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Rollicking 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' scores a critical hit

Glen Weldon

L to R: Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon (Justice Smith) and Edgin (Chris Pine) are hot to trot. Paramount Pictures and eOne hide caption

L to R: Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon (Justice Smith) and Edgin (Chris Pine) are hot to trot.

Even if you don't know a halberd from a hezrou , you'll probably go into Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves thinking you know what to expect.

Because even if you've never experienced the beloved tabletop role-playing game on which the film is based yourself, you do know what a putative blockbuster franchise film looks and feels like in 2023.

You know, in particular, that it can be counted upon to adopt a specific, unvarying and very familiar tone, which by now we can all agree to call Marvel Funny.

Marvel Funny occurs along a spectrum adjacent to, but meaningfully separate from, Actually Funny because it's colder and more calculated. It is calibrated to wink at the audience conspicuously and unceasingly, to encase the spectacular and fantastic action of a given film — super powers, or space battles, or in the present example, spells and monsters — in a protective coating of ironic detachment.

This allows filmmakers to lean into the bombastic, over-the-top spectacle they spend so much money to deliver while ensuring audiences know that everyone involved with the film is in on the joke, that very soon some character or other will come along with a quip — an arch, sardonic, too-writerly quip — to prove that nobody's taking any of this stuff too seriously. It's a formula, a ritual, an attempt to dispel the grim specter of Cringe.

Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons

(It's only reasonable to acknowledge that this cinematic formula is wearing thin. And that it's not entirely fair to call it Marvel Funny, as this approach has been coded into the genetic material of the blockbuster itself from the beginning; you can detect trace elements of it in Jaws , Superman: The Movie and Star Wars .)

So, you're in the theater. The lights go down, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves begins (if you're me, you at this point maybe think to yourself, "We come to this place ... for Magic Missile"), and sure enough, there it is, manifesting right there in the opening seconds of the very first scene: that same, predictable, inescapable approach. Marvel Funny. You were right.

But then, a few seconds later, you start to notice that the film's copious jokes — the quips, yes, but also the visual gags and the dialogue itself — are better, stronger, and funnier than they strictly need to be.

And then, should you allow yourself a moment of reflection, it likely occurs to you how weirdly right it seems, how well that familiar approach seems uniquely attuned to the film's subject. After all, any Dungeons & Dragons session unfolds on two levels simultaneously. There is the world of the game, in which your characters experience epic struggles and extreme violence and suffering unto (and sometimes beyond) death, while above it, there is the world of the table, around which you and your friends sit scarfing hard sourdough pretzels and joking about how badly you're all about to get boned.

So here, Marvel Funny works . It makes a kind of ironclad, ruthlessly meta sense. It helps tremendously that the cast is so deft at tossing off the film's many jokes so they seem like the legitimate product of their given situation instead of some mid-afternoon punch-up session in a dingy Burbank writers' room.

L to R: Doric (Sophia Lillis), Simon (Justice Smith), Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) roll for initiative. Paramount Pictures and eOne hide caption

L to R: Doric (Sophia Lillis), Simon (Justice Smith), Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) roll for initiative.

A game cast fit for a role-playing game movie

The adventuring party at the center of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is led by Chris Pine as Edgin, a bard far too convinced of his talents. It's the kind of role Pine was engineered in some secret subterranean Hollywood breeding facility to play: a character who not only rides the razor's edge between charm and smarm but who sets up housekeeping there.

And speaking of smarm: Hugh Grant, as a rakish rogue, is once again serving us the kind of full-bore, insufferably plummy poshness he gifted the world within Paddington 2 . He's reached the stage of his career where he can spread the ol' smarmalade thick and more power to him. He sure looks like he's having a ball.

As the sullen barbarian Holga, Michelle Rodriguez doesn't get the chance to do a lot that you haven't seen Michelle Rodriguez do before, but she remains great at it, and this time out, she does it in braids. So. There's that.

It's Been a Minute

The game has changed for d&d and 'a league of their own'.

