User reviews

It's not as bad as some of the reviews make it out. But you do have to be a geek at heart.

You don't have to be a LARPer necessarily, but you do have to know a little about the culture. There are a lot of jokes and references that if you know nothing about roll play, LARP or just general geekdom, they will pass you by.

So yeah its not for everyone, but it is funny and the actors all put in exceptional performances for what it is.

It's not meant to be a block buster CG extravaganza, so don't expect a block buster action horror and you will enjoy it.

But again, if you know nothing about geek culture this will go right over your head.

Great performances by all, need to say that again.

Rarely do immature comedies get approval or good ratings. There are a few: Dumb and Dumber or There's Something About Mary….or anyone of Will Farrell's movies. But perhaps viewers take themselves too seriously. This film is centered around a LARP (live action role-playing game) battleground where characters do often take themselves seriously in some sense. Often costumes are makeshift and battle scenes are amateurish. Authenticity is mixed since imagination takes precedence. The movie takes the same approach, hence, the goofy dragon and monster from hell. Peter Dinklage as Hung is a fun, atypical hero and Summer Glau is slinky as Gwen (isn't every medieval female lead named Gwen, short for Guinevere?). Watch it for fun, light humor. It is funny, geeky and goofy. The subtitles are cute/creative, direction is average, acting is average (actors usually shouting), script is good at times, flat at other times and some gag just doesn't work. It's a slightly above average comedy but you have to appreciate the geekiness and lightness of the film. I'd give it a 6.2-6.3 rating…round off to a 7 just to counter the critics. Just unserious fun to bring a smile and chuckle but maybe not for everyone.

I had pretty high hopes for this movie. The premise seemed good, I love geek humor, and Peter Dinklage is nothing short of awesome. Unfortunately, the movie fell flat on pretty much all fronts.

The characters were boring and had no depth. The plot was non-existent. The paranormal stuff felt out of place, and the low budget special effects made it look like a campy B movie (but not in a good way). Majority of the jokes were neither geeky nor especially funny.

If you're into LARPing, you *might* get something out of this. For others the movie will most likely be a disappointment. If you haven't seen them yet, I'd recommend checking out Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) or The Cabin in the Woods (2012) for a similar (but better) comedy/horror experience.

This movie follows a group of live action role players on the day of their big game. Except that someone has a spell book that's real, and they accidentally summon a demon who is killing them off one by one. This was goofy fun. The breakout character was Ronnie, the over the top gamemaster. It's pretty low rent, but I would watch it again.

This was one of the biggest let downs of recent memory. After reading all of the positive reviews, and seeing the incredibly high rating, I really thought I would be in for a treat. The movie wasn't funny, except for a few mild smiles here and there. The special effects, especially towards the end, were atrocious. And the characters were wooden with nothing brought to the screen. And the main premise for the demon was a cringe worthy rip off of the Necronomicon from Evil Dead. The movie has a incredible cast with Peter Dinklage, Summer Glau, Ryan Kwanten, and Steve Zahn. But unfortunately they totally failed to use almost any of their characters to their full (or any) potential. Ryan Kwanten was the only one who was even half way interesting. There were countless times that they could have made something humorous, or even hysterical, but instead it fell totally flat and was just bland. (Where was them humor after the games began and they set it up so obviously for Dinklage?!) I can understand fans of larping enjoying this film, as that unique aspect was the only half way saving grace of this snore-fest. But I can't imagine anyone else could even find it more than mildly entertaining.

3/10 stars and that's being generous.

There's something refreshing about a film that is only made for a certain, small audience. They usually know precisely what they are, and therefore the audience ends up enjoying themselves all that much more when they watch it. But every once and a while, there are movies of the sort that have so much potential and yet the end up squandered and falling short. While not the complete case here, "Knights of Badassdom" definitely needed another draft or two on its script. As much as I wanted to love this movie, I just couldn't. At least, not fully.

