Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Nonstop epic fantasy adventure game packed with action, humour and heart! One of the biggest surprises and the funniest movie of the year. There hasn't been a better fantasy film since Warcraft and LotR! I've never played D&D, but it has the feel of any other RPG and that was plenty enough for me to enjoy on the big screen. We've got a likeable bunch of main characters. Chris Pine as lead is admittedly the most redundant as he has no special abilities, but then again he takes care of the humor and he does it well. Michelle Rodriguez has probably the most interesting role here, she is the strongest of all, so she takes care of the contact fights. Justice Smith is a proper magician, but he just needs a good work out to become a full-fledged Mage. Sophia Lillis the druid has a great shapeshifter ability and a delight as well Regé-Jean Page as Paladin was the best fighter and again brought another funny element to the film, shame he didn't get more space. I also liked the villain. Hugh Grant was ordinary, but Daisy Head as the Magus was was really good. The film impresses with a very frantic pace, where it doesn't get boring for a moment, rushes forward like a Shinkansen, has great playful visuals and very good CGI. The action scenes may be smaller, but they are well shot with decent choreography. The fat dragon and the final maze were great. (A promise of a more epic battle perhaps in the eventual sequels?). I must also praise the script, which managed to surprise a few times. Some of the plans and contrivances are very intelligently thought out and playful. The humor is a great draw, where I laughed in good taste almost the entire film – the graveyard scene had me in stitches. If that wasn’t enough, the emotions work too – the whole theater had a tear at the end and I honestly can't remember a fantasy film where the comedy, drama, action and the characters work. A full Package as it should be. I want to see it again immediately and let the second part be on its way. 9/10. (2023-04-04)

It rarely happens that a movie from which I don't expect much pleasantly surprises me to the point of being thrilled. This time, the Americans nailed it and created a genuinely high-quality fantasy, which I love encountering in gaming worlds. The story was well constructed, the acting performances were not wasted, the dialogue had a nice touch of humor, and the action scenes didn't offend me with how they were handled (nor did they lack humor). Hugh Grant's role as the almost arch-villain fit him very well. I missed some blood and unanchored parts of human anatomy here because they are inseparable from the genre. This way, it was almost like a fairytale. A professionally done fairytale. Finally, I know how it would turn out if an owl had sex with a bear after a wild forest party. If you're not a fantasy fan, this may not be the movie for you, but I enjoyed it, and I feel obliged to give it five stars. / "You're getting better. You didn't fly as far." / Lesson learned: Never interfere between a warrior and her potato. (2023-07-01)

A flat storyline with a variation of the same plot seen hundreds of times, but with an excellent group of likeable characters and a truly amazing villain. The whole thing is dynamic, funny with some great scenes (the fat dragon) and a charismatic lead in Chris Pine. It's obvious that it was made by someone who has a feel for the material and a respect for fantasy. The potential for a sequel or saga is there, but next time it should be either darker or more original. (2023-06-30)

I've never played D&D, and the movie adaptations from 2000 and 2012 passed me by (fortinately?), so I approached Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves with a clean slate and as a complete ignoramus. I commend the film for not focusing only on the action-fantasy level, but also for giving enough space to the likeable characters, of which I would single out the snarky bard Edgin and his cruel but sharp friend Holga. The character of Simon was quite unbearable: firstly, I found him annoyingly clumsy and secondly, it's really hard to like the actor. The film could definitely have been a quarter of an hour shorter, but I still enjoyed the screening in the cinema immensely, whether thanks to the aforementioned characters, the regularly dosed action, the demonic Sophina, or more than one humorous scene – the graveyard confrontation with the dead and the with the "chubby" dragon were the most amusing. I believe that if I were a player or fan of the game I would give it full marks, but as a non-player I can honestly say that I would definitely not be averse to a sequel in the future if the quality remains at a similar level. (2023-03-26)

Fantasy with a heart. Here you can clearly see that this is not part of the mass production line of Disney executives, with bored filmmakers counting the days until the end of the shooting; you can see the love that was put into it. Where there's supposed to be a situational joke, it's there at the right time and it cheers you up, where there's supposed to be a bit of a song, it's there and it warms you up. It's chock full of ideas you've always wanted to see on the silver screen, but filmmakers never had the imagination to materialize them. Simply put, an awesome feel-good thing that hasn't been done here ... well, maybe since Matthew Vaughn's Stardust. And Chris Pine, the older and grayer he gets, the more charismatic he becomes, I wish he was in a really big movie. I can even imagine him as the new Bond. (2023-05-19)