But it's Regé-Jean Page who makes the most of his (too-limited) screen time here. As the noble paladin Xenk, he radiates an amusingly galling breed of virtuousness. (Paladins, for those unfamiliar, are the smug, preening, condescending white knights of the D&D world — a bunch of Frasier Cranes in plate mail.) Page nails the necessary hauteur and supreme confidence while layering them with a guileless sincerity that turns his character into a weapon aimed at Pine's character's every insecurity.

But what will the Normals think?

If the film does well, a large percentage of its audience, perhaps a majority of it, will have come to it unfamiliar with the densely interconnected network of rules, stats and bylaws that make the game what it is. So an important question becomes — what will those uninitiated into the nerdy number-crunching of D&D possibly make of this thing?

The filmmakers — Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who together directed the excellent 2018 film Game Night and co-wrote this script with Michael Gilio — smartly use the game's deep lore to buoy the script, not weigh it down.

'Game Night' Is Winning

If you go into the film knowing the internecine mechanics of D&D gameplay, you will certainly recognize them playing out onscreen — but you miss nothing if you don't.

Worried you'll be bombarded with obscure references to places and characters from the game? You will. But just because the film's so stuffed with Easter eggs you could mash it up with mayo, mustard, onions and celery and serve it on wheat toast, your enjoyment of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn't depend on recognizing them.

Sure, the characters can and do toss out references to, say, a Baldur's Gate here or a Mordenkainen there, but they're only in the script so the nerds in the audience can turn to one another and share knowing looks. If, in their adventures our doughty heroes run into a displacer beast or two, or if a rust monster scuttles over their heads in a dark alley, those Easter eggs for eager D&D fans will serve only as background detail, mere ambience, for everyone else.

With 'The Legend of Vox Machina,' a Dungeons & Dragons web series rolls the dice

The fetch-quests and the furious.

The film's plot is purely, ruthlessly episodic – it comes down to a series of fetch quests: They must go to [place] to talk to [person], who sends them to [other place] to secure the [magical item] that will allow them to access to [still another place], etc. But to complain about the number of fetch quests in a D&D film would be like complaining that a movie about Scrabble features too much spelling.

Given how gleefully Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieve s embraces and exults in its genre elements, it's interesting to note that it's all the stuff geared to making the film accessible to the mainstream that is the most dully generic thing about it.

A plotline involving Edgin's daughter (Chloe Coleman) and his dead wife exists to up the stakes and motivate his actions in the thuddingly predictable manner of Hollywood action movies. There's also so much wet-eyed, lip-quivering dialogue about "family" you can't help but suspect that Michelle Rodriguez brought it with her when she crossed over from the Fast and Furious franchise. Who knows; maybe she didn't quarantine correctly.

But the movie even manages to shake off that mild complaint, given its nature. After all, the game of Dungeons & Dragons is what happens when wildly disparate people come together — both in the fantastical realm of Faerun and around a rickety folding table in your friend Dana's sunken living room.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn't just know that; it finds room to honor it and fully, freely embody it.

Correction March 31, 2023

An earlier version of this review misspelled Faerun as Fearun.

• Movie Review

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is great — you just have to roll with it

Engaging, comical, and unapologetically dorky, honor among thieves occasionally stumbles under its own ambition but ultimately proves that high fantasy doesn’t always have to be highbrow..

By Jess Weatherbed , a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

Share this story

Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves makes two things clear within its first five minutes: it understands its audience and D&D experience isn’t necessary. You’d be forgiven for assuming this was going to be another lore-bloated fantasy epic, something that either fails to appease fans of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game or leans too far into it and confuses the “normies” — or is just plain awful like previous cinematic attempts. But while it’s not perfect, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have managed to serve up a balanced adaptation that’s both effortless to watch while remaining faithful to its grandiloquent source material.

