Ironclad

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

A neat battle flick. Paul Giamatti is damn great chewing the scenery as King John. Seeing him go up against Brian Cox is the main draw for me in this film.

Despite a modest budget they get some great visuals and action into the film and go heavy on the battle gore, the way I like it. It seems to be commonplace nowdays but we should never take our battle violence for granted despite being able to see it on half a dozen television series.

There's a long stretch in the middle of the film as the army tries to out-wait the knights in the keep. They use this time to develop some of the characters a little, and they have a great cast to do it with but none of it really connected with me all that much. That goes double for the timid love story with Kate Mara and James Purefoy that seems to only be in there to have a female cast member.

Still enjoyable enough.