"Knights of Badassdom" is about a group of friends whom, after one of the three getting dumped by his girlfriend, go to a LARP festival for the weekend to get his mind off her. What is LARPing? Live-action-role- playing. Imagine a bunch of dudes in armour and robes with foam weapons playing out scenarios from Dungeons and Dragons. This alone was enough to get me interested in the film. I've always considered attending one of these events, if just for the experience. The money and passion some people put into this stuff is out of this world. And even the most anti- fantasy person could get down with swinging around a sword of any type against other people without consequence. It taps into a child-like imagination that I think really ups the enjoyment in the film for me. Had this been any other type of event where the plot happened, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much I think.

The second things that got me into wanting to watch this knight's tale is the cast. "Game of Thrones"' Peter Dinklage (who also produces this film) and Summer Glau of "Firefly" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (two of my favourite TV shows) are both featured. No matter what these two do, I'll always watch it. And they are without a doubt the best parts of the movie. Not just from a fan-based perspective, but they have the two most interesting characters in my opinion. Dinklage is an accidental millionaire who is a regular attendee and enthusiast of LARPing, while Summer Glau plays chaperone to her hardcore LARPing cousin whom she watches after, due to him having a mental disability. Quite touching for a movie that didn't really require any emotional depth to the characters, but it's highly welcomed and appreciated that the film actually took this next step and made it more logical for a drop-dead gorgeous woman to attend something like this. Not to say LARP women can't be attractive, it's just in media, the stereotype works against that.

So how is the acting in the film? Well, it's hit and miss. Some characters are great, others aren't. Our main hero is Joe; a heavy-metal singing guy who just wants to live a normal life, despite his eccentric friends. Actor Ryan Kwanten does him decently, but his characters archetype is so clichéd that I can't help but barely care for him. I don't know if he didn't do as great of a job because of the weak nature his portions of the script were, or because Kwanten himself just isn't that great an actor. Either way, mediocre to say the least. For me, the biggest disappointment was Steve Zahn as Eric, the most dedicated of the company. I like Zahn in what I've seen him in, especially the highly underrated (in my opinion) "A Perfect Getaway". Here, however, his character was flat, annoying and expendable. I think this fault is more on the writers and director Joe Lynch, as whenever Eric makes a joke it always falls flat and I wind up hoping for his scenes to end.

The two final things I want to address here are the special effects and the climax. I feel like with a film like this, it's important to point out how impressed I was with these elements. The special effects are almost all practical, with a little bit of low-quality CGI. However that kind of works with the half-assed nature of LARPing and the characters costumes in general, so I can run with it. In the end of the film, there is a giant monster that goes on a killing spree. And I was so joyed to see it was rubber suit. Too many low-budget horror films use almost all their spendings on terrible CG to make their creatures, or they try to make sure the monster is in the film, but just rarely or never show it to "add mystery". It's so refreshing to see this art has not completely died out. Considering the nature of this film, I think they nailed this perfectly. Also, the climax of this film is great. It's a fun little field battle, speeches and all. The comical nature of legions of grown people waving foam swords around had me thoroughly entertained and I think it was the best part of the whole film. Also, the way the monster is defeated completely lives up to the title of 'badassdom' and is one of my favourite film kills as of late.

In the end, I didn't completely love nor hate "Knights of Badassdom". I'll say it was worth the watch, but I'm unsure whether I'd buy it. Maybe if I saw it for $5, as Dinklage and Glau definitely add rewatchability to it and the overall premise is amusing. Not as good as it could have been, but it didn't fail in its purpose either. Now, if these knights select to go on a second quest, I would most certainly accompany them once more.

After reading the other reviews, I can only conclude that either the reviewers were paid to say complimentary things, or else they saw a completely different movie than the one that got filmed.

"Knights of Badassdom" is disappointing. The plot is that of a very standard evil-monster movie, with no surprises. Normally, it would disappear without a ripple and never see the light of day except on DVD for fans of obscure, poorly-written films. The acting is mediocre, the filming is average, and the production values are, at best, unexceptional.

