I've been looking forward to this movie for some time now. I mean, seriously, Peter Dinklage in a movie about LARPers? Who doesn't want to see that? That has awesome written all over it!
Ryan Kwantenis our main actor in here. Fresh from his role as the reliable and dim-witted brother in True Blood, Ryan plays a mechanic whose girlfriend breaks up with him. He does not take it well, as he had just written a death metal song for her, and he returns to his home to mope. In general, through the film, he does a very good job of essentially playing the straight man who is caught up in a world he is only loosely familiar with.
He lives with some guys who are seriously into LARP (Live Action Role Playing) and recreational drugs. Steve Zahn is the guy who hit it rich by selling replica weapons to LARPers and consequently owns the house and can bankroll their fun times in the woods fake casting spells and such. I always seem to like Steve in whatever supporting role he plays in a movie, and he does a very good job here, too.
Peter Dinklage is the guy who hangs around as the stoner, eating 'shrooms and being general comic relief (although there seems to be a lot of comic relief - this is a comedy, after all.) I've seen Peter in interviews, and I've certainly seen him in Game of Thrones acting his ass off, but this is the first time I can recall seeing him in another acting role. It's kind of hard to bring some monster acting to the role of sidekick, but Peter definitely demonstrates the ability to play something other than a straight man.
Straight from the cancelled set of Breakout Kings and occasional guest spot on Psych comes Jimmi Simpson. He plays the LARP equivalent of a Dungeon Master. If you don't know what that is, this may very well not be the movie for you. He does a very good job of playing a character younger than he actually is, and he's even a bit of a lovable jerk.
Summer Glau. What can I say about Summer other than that she is seriously out of place in this movie. the percentage of hot chicks who would willingly LARP is pretty low. the percentage of chicks so hot that they could be models that are into LARP are pretty much 0. She is here for a female role and a love interest, and that seems to be the point of her character throughout the movie.
The movie is pretty damn good, but I really wished for something more than it turned out to be. At the very least, I expected the special effects budget to be a bit higher. If you're going to have a demon appear in your movie in 2013, you can't just rely on a guy in a rubber suit. I still think this was worth the watch. It may even be worth a sequel.
3.5/5