjoyed this casting ensemble and, as much as I enjoyed the film as a whole, I almost would’ve rather seen a movie that’s just those people actually LARPing the entire movie. It was cheesy at some points but LARPing is pretty cheesy as well so it’s all fitting. It was a look into a pastime that didn’t demonize (see what I did there?!) the activity but used it as a base for the story.