Northmen - a Viking Saga

Think The Warriors, only with Vikings and you will get the action-packed gist of this hack-and-slash chase yarn. Tom Hopper (from TV pirate drama Black Sails) stars as the leader of a band of Norsemen washed up in Scotland and forced to go on the run when they kidnap a feisty princess (Charlie Murphy). Unfortunately, her father doesn't do ransom and sets vicious Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) and his relentless band of mercenaries on them, though the motley crew at least gets help from a mysterious monk (True Blood's Ryan Kwanten), who's more martial than monastic in his actions. OK, it's not particularly original but the life-or-death pursuit takes place in some bracing and spectacular scenery (South Africa doubling for the Scottish Highlands). Ferocious confrontations and crunching fights also keep things vividly absorbing while Darrel D'Silva as a seemingly indestructible Northman has got to be channeling Ernest Borgnine from that 50s Hollywood classic, The Vikings.