The only bit of novelty here, and indeed, the only bright spot in the film at all, is the fact that the producers chose to make the lead characters be live-action role-players. This is indeed unusual, and the humor in the film comes about nearly exclusively from the parody of the various clichés of role-playing, and gaming in general. Some of this was reasonably well done, and is entirely why I gave the film a rating of 5; without it, the film would have gotten a 3, as being a standard, low-budget, gore-filled monster movie.

Considering the respectable amount of effort put into the production, the result is rather sad; one would think that they could have come up with a better and more interesting script.

Ultimately, the movie is mildly entertaining, but for the wrong reasons. It's funny mainly because it's so ridiculous in its portrayal of the characters. The audience laughs frequently - but mostly when someone gets killed. Kind of the way you laugh at a really inept home video. This is unfortunate in a movie where the actors and crew worked so hard.

Overall, the film is only notable for being one of the few to mention LARPers at all. Fans of LARPing will be tickled. Fans of phony blood will enjoy seeing plenty of it scattered around.

Other than that, it's completely forgettable. Save your money.

Do you people ever just watch a movie and enjoy it without analyzing the crap out of it? I thought this movie was fun and entertaining, despite it not being THE GRAETEST MOVIE EVAR MADE. "Oh no, the effects aren't perfect." "Waah.. they didn't have a $100million budget" "OMFG there's a plot hole in the 23rd minute of the 2nd act!!" I keep seeing reviews that say "Oh, I was EXPECTING such and such, and it didn't deliver". Stop creating expectations based on a 2-minute trailer. Just try watching a movie for fun and turn off your brain... This movie is actually pretty funny if you know LARPers. Summer Glau is super-hot, as always. I really enjoyed how they would build up mega-drama with the music and dialoge, and then turn it off instantly and it's back to Nerdville -- I thought that was clever. Make some popcorn and watch this, just make sure to take the stick out of your arse first..

Knights Of Badassdom exists in a mystical confluence, equal parts Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Animal House, Galaxy Quest and Friday 13th but never quite rises to the brilliance of its forebears.

Having just been dumped by his girlfriend, wannabe doom metal singer Joe (True Blood's Ryan Kwanten) is 'kidnapped' by his two best friends - hardcore LARPers Eric (Steve Zahn) and Hung (Game Of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) - to the site of their next big event, The Battle Of Evermore.

Joe is reluctantly talked into joining the Live Action Role Playing game - helped by the presence of the lovely Gwen (Firefly's Summer Glau) - but, unfortunately, in his quest for authenticity Eric has purchased a magical tome off eBay that turns out to be a long lost book belonging to the famous Elizabethan sorcerer John Dee.

When Eric reads a page at random as a mock spell, he unknowingly summons a succubus from Hell that proceeds to feed on the souls of the LARPers.

Soon after that Joe and Gwen realise that people are dying for real and take up arms to strike back at the monstrous demon and try to save their friends.

Knights Of Badassdom starts very promisingly, with plenty of loving nods to both LARPing and Dungeons & Dragons (this certainly isn't a mockery of geeks), but once the horror aspect enters the mix, the film doesn't really know where to go.

Now, I'm pretty certain that I read a ways back that this release of the film was not the director's vision of the story but a cut put together by the producers. This might explain the feeling that after a while the story is just spinning its wheels.

What starts off as belly-laughing funny (very much in the style of The Big Bang Theory, but with more swearing) that had me thinking this might one day equal The Holy Grail as geeks' go-to game quote movie eventually lapses into mildly amusing, by-the-numbers fare.

There are plot holes a-plenty and a lot of undeveloped characters (for instance, what was the deal with the redneck paint-ballers and their major hate-on for the LARPers? Outside of explaining why the police didn't turn up at the camp site when the slaughter began, they were totally redundant to the plot), which again suggests to me to retrospective re-cutting of the film for whatever reason, making do with what footage was on-hand.

