This past Father's day I celebrated by watching a lot of Netflix, one film I caught was "Curse of The Dragon Slayer". It's a pretty simple film an Elf Bounty Hunter, Human Warrior and Orc Warlord end up joining together on a quest to stop a greater evil.
I enjoyed the film, couldn't help myself. It's a definite B-movie and it's well...cheapness shows throughout but despite that the acting is tolerable, there is character development, and it was fun to watch. The most glaring issue is the costuming, which was cheap but good, orcs in it looked like the orcs are extras from a Peter Jackson film probably becasue some high end commercial costumes were used. There is a dwarf that appears in the film I rather enjoyed and he's sporting a cool fantasy firearm. We've all seen the heroes a hundred times before in RPG land: the wild elf, the dedicated knightly warrior, and the noble orc barbarian but they don't all turn up together much in film-land.
Don't get me wrong this isn't a great film, not even really a good one, but given it's clear shoe-string budget it was still a film I enjoyed. If you've ever seen and enjoyed B-movie fantasy like Hawk The Slayer, BeastMaster, or Legend of the Archer this film is worth a digital viewing.
3 out of 5 stars.
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Friday, August 5, 2011
2nd Best Apes Movie Ever
No spoilers, I promise.
Saw Rise of the Apes with the wife tonight and I was actually impressed.
The story was decent and entertaining. You could actually hear and see people in the audience saying to each other "this is a lot better than I thought it would be".
There are bits of homage scattered throughout the movie a few familiar names and it certainly set's itself up for sequels but stands on it's own.
I like it more then all of the original planet of the apes movies except the first one and I'm an apes fan so far back I saw all the original films at the drive-in.
Saw Rise of the Apes with the wife tonight and I was actually impressed.
The story was decent and entertaining. You could actually hear and see people in the audience saying to each other "this is a lot better than I thought it would be".
There are bits of homage scattered throughout the movie a few familiar names and it certainly set's itself up for sequels but stands on it's own.
I like it more then all of the original planet of the apes movies except the first one and I'm an apes fan so far back I saw all the original films at the drive-in.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Your Highness [Movie Review]
The wife and I wanted a few yucks and kid free time so we went to see "Your Highness" yesterday. It's a fantasy comedy where bad boy/lazy Prince Thadius goes off to help his handsome dashing brother Prince Fabios save his lady love from being violated an evil sorcerer that has kidnapped her. Pretty straight up fantasy flick plot with a twist.
It's a gross, juvenile, sophomoric movie that technically is an awful lot like a third or so of the D&D games I encountered as a teen and not too far removed from the occasional session as an adult. It's not an un-enjoyable film , the wife liked it more then I did. The ever present low-brow humor is amusing but just barely there were only a few big laughs that I enjoyed and I suspect they were more guilty laughs from recollections of D&D games past.
Is it worth the price of a movie ticket? Maybe, as long as your expecting piggy sex jokes,potty humor and stoner jokes in a fantasy medieval setting with good acting, respectable effects, graphic gore, nudity and good costuming.
Overall rating: me: C- wife: B- (going in expecting piggy-teen comedy)
It's not Cherry 2000 bad.
It's a gross, juvenile, sophomoric movie that technically is an awful lot like a third or so of the D&D games I encountered as a teen and not too far removed from the occasional session as an adult. It's not an un-enjoyable film , the wife liked it more then I did. The ever present low-brow humor is amusing but just barely there were only a few big laughs that I enjoyed and I suspect they were more guilty laughs from recollections of D&D games past.
Is it worth the price of a movie ticket? Maybe, as long as your expecting piggy sex jokes,potty humor and stoner jokes in a fantasy medieval setting with good acting, respectable effects, graphic gore, nudity and good costuming.
Overall rating: me: C- wife: B- (going in expecting piggy-teen comedy)
It's not Cherry 2000 bad.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Adventures with religion
JB in this post http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2011/01/wherefore-art-thou-religion.html asks where the heck is religion in RPGs? Religious thought and institutions have been a major motivator throughout human history but we don't touch on it much in RPG land. Many people falsely believe there isn't much adventure to be had with religious themes and religiously motivated characters. I'm going to mention a few films and the books that go with them where religion is behind the adventure.
Black Robe, 1991 film adapted from the novel of the same name. This film covers the journey of a young Jesuit to seek a remote Catholic mission in Huron territory in 1634. He's bringing his faith to a wild an dangerous land, his journey and communication challenges his faith and that of the Hurons. It's a beautifully filmed movie and the young Jesuit doesn't go off character and become rambo with a cross at any point despite the constant and ever present threat of violence.
