The Spanish Sword is one of those b-movies where most plot descriptions would make it sound like an exciting action-adventure, but ends up being a very dull stinker. Probably the main reason it's so bad is because it's concept called for a way bigger budget than it probably had. If any independent filmmakers are reading this, I just have one piece of advice they're probably not telling you in film schools: movies that don't take place in modern times in the modern world need a big budget. Otherwise you'll just end up with this poor excuse for a period film.
The thing that I most disliked about this movie was the incredibly wooden acting. Although to be fair, the actors didn't have a very good script to work with. The dialogue was very corny and the characters were so personality-less that they could barely be called humans. At least you could tell the actors were at least trying at times, but sadly couldn't bring in decent enough performances. But the bad acting and dialogue could be forgiven if there wasn't so much of it. Seriously, the movie had way too much boring dialogue scenes. I can't even tell you what this movie is about because the acting and dialogue was so distractingly bad I had a hard time following the actual story.
That's not to say their wasn't any action scenes. In fact, those were my favourite parts of the movie due to how hilariously bad they were. The swords were very fake-looking, and way too often characters died from having the swords being waved near them. I realize CGI wasn't invented yet, but it was so painfully obvious that the swords weren't even touching them. But I think the best one was the climatic fight scene which you can barely see because it kept cutting to an extreme long shot of two professional fencers fighting each other.
But not everything in the movie was bad. The cinematographer obviously had some experience. I've seen one too many b-movies where the camera did nothing but shoot the actors saying the lines. But the camera in this movie actually moved! The movie also had a pretty decent score. It wasn't a great score, but in movies like these you really need to appreciate what little competence the filmmakers showed.
I'd only recommend this movie if you're like me and find bad movies interesting. Otherwise, stay away from this stinker.
The thing that I most disliked about this movie was the incredibly wooden acting. Although to be fair, the actors didn't have a very good script to work with. The dialogue was very corny and the characters were so personality-less that they could barely be called humans. At least you could tell the actors were at least trying at times, but sadly couldn't bring in decent enough performances. But the bad acting and dialogue could be forgiven if there wasn't so much of it. Seriously, the movie had way too much boring dialogue scenes. I can't even tell you what this movie is about because the acting and dialogue was so distractingly bad I had a hard time following the actual story.
That's not to say their wasn't any action scenes. In fact, those were my favourite parts of the movie due to how hilariously bad they were. The swords were very fake-looking, and way too often characters died from having the swords being waved near them. I realize CGI wasn't invented yet, but it was so painfully obvious that the swords weren't even touching them. But I think the best one was the climatic fight scene which you can barely see because it kept cutting to an extreme long shot of two professional fencers fighting each other.
But not everything in the movie was bad. The cinematographer obviously had some experience. I've seen one too many b-movies where the camera did nothing but shoot the actors saying the lines. But the camera in this movie actually moved! The movie also had a pretty decent score. It wasn't a great score, but in movies like these you really need to appreciate what little competence the filmmakers showed.
I'd only recommend this movie if you're like me and find bad movies interesting. Otherwise, stay away from this stinker.