Don't get me wrong, it's good and certainly clever in parts, but there's an inescapable feeling that it could have been much better. There are some great characters, and great "in-story" world-building by the LARPers, but it all degenerates into a big slug-fest with a rubber-suit monster.

Depending on your mood - and your attitude to random absurdity in movies - the climax of Knights Of Badassdom will either have you smirking at its ridiculousness or reaching for the remote control to turn off the television.

It's such a shame because I genuinely believe this could have been - if done right - a cult classic. As it is, I fear it will simply be swept under the carpet as a missed opportunity and promptly forgotten about.

Of course, the film's biggest mistake: not enough Dinklage.

It was a big disappointment to watch. This movie seems to be the brain child of someones drunken weekend. It was not at all funny and very predictable. I think the LARP theme was suppose to make it funny, but failed to pull off any comedian element at all. I placed the mental age of the movie at 10 years or under. It really should be renamed Knights of Dumbassdom. Wish I never wasted my money and time watching it. I even tried to laugh to humor myself that I didn't just waste my money on such garbage. There was a full audience where I went to see it and only two people seemed to enjoy what they were watching and they were two late teenage boys, who seemed high. If you enjoyed this movie and you are over the age of 10, I would urge you to seek mental help and stop your drug use to minimize anymore brain damage.

It had the makings of a good movie but somehow they just blew it. Taking mushrooms in LARP event, summoning a demon from hell, nerds etc... you can write a brilliant comedy just from those but this time they just didn't. There was not a single funny moment or a line in the whole movie...C'Mon there's a little person doing a lot of drugs and somehow they manage to make that not funny. How is that even possible. The only good thing about this tragedy is that it's short. Acting was not that bad but this movie just wasted their talent...

Don't WASTE YOUR TIME. WATCH TUCKER AND DALE VS.EVIL INSTEAD!!!!

(I cant get my head around the fact of how bad this movie is)

I thought I would watch 5 minutes and then turn it off, ended up watching the whole thing. It was a very odd movie overall, and probably takes the right mindset to enjoy. Basically take a movie with the plot described, but written by high schoolers. Then give them some decent actors, a decent director and a decent film crew. Then have the high schoolers make sure they include the "good" stuff and you pretty much have this movie. So it is a weird hodge podge of decent B-movie, with some A-actors, and a high school film project. I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't great and at times pretty uneven. BTW there is quite a bit of blood and gore, but it isn't super graphic despite that.

OK I went into this expecting a lot more. I mean Dinklage, Zahn? Both great and funny actors with lots of charisma. I wouldn't say they are going through the motions here but the material they were given is awful and their characters have zero depth, there's nothing for them to do in this movie. There was no reason for them to be in this movie. There are some funny self aware moments and maybe if you are into this LARP stuff the movie will speak to you more than me, but overall this is a major low budget cheese-fest. Jimmi Simpson was the main bright spot in this movie, playing the "villain" (kind of) in such an over the top manner that you can't help but chuckle every time he says something. I would have liked to see what the Super Troopers guys would have done with the same budget and characters, I have no doubt that it would have been 100x better, and their movies are hit and miss too. The movie itself outside of the LARP setting is a purely paint by numbers affair targeted to the frat boy stoner demographic. Pacing is not bad and the film makers have a handle on the craft part, but there is no story and very little humor. And in that stoner genre there are WAY better movies, the aforementioned Super Troopers for one, and the Harold and Kumar movies for another. Don't waste your time. This is barely on par with straight to cable "ScyFy channel" crud.

If you enjoyed "Zero Charisma" then chances are that you will also like "Knights of Badassdom". And, of course, if you are a super geeky LARP enthusiast, then you will definitely enjoy this movie. As a player of Dungeons & Dragons, but with no possible interest or understanding in the LARP thing, then I still found the movie to be enjoyable.