Honor Among Thieves takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a diverse fantasy world that also serves as the campaign setting for official D&D modules — which means a lot of locations throughout the movie will be familiar to those who’ve played the game. In the cell of a frost-entombed prison, we’re introduced to the charming and overconfident bard, Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), and Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), a brutish yet motherly barbarian and Edgin’s best friend. The pair sets out to rescue Edgin’s daughter, Kira, from Forge Fitzwilliam, a former accomplice-turned-conman who has instilled himself as the villainous Lord of Neverwinter. Forge is played by Hugh Grant, who leans into his usual “bumbling Englishman” persona for the role, while Daisy Head provides some more serious villainy as the Red Wizard Sofina.

Edgin and Holga are later joined by a timorous half-elf sorcerer played by Justice Smith, a seriously jaded tiefling druid played by Sophia Lillis, and Regé-Jean Page, who leans all the way into our Bridgerton -fueled expectations as a beautiful, swaggering paladin. But where his Bridgerton character epitomized every romantic leading man, this guy is a walking parody of every epic fantasy hero to have graced the genre. Honor Among Thieves makes it very clear that it isn’t trying to be some byzantine fantasy epic. Beneath the layers of its magical, medieval-inspired setting, it’s just a relatively straightforward heist movie — assemble a lovable group of skilled individuals, break into a few vaults, and defeat the bad guys.

Thankfully, Honor Among Thieves also manages to be specifically D&D -flavored without being too dorky or cringey. It exhibits incredible self-awareness, navigating through recognizable tropes from the titular tabletop roleplaying game without being obtusely meta about the whole thing. In a real game, players are at the mercy of their dice: randomized numbers dictate if your action succeeds (casting spells, flirting with guards, etc.) or fails (falling into traps, offending guards with your terrible flirting). The film alludes to this through manufactured spontaneity — almost every interaction feels ad-libbed, as though spoken off the cuff following a dice roll. The performances of Pine and Grant are especially notable for injecting quick-witted humor into otherwise stale tropes. It feels refreshingly subversive.

Appeasing nerds shouldn’t be a box-ticking exercise, but Honor Among Thieves should at least be commended for the sheer number of D&D Easter eggs crammed into its 134-minute runtime. There are multiple dungeons, multiple dragons, multiple treasure hoards, and multiple buff women accompanied by a generous smattering of references to what feels like at least half of the game’s entire spell list and bestiary. Fans of the franchise won’t be left wanting, and most inclusions are incredibly faithful to the D&D sourcebooks (not counting the whole “druids can’t wild shape into an owlbear” debacle).

The CGI used to depict canonical D&D regions like Icewind Dale and the Underdark is decent enough, as is its application throughout the film’s various displays of magic and spellwork. But practical effects are where Honor Among Thieves will win over the really hardcore fantasy nerds. The more bestial races from the D&D universe are portrayed using actual monster suits or puppets, as if plucked right out of something like The Dark Crystal . It all feels like an homage to sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s, and you feel it in all the ornately detailed costumes, prosthetic makeup, and actual animatronics. And unlike too many Marvel films, it still feels grounded in reality, so the CGI enhances more than it detracts.

Honor Among Thieves has to appeal to both audiences: those who are familiar with D&D and those who aren’t. It clearly excels in the former, but while it does ultimately achieve the latter, it doesn’t completely avoid the pitfalls experienced by similarly ambitious lore-heavy IPs that attempted to break into cinema. (I’m looking at you, Warcraft .)

Honor Among Thieves ’ storyline progresses at breakneck speed, refusing to waste precious minutes of pacing to provide background on the various locations, items, or characters in order to accommodate the endless deluge of D&D references. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy managed to patiently walk its viewers through J.R.R. Tolkien’s expansive lore — Honor Among Thieves offers no such courtesy. Stereotypically fantasy-sounding phrases like “Faerun,” “Gracklstugh,” and “Emerald Enclave” often whiff by during on-screen conversations, rarely repeated or providing insight into their significance.

