Richard The Lionheart (2013) User Reviews

Nice idea, but poor result

[goongdo · 1/10 · 10 November 2013]

I enjoy watching period pieces, but this one was hard to get through. Poor acting, especially in the fighting scenes. The storyline was unclear and contrived. Some scenes seem to have been added for gratuitous reasons, such as love scenes. They can add to some stories, but in this movie, they were out of place. It took a long time to understand where the story was going. The audio quality was not very good and I imagine it was due to dubbing. Like another poster, I should have stopped it about twenty minutes in. However, I thought it would get better, which it didn't. Malcolm McDowell's talents were wasted on this piece.

What a waste of 100 minutes of my life................

[a-richards-757-668475 · 1/10 · 6 August 2013]

DVD Box looked great, plot seemed OK, so I watched it.

Wish I hadn't, and also wish I had gone with my first instinct 20 Min's in and switched it off.

Totally cant understand this film, are you supposed to suddenly start liking the hero (Richard) after his appalling behaviour 30 Min's before? Basically a pathetic storyline, that doesn't really add up, effects and Atmosphere seem to be added just cos they wanted to, despite being awful effects.

Only redeeming quality was the fight scene's made me laugh, it was like watching kids in a playground pretending to fight, slow awkward movements, embarrassing.....

My advice would be to NEVER WATCH THIS MOVIE

Horrible...

[swrenn2000 · 1/10 · 8 February 2014]

Absolutely horrible...Didn't want to feel like I wasted my money (any more than I already did)renting it so I fast forwarded through most of it to just watch it. Bad acting would be kind to it, barely even loosely based on Richard, even the love scenes were horrible. Couldn't follow the plot, as much as it could be called that, and the sound was horrible, so it was tough to make out what they were saying...or maybe it was just the dialogue was that boring and pointless.My $1.20 was wasted...They tried and failed to gain gravitas with MacDowell, and why were the Romans in this at all? I've never seen Rome or Caesar connected in any way to Any Lionheart legend...

Don't waste your time on this movie. I wish I'd checked it out, I could have watched paint dry for two hours and been more entertained.

Worst Movie I've ever seen

[gui290182 · 1/10 · 20 June 2013]

As the scoring on my vote says, it's awful.

There's nothing much to say. You can tell the movie is low budget withing 2 minutes of watching it. But no reduced budget is no reason to make such a extremely bad movie.

Everything looks to be done the wrong way in this film. The story doesn't even hold just by itself. And when you add the cameras, the effects, the actors (oh, my god, what's is wrong with these guys?), it just get worse (as if something like that where even possible).

I tried to give it a few minutes, to see if it could get ANY better, in ANY aspect. Didn't happen. In fact, I just watched the entire movie (total waste of time).

Just to see what other people thought about this movie, I checked the IMDb rating. At the moment I'm writing this, it has a 3 rating... someone is giving away rating points as a gift.

Watchout, "Plan 9 from outer space", we have a new winner for WORST MOVIE EVER.

Follow my advice: If you can, DON'T watch it.

Disastrous (possible spoiler?)

[rednektech-593-345755 · 1/10 · 24 January 2014]

I am totally amazed at how bad this movie is!!! I am writing and watching at the same time. Everything about this film screams Amateur crap!! First instinct would be to say that a 1st grade class could do a better job at film making but that would be just too generous. It really is that bad! Only one good thing about this film is the picture on the cover. Its a decent photo.

The sound resembles someone talking in a bathroom stall. The actors should get their money back from acting school. The producer and director should be arrested, and the next time the writer gets a vision, he should envision more than a $50.00 budget, and not spend $45.00 of that money on weed and whiskey. My cell phone takes better video and has better sound. Every possible effect you can imagine is being used in this train wreck. . The set is so bad that the jail BARS are made of 2x2 wooden posts that have the saw marks from a table saw/rip saw.

So much to list I am just blown away that someone would actually claim to have made this.

Whoever Make These Type Of Films Should Be Put Behind Bars

[FilmMan47 · 1/10 · 28 April 2013]

i am so angry at people who make this type of trash & miss-lead people into it.i almost had a fight with the DVD shop owner because of this.

there was no promotion of this film anywhere wiki,rottentomatoes & IMDb is the only place on earth that holds every info on any film in the world.

the plot is about king henry 2 & his son Richard .now Richard gets trapped in a castle meets some-other guy in lockup who just loves to have sex with his girlfriend ghaliya in the dark now together they make plans to escape.

the makers didn't knew how to use the camera all filmed in dark & its low on budget plus forget the actors.the reason i am ranting here is that its so misleading the DVD cover & plot line.i thought it would be bikes in it & some fighting but none of that is here,its a shame that filmmaking has gone extremely worst with time.

these people should be jailed for life for giving this torcher to audience.

my rating is 1/10 the most awful film I've seen ever I've seen worst but this takes the award.i returned the DVD & learned a lesson.please stay away from this film.

highly non recommended.Richard the lion-heart sucks big time

Spend 1 minute reading this review, it will save you 2 hrs of your life

[jtong1535 · 1/10 · 31 January 2014]

I have never been a part of a review site my entire life (yelp,rotten tomatoes, etc...) because I am lazy guy that does not want to spend the 5 minutes to sign up. I am the guy who doesn't contribute but checks the sites and values the other viewers who are nice enough to spend the time. I thank you all.