The story is about a bunch of geeks coming together in the forest for a weekend endeavor of LARP (Live Action Role-Playing) when an in-game sorcerer accidentally unleashes a succubus into the mortal world. Things quickly turn bloody and foam-weapons need to be exchanged for steel.

There are some really fun and inside references to everything nerdy in aspects of being a roleplaying game enthusiast; such as the Manowar and King Diamond references. Not to mention the namedropping of various monsters and races from the Monster Manual. Those who play D&D will surely pick up on those throughout the movie.

Despite the movie's budget, then director Joe Lynch actually managed to put together a fun and enjoyable movie. The storyline was geeky, yes, but it was nice and fun to watch. And despite the nerdy geekness, then the storyline was actually very entertaining.

It should also be said that the movie had some nice talents to it, and people did great jobs with their given roles and characters (in every sense of the word). And the actors and actresses really helped the movie along quite nicely.

The effects in the movie were quite alright as well, and the demonic version of the succubus was actually quite cool, looking like something of a mixture between (and here comes one of those things only RPG nerds will understand) Tanar'ri, Baatezu and a gremlin from the "Gremlins" movies.

"Knights of Badassdom" is well worth watching if you are into roleplaying games, LARPing, or if you just had a geeky nerd hidden somewhere in your heart.

As much as I detest LARPing, then I tried not to let that color my impression of the movie. For its entertainment value, then I am rating "Knights of Badassdom" 6 out of 10 stars.

Knights of Badassdom is not a good movie at all. In fact, it's trash. It had a decent idea as a foundation to build on (Live Action Role Playing) and should have been able to come out with something a lot better than it did. Instead, it came up with nothing. The basic story is about group of friends who take part in a LARP in the woods of US and who unwittingly unleash a demon. Said demon then bumps into LARP players (mainly in the dark) kills them and steals their souls. Group of friends then decide they have to stop said demon. Now that premise should be a basis for some great visual and verbal gags, right? Wrong. The humour was stale and the visuals were almost non-existent. There wasn't a single moment in this movie where I grinned, let alone laughed. It offered nothing in the way of humour whatsoever. Don't let people fool you into thinking only "geeks" or LARPers would get this movie. There's nothing in there that would fly over the head of a "regular" guy and which would be looked upon as an in-joke and there's simply nothing fresh or original on offer here. The acting is OK but then there really wasn't much for the actors to work with. Special effects? Again, nothing to note really. Script? Boring and unfunny - I can't recall a single line that stood out amongst the crowd. And I can't even say that Knights of Badassdom would make a decent popcorn movie. Sure, PMs tend to be empty and shallow but at least they come with at least one redeeming feature like humour or action. KoB gives nothing in that respect. So my advice is to give this one a miss. Go LARP for real. Even if you hate it, you'll have more fun than you would watching this movie.

This movie is simultaneously extremely stupid and awesome. Although "Kick-Ass" is much better, this movie is for epic fantasy what "Kick-Ass" is for the superhero genre. If you like FRP, LARP, epic fantasy, B horrors and heavy metal, or if you were the fan of "Todd and the Book of Pure Evil" series, this is something you simply must not miss.

In the middle of some forest nowhere a big live-action fantasy role play tournament is held, but one of the "wizards" accidentally uses the real spell and the innocent game turns into real bloodshed.

Story and characters are not particularly well-developed and everything is two-dimensional, so in combination with a small budget we get a production fiasco. On the other hand, the idea is great, the gore scenes are fun and the cast is fantastic. In the leading roles there are legendary Tyrion Lannister, nerdy Steve Zahn, then Ryan Kwanten and cutest sexy ballerina Summer Glau, whom I am in love with since the "Firefly" series.

I rate it seven, which is the average grade between its objective (un)quality and my enthusiasm.

