What’s this all about?
A pair of knights who have abandoned The Crusades after realizing that many of those whom they are slaying are innocents, are tasked with delivering a witch, believed to be the source of The Black Plague, to a monastery for trial and presumed execution. Along the way, they face tribulations of nature, and the supernatural.
Lots of things/people/monsters get stabbed, and lots of old-fashioned swashbuckling gets done in this swords and sorcery action film.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays “Behmen,” an English knight who has fought in The Crusades for years, and who has a death toll in the hundreds, if not thousands. He’s generally serious, and seems to be the leader of the duo he makes up with Ron Perlman.
Nick’s performance in this is honestly pretty solid. There was a lot of room for camp and yelling and broody nonsense in this script, but Nick managed to avoid it all, much like his character avoids getting killed in massive battles.
Who else is in this one?
The previously mentioned Ron Perlman (“The Beast” from that awful Beauty and the Beast TV series) plays “Felson,” Nick’s fellow knight who has been at his side through The Crusades. His prowess in combat seems equal to Nick’s, but he largely plays second fiddle. His character is far more jovial than Nick’s.
Stephen Graham (Tommy from Snatch) plays “Hagamar,” a merchant who knows the way to the monastery, and is taken along as a guide. He’s good, but the part is small.
Christopher Lee (Dracula, in about a hundred movies) plays a cardinal, but the role is so small that I missed him. IMDB says he’s in there, though.
Did you see that?
The film features one of those pet peeve scenes, in which a character is shown approaching the prison cart (carrying the witch) in a clear section of wide road. As he approaches the camera tracks around behind him, and we suddenly see a sword’s blade land on his shoulder against his neck. The camera pulls back to show that Nick and his band have sneaked up behind the man.
We saw the entire area in the previous shot. There was nowhere for them to be hiding. Two of the “sneakers” were wearing full armor. It is impossible that this man approached this area and was unable to see the hiding protagonists.
Why do so many movies do this? It’s just stupid. -Michael
This film featured a lot of CGI. Most of it, especially the big ending wasn’t too bad considering the time the film was made. But at different points they had a pack of CGI wolves following, attacking, and eventually battling our rag tag crew. These CGI wolves were just horrible. They weren’t going for realistic, but even by demented and super natural wolves these were just bad. Worse there was no real need for them to look weird. Realistic looking, even if CGI would have been much better. -Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
As mentioned, Nick was good in this. He played a serious action hero, doing action stuff. If I have to pick a best scene (and I do, because I wrote the rules), I’ll go with the scene in which he realizes that he is hacking and slashing his way through what appears to be a group of civilian refugees.
Several prior scenes have shown Nick (and Ron Perlman) jovially charging into massive battles while yelling quips to each other as they cut down hordes of enemies. They seemed to be having a really good time, and were wagering on who could kill the most people.
Then, in the scene that I’m referencing, they charge into a castle and start the hack and slash old number 12. When Nick suddenly realizes that his “opponents” are women, children and old men, he freezes, and you can see reality hit him. It’s a nice, powerful juxtaposition, and Nick delivers it well. -Michael
I also feel the fighting scenes at the beginning that establish both that Nick is a warrior, but also that he has a strong friendship with his best bud were some of Nick’s best. I really liked how he joked around with him while also being serious about his mission. I don’t really have a specific one, I enjoyed them all equally. -Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
On the way to the monastery, the group is attacked by a pack of magic wolves, or something. The visuals are really bad. That’s not my gripe, though. At one point, as the group is being overrun, Nick holds still while a wolf charges him, only striking at the last second, as a second, unseen wolf attacks him from behind. Nick no-look stabs the second wolf behind his back. It’s pure showboating. He obviously could have repelled the first wolf more quickly, then turned to fight the second one. It’s one of those moves that looks cool until you think about it, then you realize that it’s stupid. -Michael
Picking Nick’s worst scene is really quite hard as Nick gave such a solid performance. There was one scene where Nick and his best bud were being held in jail. It was when they were offered to get out in exchange for our heroes’ journey. I’d say the scene of them waiting in their cell lacked a little. It just didn’t contain the same level of chemistry between our two that the more action based scenes did. -Sarah
How was the movie?
This movie is a pretty straightforward action film. There’s a little bit of “the church is bullshit” sewn in there, but not very much, and mostly on the sidelines. It’s dark, both visually and thematically, and it plays the game where the viewer isn’t sure if it’s a supernatural thing or if all of these medieval halfwits are superstitious idiots until the end of the second act.
I found it to be quite enjoyable. It isn’t Conan The Barbarian. It isn’t even The Beastmaster, but it’s an entertaining film in a genre that we don’t see much these days, outside of Lord of the Rings adaptations. -Michael
For the most part it was good. The acting was consistent and good. The CGI was stupid and mostly pointless, except for the big demon at the end and his death, other than that, they should have just skipped it. -Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it? (Michael/Sarah)
I did. It was fun and held my attention. -Michael
I did as well. -Sarah
Where can I watch it?
As with most things, it’s free on Tubi.
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