*** HOWEVER, this is a special situation***

I felt that if I did not spend the time to log in and say how ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE this movie was that I would be doing humanity an INJUSTICE.

Giving this movie a 1 is 5 to many stars, it deserves a negative 4 stars. No human should have to sit through such filth and waste their lives. My dog seemed to be entertained at the slow moving guards that have no freaking idea how to swing a sword.

There is no sense to the plot, the acting is GARBAGE. The worst part was the ending. You spend 2 hours waiting for a Braveheart type battle only to have been shafted.

It likes going to dinner with an unattractive person because you are sure that they will put out. You waste 2 hours of your life with that person and expect great things only to get a kiss on the cheek at the end of the night and a cold shower.

The only thing worse than the movie was the guy who gave this movie 4 stars. His review made less sense to me than the movie.

***MY RATING NEGATIVE 4 STARS*** ***THE WORST MOVIE OF MY LIFE*** GARBAGE.

What did Malcolm McDowell ever do to get his talents wasted like this?

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 27 July 2014]

If there is only one small redeeming quality about Richard: The Lionheart, it's that they did get Henry II's sons' names right, the only bit of history in the movie that's accurate. Other than that, the low-budget shows in some of the cheapest and most vague costumes and sets there's been for any low-budget movie, the modified night-gowns comparison for the costumes is pretty apt and from the way the movie looks it is not clear what the setting is. The special effects never rise above crude standard and the sound constantly sounds as if it was recorded in an over-reverberant bathroom, which is really jarring. The music is the opposite of rousing, instead it's monotonous and sounds like a very, very pale imitation of Hans Zimmer in places. The dialogue sounds stilted and underwritten(especially in the very clunkily-written romance scenes), with a lot of the line delivery being very awkward, plus it has a weird mix of archaic and contemporary so you never feel as though you've been transported to the era of the Plantagenets. Richard: The Lionheart is flatly directed throughout that has the word inexperience all over it, and has uniformly bad performances from a largely unknown cast, most of them under-acting to the point of not looking as if they want to be there. Even worse is that the movie also wastes Malcolm McDowell who on paper seemed perfect and would elevate, but his performance is a mix of over-compensating and sleepwalking through and not helped by being hampered by having little to work with. The story is the biggest failing, it is often very difficult to follow, some scenes drag on for far too long and uses plot devices so overused already that it becomes very predictable as well. The action sequences are incredibly lazy, both in pace(like being in slow-motion) and choreography, school playground fights are honestly far more believable. In conclusion, just horrible in all areas, apart from that one historical accuracy, and unforgivably wastes McDowell. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Do not watch!

[petarmatic · 1/10 · 20 March 2014]

There is nothing which can describe how bad this film is. If you are a student of film making you should watch this film and learn from it how not to make a film, which could hurt you in the future. If you make a film like this you might never have an opportunity to make a film again.

Plot: What is it? I carefully watched it and could not figure it out. Since I read the other reviews I still was not sure what the plot is. So, nonexistent plot. I do not get to see many of those.

Acting was that bad that future actors should carefully examine these non acting and try to do it differently. They might be successful actors if the do not act as these people. What is wrong with them? Is that some psychiatric ward trying to do something with its patients? This is a must see! Not!

Vain

[john-danielish · 3/10 · 24 January 2014]

What's the story? I had a difficult time following the script of this movie that would keep my attention. I am really frustrated to the point where I am forced to comment on this work. Every work should have some decent thought not just images. I am not the one who often writes any comment about a work. I just want to be entertained with some decent possible facts. I am trying to come with ten lines to communicate my irritation of this work called Richard the Lion Heart. How is it that in this generation there is no substance or truth in earning respect for good story telling. Finally, what can I say to add another line and express my grief in this movie called Richard the Lion Heart. I am just deeply saddened that someone put such work out on the market like this one!

Amazing low budget Spaghetti-Fantasy movie

[giulioassante · 10/10 · 12 June 2015]

Here we are: an Italian independent filmmaker try to make a movie with a great character of history: Richard the Lionheart. The invention for a genre movie are a lot. Yes we face for the first time the embryo of what will surely be in the future will be the Spaghetti-Fantasy. A genre that will take cues from real historical facts and that will mix them in a completely new imagery. I'm really curious to see the second chapter that, to my knowledge, was selected in the Temecula Independent Film Festival. We will see what Stefano Milla will do with this great character.