7/10

when i first discovered this movie it's rating was 9.1!!!!and it was such a surprise for a comedy..when i watched it had a rating of 8 and i totally regret watching this movie..if you want to torture someone then its good..otherwise don't waste your time unless you are drunk ...i am happy that its rating keeps falling and hopefully will go below 4 ..i am not a hater and generally i don't write reviews but this movie was a large disappointment according to the rating..if the rating falls to 4 then you will know what to expect...there are some known faces in the movie but no one manages to improve the movie ..in another movie maybe this cast would have performed better

This is a popcorn movie, and one that was made on the cheap. You can't expect an epic like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy from a production with a budget like a "Little Rascals" neighborhood play. So chill out, pop some of that popcorn, grab a cold soda, and kick back and enjoy.

FYI - There was one aspect, towards the end, that I was a little disappointed with.....but what the hell. Unfortunately, I can't add any more detail to this comment without risking a spoiler.

BTW - Normally I would have given this a rating of 7 or 8, but since it is deserving of a much higher average than the measly 5.7 that it currently has, I've given it a perfect 10!

Live-action role players conjure up a demon from Hell by mistake and they must deal with the consequences.

Due to meddling from the studio, director Joe Lynch has notoriously distanced himself from this film. Although how his version differs from the cut available on Netflix and in stores is unknown, one must assume Lynch would have given us even more gore. He is, after all, a master of gore.

Lynch's reservations notwithstanding, the film is still surprisingly good. The cover looks terrible, but sometimes that old adage about judging a book (or film) by its cover rings true. This is a superb blend of humor and horror with some recognizable faces. While no one is A-list (sorry Steve Zahn and Peter Dinklage), there are many faces that will be known to viewers. Even better if you have a background in role playing games.

I am a LARPing and D&D nerd, so when I heard they were making a movie about LARPing becoming real I was psyched and hoped that I would see a bunch of geeks using their pointlessly learned skills to save humanity. That's not what this movie is. This movie is a blood bath of nameless red-shirts and named, involved characters getting slaughtered as they cower in fear until the very end where a strange, out of nowhere solution is used. The movie is relatively short and lacks much if any character development. I only watched it because I like Peter Dinklage, Danny Pudi, and Jimmi Simpson. All three characters were killed off, Danny's before I even got to know the character. I figured I could at least appreciate the LARP aspect of it, but instead I got a few shots of LARPing and a whole lot of "Oh crap guys we're going to die run for your life!". I expected to get at least some humor out of the movie, but only heard two jokes throughout and one was rather obvious and lacked wit.

>>Here down does not contain spoilers

All in all I feel as through the movie could have been more interesting and not a near endless stream of the deaths of characters I care nothing about because of their homogeneity.

I am not sure if this title was supposed to be scary or funny, but it was neither of them. I deeply regret I wasted 80 minutes of my life on this. Special effects are far from professional. Acting mostly poor, Peter Dinklage is an exception, his name probably works as a bate for viewers. I am not very often mislead by IMDb ratings, but this time it was real surprise. Although I am also a gamer and familiar with LARP, but voters must have been from some LARP fan club, voting on the movie only because this is first movie about LARP, at least first one I heard of. Non existing plot, boring from the beginning to the end. One thing that was funny, was poor attempts of makeup artists to make scary effects.

LARP's on a lark get chewed up and spit out for laughs in "Knights of Badassdom" (BTW: a terrible title!). The elaborate medieval role players are nothing but gore fodder, the production values are surprisingly high (the costumes are brilliant) and one of my favorite actresses (Summer Glau) is a highlight as she vamps it up in a pretty-good bad movie. This movie is made to order for Riff Trax, or just gather your nerdiest friends for a night of (deliberately) cringe-worthy dialogue and as fine a rednecks vs. nerds battle as has ever been filmed.

I would compare this movie to "Sharknado" in that both give the impression of being movies that were originally written as serious genre films (disaster and horror respectively) and someone had the sense to make them so over the top as to become entertaining camp.