You don’t actually need background on any of the references peppered throughout Honor Among Thieves to enjoy the movie. It’s still very clear what’s unfolding on-screen regardless of the jargon. But its dedication to appeasing the game’s nerdy fan base doesn’t excuse the other cinema sins that tarnish it. The storyline is incredibly predictable for a franchise that prides itself on creativity, and most of the characters feel underdeveloped because the film attempts to cover too much with the time it has.

This is especially true concerning its villains. Grant’s portrayal of Forge as “lord bad guy” is a lot of fun, but there are a lot of other villains in this — to the point that his character sometimes gets lost as increasingly sinister characters keep popping up to take up the mantle of the “real” Big Bad. There are simply too many malevolent cooks tampering with this fantasy-flavored soup.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is certainly let down by the scale of its own ambition in places, but I still had fun — more fun than I’ve had watching a fantasy movie in years, actually. It’s incredibly funny and overdelivers on the necessary ingredients to appease anyone who’s ever rolled a 20-sided die. You can even forgive the slightly chaotic pacing for accurately capturing how it feels to play through a real D&D campaign.

For those who don’t partake in the game, Honor Among Thieves is still perfectly enjoyable because it doesn’t take itself seriously. Yes, it’s flippantly humorous and self-aware, but it isn’t pretentious about it. If anything, Honor Among Thieves is unashamedly camp, vibing closer to the likes of Shrek and The Princess Bride than your typically hardcore action-adventure movie. It’s a reminder that the fantasy genre is still allowed to be goofy. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying stoic highbrow fantasy, of course, but watching Daley and Goldstein’s “Bardians of the Galaxy” ensemble bumble around with well-mannered zombies and obscenely pudgy dragons is a breath of fresh air.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hits theaters on March 31st.

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‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Review: The Role-Playing Fantasy Game Becomes an Irresistible Mash-Up of Everything It Inspired

Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Regé-Jean Page rule in an adventure that turns pop-fantasy derivativeness into its own form of fun.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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Introducing “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” the lavish hyperkinetic popcorn fairy tale that kicked off SXSW this evening, the film’s co-directors, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, told the audience that they had designed the movie to appeal to hardcore D&D players — and also to those who know absolutely nothing about the game. This came as a relief to me, since what I know about Dungeons & Dragons you could put on the head of a…well, I know so little that I can’t even come up with a proper D&D reference with which to spin that cliché.

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Kira, however, has come under the spell of Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant, chewing voraciously on every line), a scoundrel who rules over a walled city, and has convinced Kira that he can be a better dad to her than her own duplicitous father. Edgin wants to put his family back together, and if he can lay his hands on the Tablet of Reawakening, he’ll have the ability to bring his wife back to life and restore all that was lost. But the Tablet is locked up in a vault in the city, and he needs to find the Helmet of Disjunction — which can stop time — to do it. Are you with me?

“Honor Among Thieves” keeps introducing rules and gambits that interlock with pleasing logic but, as often as not, turn out to be MacGuffins. Yet they do their job — they seduce us, for a few scenes, into seeming as if they matter, at which point the film is only too happy to move on. Daley and Goldstein work with a precision that satisfies our inner megaplex classicist, yet it’s part of the film’s design that it never stops throwing things at us.

As Edgin forms a fellowship with such winningly offbeat characters as the insecure sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and the shape-shifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis), “Honor Among Thieves” becomes a gallivanting magic-trick action movie with a dragon so pudgy the characters make a joke of it, an undead cult of Red Wizards who rule their minions with billows of crimson smoke like something out of “The Wizard of Oz,” and a scene of crowd-pleasing macabre cheekiness in which old grey skeletal corpses are raised from the dead so they can be asked five questions, at which point they collapse back into oblivion. The dialogue in a scene like this one has a precocious snap. The script is by Daley, Goldstein, and Michael Gilio, who invest each encounter — even if it’s with a corpse — with a charge of ego.