The participation in the cast of the legendary Clockwork Orange's actor Malcolm McDowell in the part of the King Henry II is to be savored, word for word. Despite all the bad grades that I've seen give to the film I realized that people, given the presence of the great actor, thought that the movie was made with a lot of money. I read some interviews with the director Stefano Milla and the reality is quite different, because it seems that the overall budget did not exceed 30k dollars. Knowing this, the director, costume designer and the whole crew have done a miracle.

So, the advice to everyone that in the future will watch the movie: Know that you are about to witness a product of true genius with a ridiculous budget and with a great actor who, despite all these limitations, put the face and believed in the movie. In fact, I have no news of Malcolm McDowell took away from this product. This is the final proof of what I support. So, go Stefano Milla: go go go!

Boring

[btreakle · 6/10 · 19 June 2020]

Most boring movie I have watched in a,while. Lots of violence and kills but no real good story line. So don't waste your time

McDowell got most of the Money, then

[wamwatcher · 1/10 · 12 September 2015]

If the Italian review has any validity, Malcolm McDowell got most of the money spent on this thing. And if he read the script beforehand, he could ONLY be doing it for the money....

The Introductory Sequence made absolutely no sense & everything went downhill from there. I think monkeys wrote the script & a couple humans put their name on it. The last scene has some basis in History but nothing that came before it does.

Loved the Druidess, although I think she had about 90 seconds of total screen time.

I have a serious soft spot for bad movies, but this was just painful.

Weird but still watchable

[macguffin00 · 5/10 · 14 September 2013]

Okay this is a low budget film and certainly a bit weird but it still has dome merit. The premise is fairly simple with Richard as a wastrel being sent by his father, Henry II (played by Malcolm McDowell) to be toughened up with three torments (ordeals) by the Selector played by Stewart Arnold.

We are introduced to the Moor who befriends/helps him and the ordeals begin. Yes, it is noted that we never see more than a handful of nights at any time (armour is expensive) but the story proceeds. The fantastical elements are frankly, a bit tacky, but the rest of the story seems to hang together in a way.

The current score on IMDb (2.8) does not do it justice. Perhaps this is because it has more of a European/Foreign Language feel to it but it isn't a great film. There is significantly worse around rated higher.

I would say that the film is *not* worth while going out of your way to see but you do not have to run screaming from the venue.

One Star is too many!

[mark-141-746998 · 1/10 · 9 March 2020]

I was physically ill after watching this for only 20 minutes. The one ironic thing about this production was the armor and costumes were very accurate, with none of the corners cut in most medieval films, so someone clearly cared about the historical accuracy of the armor. But it seems they failed to hire a writer who could put together a sentence that made sense, let alone a plot. Don't waste your time on this trash!

A Tale of Richard the Lionhearted

[kevinfirish · 2/10 · 20 October 2017]

What a Shame. This movie had everything needed to make a box office hit. Costumes were good enough. Good props, decent sets and excellent scenery were not lacking. Battle scenes should have better choreographed and rehearsed extensively. I don't think they rehearsed them at all. Lighting should have been done better. Dialogue was poor at best, and the storyline Sucked really badly. I should have directed this film. The director should be horsewhipped. He wasted everybody's time. Was he on drugs?

Pure Monochrome Sludge

[daniel-mannouch · 2/10 · 7 June 2020]

Bravissimo, Stefano Milla he has return-ed. Unfortunately, he has brought with him an extremely opaque film that was way too ambiguous with its storytelling for its own good. Richard the Lionheart is an under lit and very boring slog that has some fantasy elements to it, but takes itself way too seriously to be any fun.

Does not help that the performances are either flat or obnoxiously overkill. But that doesn't even matter though, because there is simply little to no plot here. A series of endurance tests for our stroppy prince protagonist that all pale in comparison to the endurance test that is watching this film.

Add on top of that terrible sound design, awkward editing, abysmal pacing and only fleeting moments of gore and nudity, and what you have is simply a tedious experience that makes me pine for the golden era of Italian genre cinema then I could ever imagine. Do not watch Richard the Lionheart. It is not worth your time.

I like it!!

[valentina-spano · 10/10 · 7 May 2016]

I love this film! I like it very much! Macolm Mc Dowell is amazing as usual and Chandler Maness is a talent actor. I already know the director Stefano Milla and I think he's brilliant. His special view and the way he use to tell us the story is unique. I've bought this DVDs on Amazon and my vote is 10! This title is a good way for a light and funny evening at home. I'll planning the next vacation to this movie's location. I'd like a story and the editing. I've seen this movie the first time during the Monrovia film festival and the critics were enthusiastic! I think you should watch this movie. And I hope you enjoy it.