Review of Ironclad (2011) by Ian S — 13 Aug 2011

Throwaway history-book yarn offering plenty in the way of ludicrous hack-and-slash dismemberment (using both laughable CGI and pretty impressive prosthetics) but precious little in terms of character development or gravitas.

Giamatti is an interesting King John, and plays "angry bastard" very well, but aside from one brief grandstanding speech, it's a caricature, and he's not actually in it all that much.

Instead we get long, long stretches of James Purefoy looking miserable whilst defending a castle with a ragtag bunch of rebels (the bizarre cast counting Brian Cox, Jason Flemyng, Mackenzie Crook and Derek Jacobi in their number).

Slightly high-minded stuff, then, aiming to be mordantly educational, when really it would've benefitted from going fully into revisionist exploitation mode, a style which it flirts with but never truly embraces.

Overlong, but worth seeing for the violence, as shallow as that sounds.