That said, there’s enough snark and visual zap on display that we may feel like we’re gorging on candy corn, and that we’re hungry for something a little more soulful. It arrives, in the person of Regé-Jean Page , who shows up as Xenk, who is noble in such an old-fashioned stoic corn-dog way (he can’t process irony, let alone a phrase like “son-of-a-bitch”) that he lends the movie the note of romantic valor we want. Page acts with a dark-liquid-eyed savoir faire that’s delectable, and for a while he and Pine become an ace comedy team: Xenk the man too suavely heroic to crack a joke, Edgin the one who makes a joke out of everything, including Xenk’s nobility.

There’s an intricacy to the staging of “Honor Among Thieves” that helps balance out the roller-coaster derivativeness of the plot. We go with it, even as we know we’re gorging on a succulent overdose of fantasy dessert. The gladiatorial battle inside a maze at the climax is sensationally well done, from the panther with Venus-flytrap tentacles to the treasure boxes along the way to the giant cubes of Jell-O that help save the day. The monster at the end? To me that was one demon too many. But no matter. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” should be a major hit, because it knows how to tap into our nostalgia — not just for a game, but for the entire fantasy culture it helped to spawn. It’s the movie itself that’s role-playing.

Reviewed at SXSW (World Premiere), March 10, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 134 MIN.

• Production: A Paramount Pictures release, in association with Entertainment One, of an Allspark Pictures, Hasbro Studios production. Producers: Jeremy Latcham, Brian Goldner, Nick Meyer. Executive producers: Denis L. Stewart, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Chris Pine, Zev Foreman, Greg Mooradian.
• Crew: Directors: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley. Screenplay: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Michael Gillio. Camera: Barry Peterson. Editor: Dan Lebental. Music: Lorne Balfe.
• With: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, Daisy Head, Jason Wong.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Reviews

Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is a pleasant surprise that I didn’t know I needed.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2024

At times the film dumps so much magic-babble on the audience that it feels like sitting down to episode 7 of season 5 of Game of Thrones without watching the proceeding episodes

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 5, 2024

Chris Pine and company make this undeniably fun.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2024

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves isn’t just one of the best films of 2023, it’s one of the best fantasy films in decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 25, 2023

It has dungeons, dragons, magnificent castles, evil wizards, close-call adventures and more; it takes you right where you want to go, but with a teeny bit extra... like the extra toffee you get from your grandma.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2023

D&D is a delight that even those unfamiliar with the game will enjoy immensely. It's packed with enough action, laughs, and heart to entertain any family whose parents aren't still mired in a Satanic panic mindset.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 8, 2023

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is an unexpectedly delightful, lighthearted, enchanting adventure. At its heart, the film encourages reluctant heroes to fight for fairness, equality, and justice.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2023

A pleasant surprise. A great mixture of world building , humor, & action to make this one of the most entertain movies of the year.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

Writer and director duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”) and cowriter Michael Gilio execute well-worn tropes and platitudes in a lighthearted, heartwarming, satisfying way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

I went in with low-expectations, but was thoroughly charmed, partly because of the performances of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 10, 2023

Directors Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley have used a balance of big action sequences with a continuous barrage of one-liners and sight gags to come up with a fun film.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 9, 2023

Buckets of fun, with great performances and genuine laugh-out loud moments...there may be audiences rooting around for substance but similar a D&D game, they should just roll with it and enjoy themselves.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 28, 2023

Chris Pine is the MVP of an incredibly charming cast with such natural chemistry that the comedic moments become truly hilarious - the graveyard scene will be replayed over and over again.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 25, 2023

A feast for the eyes, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” excels in not taking itself too seriously but allowing viewers to enjoy a fun experience.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Brought back memories of my childhood when I would run around the playground and pretend I was a knight will all of my friends. A laugh out loud love letter to all geeks and nerds out there. The entire cast is great but Rodriguez steals the entire show!

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

It marks the return of the kind of blockbuster that rarely graces the silver screen today, one that grounds its awe-inspiring spectacle in sincerity and character.

