Movie Review: George and the Dragon

George and the Dragon a.k.a Dragon Sword

ApolloMedia Distribution, Carousel Picture Company, Ravenhouse Entertainment, USA, Germany, UK, Luxembourg, 2004.

George (James Purefoy) and Tarik (Michael Clarke Duncan) are returning from crusade. In England dragon kidnaps Princess Lunna (Piper Perabo). Her fiance knight Garth DeGurney (Patrick Swayze) tries to find her. Lunna does not want to marry Garth so she probably would rather stay hidden. Father Bernard (Jean-Pierre Castaldi) escapes angry mob and meets George. George returns to England with Bernard and Tarik goes to search for mercenary El Cabillo (Val Kilmer).

George and Tarik

Father Bernard

Val Kilmer

By the way Piper Perado looks like Hilary Swank:

King Edgar (Simon Callow) hires George to find the Princess. Picts are attacking so George and Garth must fight them. As the searchers are separated George continues the adventure with young lad Wryn (Rollo Weeks) and old bloke Elmendorf (Bill Treacher). El Cabillo's posse comes to England trying to find something to loot.

Garth DeGurney

Wryn and Elmendorf

Princess Lunna

Spunky Princess becomes pals with the dragon and adopts the suddenly orphaned dragon's egg. Transportation of the gigantic egg would be a nightmare even to professional movers. Luckily there is always a soft object (Elmendorf or George) to break the fall.

George and egg

As it is proper for a adventure movie there is a budding romance of George and Lunna, and also Garth is a power-hungry baddie. The ending ties together the loosely connected story threads introduced earlier in the story. As in the legend George confronts the dragon, but with a twist.

The story has little to do with historical St. George, "George and the Dragon" is "Princess Bride"- style tongue in cheek adventure produced by SciFi channel (Syfy). El Cabillo replaces the Dread Pirate Roberts. Characters are fun and the good actors make the production standards higher than in the usual Syfy fare. During the end credits there is a blooper reel.

Rating: Good

Starring: James Purefoy, Piper Perabo, Patrick Swayze, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bill Treacher, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Rollo Weeks, Paul Freeman, Stefan Jürgens, Stefan Weinert, Phil McKee, Caroline Carver, Simon Callow, Joan Plowright, Carl Chase, Jamie Treacher, Bill Oddie, Peter McCabe, Dean Gregory, Bernd Pietsch, Chas Warlow, Andreas Meidinger, Jim Probyn, Thoralf Koegst, Leslie Woodhall, Orhan Kümürcü, Lynne Roche, Giles Deu, Margot Due, Jean Alesi, Jason F. Burks, Erkan Gündüz, Caroline Koch, Véronique Koch, Val Kilmer, Serge Mauro

Director: Tom Reeve