A George A. Romero movie starring both Ed Harris and Tom Savini as medieval bikers? That's a pretty obscure sounding movie and I also hadn't even heard of this movie before. It's also definitely a bit of an offbeat movie, though unfortunately it's not really as fun or interesting as it all sounds though.

This actually is the first movie that George A. Romero made after his hit movie "Dawn of the Dead", which seems like a pretty odd choice. I mean, going from zombies to medieval bikers seems like a pretty unusual, though certainly original step. It also wasn't quite as successful as his previous movie though, so he soon returned to the world of horror and zombies after doing this one.

The movie itself...well, it exists. I mean, it's certainly one you can easily do without. It doesn't offer enough of anything. Not enough entertainment, not enough excitement and not enough story, which seems like an odd thing for a 145 minutes long movie. So what was supposed to be the big 'conflict' in this movie? Ed Harris his character's struggles to keep the troop together and their way of life going? It really isn't ever all that interesting or engaging.

Perhaps it's true that I simply was expecting something differently from this movie. Something more adventurous, something more fun, something more action-filled or something more 'silly' perhaps. The movie feels a bit too serious for its concept, without ever featuring any deep or thought provoking themes in it.

It's still good enough to watch though, which mainly is due to its original and unusual concept. Seeing bikers dressed up as medieval knights, performing at their own renaissance fair, jousting at each other is a pretty unique sight, to say the very least. Especially when their leader and 'king' is being played by Ed Harris, in an early role for him, alongside some Romero regulars such as Ken Foree and Tom Savini. It also features some pretty good stunt work and nice comedy in it, just never enough of any of it.

All in all a still perfectly watchable little movie, though it's nothing too special, fun or thrilling to watch, in my opinion.

6/10

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OK, I admit that the only reason I was remotely interested in this movie was because it starred both Tom Savini and Robert Z'Dar in it. Genuinely two icons of modern horror in my opinion. So I expected at least to get some silly, entertaining horror fun out of this movie but I ended up with something totally different instead though.

This isn't even really a horror movie, unfortunately. The story involves wrestler Kurt Angle as some sort of possessed terminator. Still sounds awesome and fun but trust me, this movie is anything but fun or awesome.

Halfway in the movie, I still have absolutely no idea what the story is supposed to be all about, or who even is supposed to be the movie its main character. It's such a messily done film, with some extremely poor storytelling in it. This is not even B-level movie making, it's Z-grade stuff really.

The overall movie also has the sort of look and feel to it, like it got done on a shoestring budget. It's admirable and I also do admit that it gives the movie a certain charm. I could actually really tell that the actors must have had lots of fun doing this movie but I wish that this would have resulted in a good and fun movie as well.

I still wasn't ever hating this movie though, as strange as that may sound. It's not like this movie becomes offensively bad with anything. In my opinion it's just done in such an incredibly incapable way, you just can't ever get mad at it. I also do admit that I constantly continued to be hopeful that the movie would be turning into something remotely good or fun to watch. I simply gave up on it eventually though, as the movie continued to handle its story poorly and did absolutely nothing to make me enjoy this movie.

One very messy and poorly done movie, that's honestly nearly unwatchable.

2/10

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(Review originally written at 13 August 2007)

In my opinion there are only 3 movies in the world that are really underrated/misunderstood; "Mars Attacks!", "Starship Troopers" and this movie. It makes me mad and sad when any of those movies gets flamed for all the wrong reasons.

Yes, this movie is pulp, just the way as it was intended to. Robert Rodriguez is just a big movie-nut who also happens to make movies himself. He makes movies obviously for the fun of it, where profits and budgets don't seem to be his biggest priority. He just makes the movies he wants to and enjoys doing, they way he wants to. He's of course not the only director in the business that does this but he perhaps is the only director that also has the right connections while doing so. It makes Rodriguez unique in its sort and also one of the best and most enjoyable directors in the business.

Amazing how many famous and respected actors actually agreed to appear in this movie. Guess it truly helps when you're friends with Quentin Tarantino and his name gets attached to the project as well. Would Harvey Keitel or Juliette Lewis else would really ever do a movie like this? Also a really gutsy move to case George Clooney in the most tough and carrying role of the movie. He still had his 'be good' "ER" image all written over him at the time. It wasn't until after this movie that he really got token serious as an actor and got cast in big production movies such as "Batman & Robin", "The Peacemaker" and "Three Kings".

The story is totally original, in its own twisting and weird way. The first part of the movie the movie seems like a crime movie in which two brothers are on the run. However from the moment the character enter the Titty Twister bar in Mexico it turns 360 degrees, spins 3 more time and makes a barrel-role. That's how it best can be described. The movie becomes an extremely gory and ridicules vampire-flick, in which all the gloves are off. This movie is basically the ultimate dream for every B-movie type of horror lover. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are obviously also two of them. They really didn't needed to make this movie, Quentin Tarantino had some big and respectable successes with "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", prior to this movie and Robert Rodriguez just had his big breakthrough with "Desperado". They just made this movie because they could and they really wanted to.

The movie does have some great tough characters and the script has some good dialog in it, with some great humor as well. Not necessarily the typical sort of Tarantino sort of dialog but great nevertheless, in a different kind of way. He obviously had fun writing this movie, by putting in as many crazy and gory elements in it as possible. But the movie is still of course mostly a Rodriguez movie, made in his typical 'Mexican' sort of style, that is consistent with his earlier movies "El Mariachi" and "Desperado".

The movie is kept deliberately simple and silly. It enhances the fun incredibly and this might very well be also one of the most fun movies I have ever seen. It's delicious pulp, without any intentions. It's made purely to entertain and on top of the that, it's first class made, with people such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez involved and it has a great respectable cast in it, with persons that above all are very well cast into their roles. Most of them also seem to be in this movie just for the fun of it, which really shows on the screen. It helps to make the movie work and make it all the more entertaining to watch. Actors such as Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin of course also show up as always is the case in a Robert Rodriguez and the Salma Hayek cameo role is already sort of a classic and while leave the fan-boys drooling.

The movie does not have the greatest special-effects or make-up, though the small details of the movie are done really good, but this is sort of usual for Robert Rodriguez movies and fits in with the rest of his movies and style. You can tell that they did their very best to make every sequences as gory as possible. It's however done in such an over-the-top and clearly intentional way that the gore becomes one of the humorous aspects of the movie. It's some very graphic stuff, so clearly this movie is not just for everyone.

A totally awesome movie!

10/10