Medieval

If it can’t muster much historical insight, this Bohemian foray rhapsodises violence all too effectively: mace-smitings, nose-bitings, even a lion crunching someone’s head like a boiled sweet.

Struggles as a work of historical fiction, but when the action mounts, it’s immersive and exciting.

A film with an identity crisis, caught between its lowbrow sword-and-splatter charms and grander ambitions... The clarity of message gets hopelessly bogged down in the internecine conflicts of all the players.

This crash course in Czech history is often compelling for its intricate details, but rarely for its characterizations, dialogue, or dramatic tension.

Even if 'Medieval' occasionally succumbs to its worst biopic influences, it’s still a delightfully confident work from a filmmaking team that knows its way around a sword.

Glum and bludgeoning, “Medieval” serves up a melancholic hero — see how it pains Zizka to take all these lives! — and a limp love interest-cum-bargaining chip.

The film works best as a passable small-scale battle epic, but beyond that, it’s rough sledding.

Any movie that calls itself Medieval, with the story taking place in medieval Europe, fails to have any credibility when the lead character has an American accent. It's just one of many problems in this mindless and boring action film.

This is a full-blooded take on the true story of a legendary Czech folk hero, and writer-director Petr Jakl infuses it with plenty of entertaining myth-making.

Big and imposing but visually grubby, narratively often indecipherable and ultra-violent....A dour, lumbering and often quite unpleasant take on Žižka’s transformation from stone-cold mercenary soldier to popular hero.