Knights of Badassdom

Knights of Badassdom - Dir. Joe Lynch (2014)

Knights of Badassdom started gaining buzz when it premiered its trailer during a panel at Comic-Con 2011. The majority of attendees had no awareness of the indie film though some ears perked at the presence of fan favorites like Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Danny Pudi (Community), and Summer Glau (Serenity). The footage received a rousing reaction from the exact demographics the movie was hoping to hit. Unfortunately, Knights has been sitting on the shelf until now thanks to Entertainment One, who are releasing it on DVD & Blu-ray. Disagreements between director Joe Lynch and the producers over final cut led to the delay. After viewing Knights, I'm not so sure if Lynch's version would have been a significant improvement.

Knights is set in the world of LARPing that's Live Action Role-Playing for the uninitiated. Friendly folks do battle in a medieval fantasy world with a little help from some foam weapons and a wealth of imagination. Joe (Ryan Kwanten) used to be a LARPer as well as a master of Dungeons & Dragons. He once gave Ronny Kwok's (Jimmi Simpson) paladin a serious case of demonic syphilis. Nowadays, Joe is an aspiring musician, specializing in doom metal, while working a day job as an auto mechanic. That's not enough for his girlfriend, Beth (Margarita Levieva), who wants a boyfriend with some iota of ambition. Joe gets dumped in humiliating fashion and copes by getting stoned with his best friends Eric (Steve Zahn) and Hung (Dinklage). He awakens the next morning in armor and finds a horde of LARPers preparing for the Battle of Evermore.

Joe reluctantly joins in, but the games become far too real when Eric unknowingly reads from a magical tome with actual supernatural origins. Eric summons a bloodthirsty succubus that looks exactly like Beth and starts killing LARPers one by one.

One of the problems with Knights is Ryan Kwanten. It's not that the Aussie actor gives a bad performance; he's perfectly fine and feels like a natural fit. However, his character is one of the least interesting in the picture and he doesn't have the screen presence of his co-stars. When you're in there with Peter Dinklage, you need a load of charisma just to stand out. Dinklage (who also served as an executive producer) is one of the highlights as he essentially parodies Tyrion Lannister. He's brash and extremely enthusiastic about the whole venture. Zahn and Jimmi Simpson, as the fussy gamesmaster, are also quite funny in their supporting roles. Glau joins the fray as the guild's lone female, Gwen, who started LARPing in order to look after her cousin Gunther (Brett Gipson), an Ivan Dragon lookalike who remains in character 24/7.

You can't fault any of the actors, many of whom are in the movie far too briefly, for Knights being something of a slog. The story starts off promisingly enough, but loses traction at the midpoint. It's as if screenwriters Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall just ran out of material. So, we wind up with repetitive sequences in which nothing of important actually happens. There's also an awkward blend of horror and comedy where the filmmakers are clearly inspired by Evil Dead with the goofy humor of Renaissance fair speak. At least, Knights treats its subjects with respect and never truly ridicules the subculture.

Considering the limited budget, you would think those involved would be more innovative with the gore and special effects. Instead, they rely on chintzy CGI that doesn't look at all convincing and a final act monster looks absolutely ridiculous.

Knights of Badassdom was an eagerly anticipated release, but when the time came the movie failed to deliver. Not even the winning cast is enough to elevate the lackluster material into a film worth recommending.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement - Dir. Nicholas Stoller (2012)

Director Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel first worked together on the short-lived television series Undeclared, which was produced by Judd Apatow. They firmly established themselves in feature film with their smash-hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Though Stoller worked with Segel again on "The Muppets," he was only a writer and executive producer with James Bobin of Flight of the Conchords fame directing. The Five-Year Engagement is their first official follow-up to Sarah Marshall as they once again explore the volatile minefield that is the adult relationship.

Five-Year Engagement begins where most romantic comedies end with the proposal. Tom Solomon (Segel) is a successful sous chef making a name for himself in the trendy restaurant scene of San Francisco. He's been dating psychology student Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt) for a year and pops the question during a romantic rooftop dinner with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. A wedding date is set and invitations are sent out, but things hit a snag when Violet gets accepted into the post-doctorate program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. They decide to move to the Wolverine State and postpone the nuptials until she receives her degree in two years.

Violet rises through the ranks of grad students after proposing an experiment to study self-control issues with stale donuts (an offshoot of the Stanford marshmallow experiment) that serves as an obvious metaphor. On the flip side, Tom has a miserable time dealing with the cold weather and lack of job prospects. He's stuck making sandwiches at a deli. The couple drifts further and further apart as the audience wonders whether or not these wacky kids will eventually tie the knot.

Of course, they do, which shouldn't come as a shock unless you've never seen a movie before. While the parts have been rearranged, the underlying spine of the film remains true to formula. As stated in the title, we know it will take Tom and Violet five years before they can enjoy wedded bliss. However, sometimes it's the journey that counts and not so much the destination. The Five-Year Engagement takes a meandering route towards the conclusion and falls into the trap of many Apatow productions by just being too long. The movie runs over two hours all while the story is crying out for a peppier pace.

Segel and Blunt have previously played romantic interests in the embarrassingly bad Jack Black vehicle, Gulliver's Travels. Luckily, they get better material here and display an easy chemistry with each other. The script is even keeled and doesn't paint either one of them as the villain in the relationship. However, they are written rather blandly until the comedy is ratcheted up into slapstick realm. At one point, Tom descends into a self-pitying spiral to the point he's grown muttonchops and shuffles around in a bunny suit.

Engagement scores major points thanks to a supporting cast flush with talented performers. First and foremost are Chris Pratt as Tom's best friend, Alex, and Alison Brie as Violet's younger sister, Suzie. Their impulsive affair acts as a counterpoint to the cautious relationship of the protagonists. Pratt is the overgrown man-child that is the classic Apatow archetype, but he's a nice guy deep down and not nearly as dim as the character he plays on Parks and Recreation. Though it's disconcerting to hear Brie speak with a British accent, she displays the same comedic gifts that have made her a hit on Community. Pratt and Brie also have great chemistry together and it almost makes you wish the movie had been about them instead. Brie and Blunt participate in the picture's most inspired gag in which they argue in the voices of Elmo and Cookie Monster. Second place goes to a running joke where the passage of time is marked by the death of one of Violet's grandparents.

Another NBC alumnus Mindy Kaling shines as one of Violet's fellow grad students along with Kevin Hart, Randall Park, and Rhys Ifans as their professor. Some of the funniest lines come from Tom's new Michigan friends, Brian Posehn as a geeky co-worker with an encyclopedic knowledge of pickles and Chris Parnell as a domesticated husband teaches Tom the delights of deer hunting and knitting. Rounding out the ensemble are Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver as Violet's mom, David Paymer & Mimi Kennedy as Tom's parents, and Dakota Johnson as a young and sexy party girl. Plus, watch out for cameos by Kumail Nanjiani, Molly Shannon, and Tim Heidecker from Tim & Eric's Awesome Show.

The Five-Year Engagement could have benefited from some judicious editing and a quicker pace. Also, anyone thinking this will be as rambunctious as Bridesmaids may be in for a disappointment. Still, the winning cast and some humorous moments sprinkled throughout make it a notch above the standard rom-coms.

Rating: ** (*****)