Title: Dragon Crusaders (15)
Year: 2011
Running Time: 87 minutes
Director: Mark Atkins
Cast: Dylan Jones (John The Brave), Cecily Fay (Aerona), Feth Greenwood (Eldred The Strong)
Notes: None
Rating: 1
Thoughts: With character names akin to the Monty Python's Holy Grail, this tells the tale of a band of Knights Templar who attack a pirate ship and then are cursed to turn into horrific beasts.
A wizard dragon is at the back of it all.
It's one of the films starring Cecily Fay, a pocket sword fighter who unfortunately delivers a few lines as well. She's an incredible athlete, and is amazing in choreographed scenes but the actual fighting normally feels as natural as her dialogue.
What also really lets this down is the whole feel of it as it contains a whole load of amateur elements, feeling more like a LARP mockumentary than a film. Crowds run off screaming to be revealed as half a dozen folk ambling along, for example.
Too many people fight in such an unrealistic way that they wouldn't have survived as long as their on-screen age - almost as preposterous as Fay's regular 'strike a pose' moments when she slays a foe.
It's also quite familiar, this part of Wales having been used before with the same landscapes, castles, cast and clothes!
The dragons are passable and presumably sucked up the small budget. It's a shame as the premise has something but is very poorly executed.