Review of Knights of Badassdom (2014) by Thomas W — 23 Jun 2014

LARPers (Live Action Role Players) finally get their very own film after being briefly featured in the film Role Models starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott. In Knights, the film's central role players are Steve Zahn (Joy Ride), Peter Dinklage ('Game of Thrones') and a very reluctant Ryan Kwanten ('True Blood') who decide to partake in a wild weekend of mayhem and fun in a World of Warcraft/Dungeons and Dragons-esque parlay in a rural forest with masses of other players.

The joke in Knights is that Zahn's role playing has unknowingly unleashed an evil spirit upon them all after he chants an incantation from an ancient, mystical text he purchased off of eBay some time earlier.

Summer Glau ('Firefly') and Joshua Malina ('The West Wing') play fellow LARPers who find themselves pitted against a blood-and-soul sucking Succubus (Margarita Levieva - Adventureland) who has risen from the pits of hell to destroy the world.

There are laughs here but there are also too many groans on hand as well. The film knows what it wants to do and be; but it doesn't successfully do either one and it leaves the film feeling more like a mess than anything else.

Like a weekend of LARPing (although NOT for me -- let me clarify), this film could have been fun.