This is what I would call a Vanity Movie, in that it seems Casper van Dien promised his daughters to make a movie with them and this is the result.
The two critics so far seem puzzled for what kind of audience the movie was made and I can see their problem. It's not a Kids Movie because of the violence and gore (but strangely has rather childish kids movie elements like the narrator, that I found totally out of place). For an actual Parody Movie it takes itself way to seriously (I think that would have been a fun way to go with this), and I hope I'm not talking out of my butt here because I'm not exactly genre savvy, since I usually have the threshold of an immature three year old for scary stuff, but as a Scary Movie it fails spectacularly too, as it's not scary like ... at all (the zombies are laughable and I really hate zombies).
The writing and acting is strangely wooden and overly dramatic in places. Casper and Catherine as king and queen made me cringe actually. Of their girls I like Maya better than Grace, but then she also had probably the more interesting role with (little plot helper) Newt rather than Sleeping Beauty.
Olivia d'Abo is underacting while overacting. You're the evil lunatic queen in a fairy tale. Go all out girl! Edward Lewis French as the sleazy prick prince Jayson that obviously won't get the princess in the end is fine, but then I'm not sure how you could throw such a role anyway.
Then there is Prince Jayson's "band of misfits" as one critic called them. A weird bunch indeed. Some of which are a brutal sell-sword type (Gruner), two brothers (lets call them Rapist and Thief) and a farmer lad (Barrow) that acts as whipping boy for the prince and overall punching bag for all of them. Now guess who gets the princess in the end.
If you're still guessing, Finn Jones has top billing. As Barrow he is also the only literate one in this bunch and finds the letter/map to Sleeping Beauty's castle. Prince sleazy prick sees an opportunity to usurp a defenseless kingdom and no longer having to quibble over this one with his father. So off they go, despite the warnings of wise old man that stuff is cursed.
Them getting into the castle and to the main action is a bit dragged out. The R&T brothers being total cowards is harped on a bit too often. Unlike the zombies the CGI monsters are actually pretty cool for a B-movie. After continually decimation of their expedition party, Gruner finally comes to respect Barrow via their fighting. Even prince snot-pig in the end gives Barrow his birthright (quelle surprise: as the real prince) back, who can now go on and lift the curse with his pure heart kiss. The evil queen goes a bit gaga and extremely violent before of course, though love defeats all in the end.
It's a bit silly, but I liked and laughed at the ending gag of turning the story into a circular one. And they lived happily ever after *shoes of next evil queen showing up* ... or maybe not.
All in all very strange and uneven, though it gets better the closer it gets to the climax.
3.5/10 (rounded to 4 because I have a tiny little crush on Finn Jones)
The two critics so far seem puzzled for what kind of audience the movie was made and I can see their problem. It's not a Kids Movie because of the violence and gore (but strangely has rather childish kids movie elements like the narrator, that I found totally out of place). For an actual Parody Movie it takes itself way to seriously (I think that would have been a fun way to go with this), and I hope I'm not talking out of my butt here because I'm not exactly genre savvy, since I usually have the threshold of an immature three year old for scary stuff, but as a Scary Movie it fails spectacularly too, as it's not scary like ... at all (the zombies are laughable and I really hate zombies).
The writing and acting is strangely wooden and overly dramatic in places. Casper and Catherine as king and queen made me cringe actually. Of their girls I like Maya better than Grace, but then she also had probably the more interesting role with (little plot helper) Newt rather than Sleeping Beauty.
Olivia d'Abo is underacting while overacting. You're the evil lunatic queen in a fairy tale. Go all out girl! Edward Lewis French as the sleazy prick prince Jayson that obviously won't get the princess in the end is fine, but then I'm not sure how you could throw such a role anyway.
Then there is Prince Jayson's "band of misfits" as one critic called them. A weird bunch indeed. Some of which are a brutal sell-sword type (Gruner), two brothers (lets call them Rapist and Thief) and a farmer lad (Barrow) that acts as whipping boy for the prince and overall punching bag for all of them. Now guess who gets the princess in the end.
If you're still guessing, Finn Jones has top billing. As Barrow he is also the only literate one in this bunch and finds the letter/map to Sleeping Beauty's castle. Prince sleazy prick sees an opportunity to usurp a defenseless kingdom and no longer having to quibble over this one with his father. So off they go, despite the warnings of wise old man that stuff is cursed.
Them getting into the castle and to the main action is a bit dragged out. The R&T brothers being total cowards is harped on a bit too often. Unlike the zombies the CGI monsters are actually pretty cool for a B-movie. After continually decimation of their expedition party, Gruner finally comes to respect Barrow via their fighting. Even prince snot-pig in the end gives Barrow his birthright (quelle surprise: as the real prince) back, who can now go on and lift the curse with his pure heart kiss. The evil queen goes a bit gaga and extremely violent before of course, though love defeats all in the end.
It's a bit silly, but I liked and laughed at the ending gag of turning the story into a circular one. And they lived happily ever after *shoes of next evil queen showing up* ... or maybe not.
All in all very strange and uneven, though it gets better the closer it gets to the climax.
3.5/10 (rounded to 4 because I have a tiny little crush on Finn Jones)