Neus Asensi in The Heart of the Warrior (2000)

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El Corazón del guerrero (2000), translated, The Heart of the Warrior is the best attempt I have seen to bring Dungeons and Dragons to the screen. Fernando Ramallo lives for his nightly D&D game, where he plays the character, Beldar, a great warrior (played by Joel Joan). As the film opens, we are in a dungeon, seeing the fantasy persona, Beldar, and his true love, Sonja (Neus Asensi) in an adventure. The costumes, in some cases, came from the original Conan, and the action has similar humor to the Indiana Jones films. Cut to Ramallo's mother waking him from his fantasy dream. We learn that she is a single parent, and works second shift as a nurse, which explains why his fantasy life is more appealing to him than his real one. His best friend, who also plays in the D&D game, is more of an X Files junkie, mostly because he is hot for Scully.

Ramallo finds his real life Sonja, who, like Quixote's Dulcinea, is a hooker, and all of the other characters in his fantasy life are based on his real-life activities. The problem is, he is having more and more trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy, and ends up purely in his fantasy mode, trying to break a curse. It is in this mode that, on a trip to the parliament (actually shot in parliament chambers), he throws a knife at the Young Democrat Party leader, and becomes wanted by the police. The more he is involved with the fantasy quest, the less we see from the persona.

I consider most films in this genre garbage, but enjoyed this one, so it is at least a C+.

Nudity Report: Neus Asensi shows breasts, buns, and partial bush in several scenes, and wears a very brief leather costume in the warrior sequences.

Critics Vote: The film won several fantasy festival awards, and was nominated for two Goya’s.

IMDb Summary: IMDb readers say 6.0 of 10.


Written by Tuna…courtesy of Scoopy.net