IRONCLAD
2 out of 5 stars

the only thing great about this movie is paul giamatti as the evil king john… he has one pivotal scene, and that pretty earned this movie the extra star. otherwise, another 1 star movie with really bloody fight sequences and the whole movie taking place in one castle. :/ (an important castle though in british history!)

for a medieval/historical movie, there sure was a lot of fighting, limb loss, and blooooood. the movie starts out with english barons forcing king john (giamatti) to reluctantly sign the magna carta… then, the following year, king john starts to eliminate the barons, one by one, so that he can rule with an iron fist again. one baron by the name of albany (the great brian cox) has a really big problem with an unjust king, thus he gathers up his “magnificent seven” for a balls-out rebellion. he even recruits a templar knight named thomas (james purfoy) to help after he and a couple of templar knights escape after their first encounter with john and his horde of danish mercs. (john has their abbott’s tongue cut out- eww…) so, templar knight + M7 + baron albany decide to take over rochester castle as part of their rebellion, and basically…ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE when john’s forces and the rebellion collide. everyone goes into EPIC BATTLE MODE with lots of swords, blood, limb loss, axes, and hot tar. like my cousin said…”it ain’t a medieval movie w/o the hot tar.” hahahahahaha, so random that he knows stuff like that. :P

i feel like this was something offered to russell crowe at some point, but when he declined, it just kept getting passed on and on and on and around and around and around to someone. finally, someone in british hollywood decided to take on the project, thus this happened. like i said: paul giamatti saves this movie, and his scene with brian cox is the best scene in the whole movie. such anger! such rage! and…he only filmed his part in 7 days. i really feel like they needed a better lead and a better female lead too. kate mara?! really?! :/