The Mission, 18th century jesuits try to protect the local south americans indians from falling under the yolk of slavery. Rodrigo Mendoza is a daring Spanish adventurer who is a cad , scoundrel and killer who is motivated by politics and religion to do the right thing.
The Name of The Rose, 1986 film staring Sean Connery as William of Baskerville is embroiled in a deepening murder mystery in a 14th century Benedictine Abbey. Baskerville is nonconformist and intellectually motivated but he doesn't turn from his faith. The story is all about how the world of religion effects and motivates the deeds of men in wide sweeping matters and very personal ones. The flm is entertaining but the book is wonderful. There is an excellent puzzle based dungeon adventure in the film that is a must see for dungeon adventure writers.
Dogma, 1999 flippant road comedy that is most certainly a religious adventure. At it's root it's all about the relation of each character in the film to their faith and the divene along with the realization of how personal it is in a world where politics and irreverence have squashed that personal relation for many. After the sex and potty humor it's still thought provoking.
There you go 4 films full of mystery, murder, epic battles, personal challenges all with religion as a significant portion of the adventure.
Black Robe, 1991 film adapted from the novel of the same name. This film covers the journey of a young Jesuit to seek a remote Catholic mission in Huron territory in 1634. He's bringing his faith to a wild an dangerous land, his journey and communication challenges his faith and that of the Hurons. It's a beautifully filmed movie and the young Jesuit doesn't go off character and become rambo with a cross at any point despite the constant and ever present threat of violence.
The Mission, 18th century jesuits try to protect the local south americans indians from falling under the yolk of slavery. Rodrigo Mendoza is a daring Spanish adventurer who is a cad , scoundrel and killer who is motivated by politics and religion to do the right thing.
The Name of The Rose, 1986 film staring Sean Connery as William of Baskerville is embroiled in a deepening murder mystery in a 14th century Benedictine Abbey. Baskerville is nonconformist and intellectually motivated but he doesn't turn from his faith. The story is all about how the world of religion effects and motivates the deeds of men in wide sweeping matters and very personal ones. The flm is entertaining but the book is wonderful. There is an excellent puzzle based dungeon adventure in the film that is a must see for dungeon adventure writers.
Dogma, 1999 flippant road comedy that is most certainly a religious adventure. At it's root it's all about the relation of each character in the film to their faith and the divene along with the realization of how personal it is in a world where politics and irreverence have squashed that personal relation for many. After the sex and potty humor it's still thought provoking.
There you go 4 films full of mystery, murder, epic battles, personal challenges all with religion as a significant portion of the adventure.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Fanboys [film]
The wife and I caught "Fanboys" on cable this weekend. It's stupid and pretty damned funny.
"Four childhood friends (now theoretically adults) make a pact on Halloween night in 1998 to infiltrate the Skywalker Ranch in hopes of catching a rough cut of the long-awaited "Star Wars" prequel, "The Phantom Menace.". It's a sophomoric road movie but there's a host in-jokes that are even funnier to fanboys and film buffs. There are some obvious and some sublime cameos in the film. (Yeah i used "sublime" blogging about a dumb-ass road comedy, try it yourself you might like it.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489049/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fanboys/
it got a 33% on rotten tomatoes, I say "got to hell rotten tomatoes fanboy jerk wads with no sense of humor and ridiculous expectations".
Here's a trailer that actually gives away some stuff it shouldn't:
It's worth the time to view it and maybe even blog about it. It isn't great but it was fun I give it a B-
"Four childhood friends (now theoretically adults) make a pact on Halloween night in 1998 to infiltrate the Skywalker Ranch in hopes of catching a rough cut of the long-awaited "Star Wars" prequel, "The Phantom Menace.". It's a sophomoric road movie but there's a host in-jokes that are even funnier to fanboys and film buffs. There are some obvious and some sublime cameos in the film. (Yeah i used "sublime" blogging about a dumb-ass road comedy, try it yourself you might like it.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489049/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fanboys/
it got a 33% on rotten tomatoes, I say "got to hell rotten tomatoes fanboy jerk wads with no sense of humor and ridiculous expectations".
Here's a trailer that actually gives away some stuff it shouldn't:
It's worth the time to view it and maybe even blog about it. It isn't great but it was fun I give it a B-
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