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Cast: Kaitlin Doubleday, James Marsters, Luke Perry
When a powerful wizard (Marsters) vows to rid the land of love through the use of his fire-breathing dragon, a brave team of eccentric warriors embark on a grand quest to break the curse, defeat the wizard, and slay his terrible beast.
"Dudes and Dragons" tells the tale of an evil wizard, Lord Tensley, who is in love with and wants to marry the beautiful princess, Lady Ennogard. The princess does not love Lord Tensley back and thinks marrying your cousin is a bit strange but he ensures her it is very common in some cultures. When she refuses again and again he chains her up and he sends out a deadly dragon to ravage the land, until she accepts his hand in marriage the dragon will destroy anyone that displays love in the kingdom. With little hope she decides to send out an enchanted dragonfly to find a man capable of freeing her and putting an end to Lord Tensley once and for all. While all that is happening we are introduced to Camilan another warrior, who takes on a dragon to save the love of his life, a elf princess by the name of Larec. But as expected Camilan's father and mother refuse to give their blessing because they believe it is not right to marry outside of their race.
Camilan does have one more option, to find a wife for his older brother, Ramicus, who happens to be a bounty hunter with an Orc as his sidekick. The problem with that is Ramicus is not the type to settle down, that is until that enchanted dragonfly arrives with the distress message from Lady Ennogard who not only offers herself but the entire kingdom as well to any warrior capable of freeing her and taking down the evil lord. After a little pep talk Ramicus and his Orc sidekick Shokdor, and Camilan and his loyal squire Samton, being their journey to rescue the lady and save the elf princess' life.
"Dudes and Dragons" really impressed me on several fronts. First off for being an Indie film with not a lot of money it looked surprisingly good and even the effects used like the dragons in the film were much better than I expected them to be and the was shoot entirely on green screen as well. Secondly I was sucked into the story right from the start, the film has everything you expect like action, fantasy, drama and plenty of laughs as well. It also makes reference to several other films but I am not going to dwell on those here so not to ruin the surprises that await.
I also loved the interactions between the two estranged brothers after they agree to take on the mission of saving the lady, some of the funniest moments in the film come from their conversations alone. Everything in the film is tongue in cheek and the actors did a great job playing these goof ball characters including, James Marsters as the delusional villain, Adam Johnson as Ramicus and Maclain Nelson as Camilan. The rest of the cast was all fantastic as well and not one character was wasted.
In recent years there has been many parodies released and most of them have been bad to say the least so I wasn't expecting much from this one but boy was I surprised at how funny and entertaining it was. I highly recommend this to all fans of comedy and fantasy. Available on VOD and DVD March 1st so be sure to check it out.
Released by Momentum Pictures
**** Out Of *****