Dragon Storm   Starring: Tony Amendola, John Rhys-Davies, Maxwell Caulfield and Angel Boris Revolver Entertainment RRP: £14.99 REVD2550 Certificate: 15 Available 24 May 2010

A trail of meteorites spread across a medieval sky brings a new threat from above, dragon eggs. Hatched, the creatures attack King Fastrad’s castle all but obliterating it. Fastrad takes shelter in a nearby kingdom, but not before he has made a deal with a huntsman for safe passage, a deal he reneges on. With the threat coming ever closer Fastrad turns to the huntsman to deal with the dragons, a quest which will see the huntsman gather both friends and foes to his cause…

Dragon Storm (2004 - 1 hr, 36 min, 26 sec) is a made for television fantasy film written by Patrick Phillips and Sam Wells and directed by Stephen Furst.

I actually remember seeing this film on the television and I switched it off then. The film suffers from a number of problems, not least of which is the acting. There are a number of well-known actors on board, which is most probably why the film got made in the first place. John Rhys-Davies plays King Fastrad, who attempts to double cross his host and here Davies does show some exuberance for the role but his efforts are over the top. Maxwell Caulfield, who plays the huntsman, Silas, really has been miscast. He has little of the charisma, which you would expect from a leading man, and he is not particularly suited for an action role. The cast seems to be sleep walking through their roles.

On the plus side the dragons are well realised and for a TV movie they hold their own against their cinema cousins. The plot is fairly straight forward, but there is a subplot regarding King Fastrad's attempt to usurp the crown of King Wednesbury (John Hansson) which adds little to the plot and serves as little more than a distraction to what should be a straight forward dragon hunt. The plot thread with Fastrad makes little internal sense and distracts from the overall plot, which almost works.

The overall problem with the film is its limited budget. Made in Eastern Europe, some of the locations work well, but the costumes and makeup tend to be unconvincing. I’m not sure if they spent the entire budget on the CGI, or if CGI is actually cheaper than hiring actors, for two kingdoms who are supposed to have access to armies the film is sparsely inhabited.

The clear picture looks to be a 4:3 aspect ratio. The disc contains no extras.

5

Charles Packer