Fantasy Flix: July 2012

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Beauty and the Beast (2010)

Director: David Lister
Writer: Gavin Scott

Ah, another "Beauty and the Beast" tale. This one is at least better than the first one (Blood of Beasts (2005); but, not much. We also have another "syfy original movie". Believe it or not, there are some good flicks from Syfy, but this is not one of them.

The tale is the classic "beauty and the beast" through and through. I'm not a big fan of this story. I was hoping for some difference... something to make this stand out from the rest. Alas, there was nothing.

There was a surprising amount of "gore" in this film. There's some nice kills and bloody moments. These moments were not badly done either.

As you can expect, the acting is not great. Not, as bad as some, but that good either. Estella Warren is not a very good actress. She's not terrible; perhaps serviceable. I know I often comment on the females in these films, so I suppose I'll have to comment here about her. She is definitely not my type of women. The big pouty lips and big pouty boobs don't do alot for me.

Rhett Giles is actually pretty good. I quite like him and think he should be doing better movies than this and the likes of Quantum Apocalypse or Transmorphers. The rest of the cast is serviceable.

There's not alot of action here and found my attention straying quite often. The effects are pretty good as far as Syfy standards are concerned.

Overall I'd say you can definitely skip this one. If you need to see every fantasy flick like me, perhaps just have this on while you're doing something else.

Verdict: Not terrible. Not Good. You could probably skip it.

The Cast

Estella Warren ... Belle

Rhett Giles ... Count Rudolph

Victor Parascos ... Beast

Vanessa Gray ... Lady Helen

Tony Bellette ... Otto

Chris Betts ... Captain

Anthony Kidd ... Kurt

Damien Garvey ... Dr. Thorne

Gabriella Di Labio ... Anna

Jack Henry ... Jury Foreman

Mark Finden ... Soldier #1

Nicholas G. Cooper ... Duke Henry

Peter Cook ... Duke Edward

Todd Levi ... Baron Conrad

Tony Thurbon ... King Maxilillian

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Warrior Angels (2002) AKA Crusade of Vengeance

In 1190, the knight Elizabeth leaves her young son Peter in England, battles, and is wounded in the Third Holy Crusade. She must return to her village, where she is informed by the local priest that Peter was abducted by the wicked tyrant Grekkor and his powerful knights. Elizabeth decides to build an army to fight against Grekkor, but all the local men are afraid to join. For her crusade of revenge, Elizabeth only counts with the support of three other women: Hunter and her bow and arrows; the prostitute Eve; and the gypsy Sybil and her powders and herbs. Later, the strong Luke also joins her desperate struggle against Grekkor.

Director: Byron W. Thompson

Writer: Byron W. Thompson

This is not a terrible movie, but it's really not very good either. I generally love me some Rutger Hauer, but even he cannot save this movie. Frankly, it's just kind of boring.

I'm not really sure why I was bored with this movie. The story moves fairly quickly with a decent amount of action pieces. I guess I just didn't care. There was very little here that I loved.

While there is plenty of action to be had, the fight scenes just aren't very good. The four ladies here just aren't made to be action stars. While Arnold Vosloo and Rutger Hauer are good, there just isn't enough of them to make the action exciting.

Overall, the acting is just ok. While there are a few good ones, the rest of the cast is pretty terrible. Vosloo and Hauer are obviously the good, with Joanna Pacula just being ok here. Honestly, my favorite actor/character here was Charlotte Avery who provides some nice comic relief.

The movie is pretty PG even though they try to spice it up with a few non-stimulating breast shots and body-double close up nipples that aren't even worth posting pictures of.

In generally this movie is pretty boring and these leading ladies just can't hold my attention. And, there's just not enough Vosloo and Hauer to make up for it. I'd say it's pretty safe to skip this one.