Review of Ironclad (2011) by Charlie L — 30 Oct 2012

A former Knight Templar and a band of rebel soldiers defend a strategically vital castle against the mercenary forces of the cruel and ruthless King John. Ironclad is basically a medieval Rio Bravo. It actually captures the rain and grime soaked bloodiness of medieval battle rather well and has a nice sense of period.

James Purefoy makes a suitably intense hero, Brian Cox is as fun as always in his preferred typecast of larger than life, earthy nobleman and Derek Jacobi adds some Thespian credibility top the proceedings.

The biggest problem is that there's not much to the plot; two hours is rather a long running time for a story that is little more than one long sword fight and the dreaded wobbly cam rears its unwelcome head during the otherwise impressively staged battle sequences.

As a whole its a solidly acted and efficiently executed hack and slasher but it occasionally feels a little made for TV and the trite romantic sub plot is pointless. Not bad though and it may appeal to fans of Game Of Thrones hankering for a few political machinations and makeshift limb amputations while they await the new series.