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King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
USA / Thailand 2017
produced by David Michael Latt, David Rimawi (executive) for Dark Continent, Benetone Films, The Asylum
directed by Jared Cohn
starring Sara Malakul Lane, Eoin O'Brien, Alex Winters, Kelly B. Jones, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Jon Nutt, Asia Marie, Byron Gibson, Harold Diamond, Jack Easton, Eilidh 'Ailey' MacQueen, Tanja Keller, Ron Smoorenburg, Jaroslav Shvets, Surin Jaritwong, Ricardo Sanati, Sohanne Bengana, Arada Khamnoi, Sao Ruenthai, Bunyakorn Yeesodsary, Zymone
written by Scotty Mullen, music by Mikel Shane Prather, stunt coordinator: Krisbenjapon Thiengthamwatjana, visual effects coordinated by Sasha Burrow, supervised by Joseph J. Lawson
King Arthur, Merlin
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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The UK, 1500 years ago: King Arthur (Byron Gibson) and Merlin (Harold
Diamond) finally get hold of Morgana Le Fay (Sara Malakul Lane) and her
son Mordred (Russell Geoffrey Banks), manage to imprison them with some
spell, and send them to outer space. Bangkok, Thailand, now: Penn (Eoin
O'Brien) is a descendant of King Arthur and in a team that still lives by
the values of the Knights of the Round Table, also including his
girlfriend Jenna (Kelly B. Jones), his rival Lucas (Alex Winters),
tough-as-nails Tasha and their team leader Gunner (Jon Jutt), and they
train frequently at a local dojo ... but Penn is less than convinced
there's anything to the story and ponders leaving the group - when one day
Elaine (Asia Marie) stumbles in, hands Penn what turns out to be the Holy
Grail ... and just dies. Turns out that Morgana and Mordred have returned,
and they are after Excalibur, which has somehow been molten into the Holy
Grail (don't ask), and now it's up to these "Knights of the Round
Table" to save the world from Morgana, eventually helped by Elaine's
sister Krista (Eilidh 'Ailey' MacQueen), who's the only one who really
knows what's going on. Soon, too, our heroes manage to make Mordred their
prisoner, but are slow to trust him, even though he tries to prove them
he's actually on their side, wanting to escape the shadow of his
over-bearing mother and wanting to finally be granted a soul. But as our
heroes are a bit on the slow side when it comes to let Mordred help them
(even if one can't blame them), bad comes to worse, and the worst here is
most probably a giant robot destroying parts of Bangkok ... Ok,
let's be honest here, if you've expected this to be an even remotely
faithful adaptation of the King Arthur legend, you will
be disappointed, as a matter of fact the actual legend plays a minor role
in this mythological hodge-podge and could very easily be replaced by
quite a number of other well-known legend or create a mythology of its
own. Plus, it stands to argue whether it was a good idea transplanting the
very British legend to the rather un-British Thailand ... But all of
this is of secondary interest here, really, as King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table is actually a well-oiled
acton/sci-fi/fantasy hybrid that moves through its narrative very much on
the swift side, offers plenty of fight scenes, shoot-outs, scares where
they are needed, and really does its best (and succeeds) to keep the
audience entertained. And even if the plot per se might be a slap in the
face of every serious historian, it actually works fine as a slightly
campy genre yarn. I will stress again here, don't take this film too
seriously - and if you succeed there, you'll probably be rewarded.
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