In essence, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a crowdpleaser in the best of ways, resuscitating overplayed tropes with the right amount of thrills, humor, and heart.

The comedic route may not sit well with those expecting anything D&D related to be consistently serious. Yet, anyone who’s ever played a game, imaginary or video based, will know humor is as crucial to the whole experience as sheer skill.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a perfectly imperfect movie made for the fans. It is an undeniable hoot and a half that, apart from the odd Owl Bear, will please most tabletop role-players.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 23, 2023

With just the right mix of action, fantasy and humor delivered by characters that are impossible not to fall in love with it is easy to see why many cinema lovers will be calling for a sequel to be made as soon as possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 22, 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review

A roll of the dice finds humor in a fantasy role-playing world..

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves opens in theaters on March 31, 2023.

Even if you've never rolled a 20-sided die, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fun-filled and wholly accessible fantasy adventure that leans into the spectacle and silliness of D&D campaigns. Sure, there are plenty of in-jokes and Easter eggs to delight hardcore role players, but they never come at the risk of losing newcomers. It’s a movie that’s rich with imaginative quests and colorful characters, and together they bring realms from Baldur's Gate to Icewind Dale alive – like a tamer, family-friendly version of the excellent The Legend of Vox Machina animated series.

The cast is very clearly having a blast playing familiar character types you'd select from at the start of any home D&D campaign – in this case, a heist-like quest to rescue a kidnapped daughter from the clutches of a treacherous lord. Chris Pine shines brightest as the wisecracking Edgin, a lute-strumming man with all the plans – plans which usually need a few iterations, adding more humor as he improvises on the fly. Michelle Rodriguez is her typically badass self as the axe-swinging warrior Holga, and Regé-Jean Page steals scenes as the virtuous paladin Xenk, who speaks in eye-rolling prophecies. Everyone – including Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis, respectively playing an amusing self-doubting sorcerer not-so-supreme and a straight-faced druid who doesn't trust humans – falls into rhythm as unexpected teammates with a common goal and contrasting personalities.

Writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein emphasize lighthearted entertainment that lifts Honor Among Thieves above cumbersome lore. Sprawling maps with unrecognizable territory names tease the grand universe where the story (co-written by Michael Gilio) takes place, but the actual essential information is easy to digest. As Red Wizards corrupt less powerful innocents or the hero party must explore underlands to search for hidden artifacts with special abilities, the spectacular nature of lava lakes or battlefields where fireballs rain immediately catches the eye. There's never a moment where all the fantasy world-building becomes overwhelming, since we’re only told what's necessary.

Honor Among Thieves is a visual feast of fantasy landscapes, from luscious treetop villages where woodland folk reside to quaint towns that resemble architecture with favorable comparisons to The Shire in The Lord of the Rings. There's fantastic practical costume work that showcases dragon-human hybrids and furry tiger people, and a graveyard scene oozes Sam Raimi's dark humor (think Army of Darkness) where corpses – in top-notch zombie makeup – come alive to be asked questions by Pine's impatient company. There’s also plenty of digital effects that produce adorably chubby dragons and all kinds of fantasy races made from different species hybrids with scales, fur, or gills. A few choice sequences feature floating orbs or other animated objects that are less convincing, but those rougher moments are far outnumbered by all the visual effects wizardry.

What's the best fantasy movie/TV universe?

The two biggest problems with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves are its length and how all the best moments rest on the shoulders of just two of the main characters. While Daley and Goldstein are able to find cheeky humor by poking fun at dungeon masters who overcomplicate puzzles or make challenges obscenely absurd, running over two hours leaves too much time for comedy that can fall flat. And while there's plenty of room for an all-timer cameo as Holga visits her ex-boyfriend, and Hugh Grant chews through dialogue as the dastardly lord, serving as a splendid main antagonist (although it’s a bit more complicated than that) Honor Among Thieves is never better than when Pine and Page take control. When they step back the energy dips, and what's otherwise a rollicking castle crasher becomes a more mundane series of sword and shield clashes.

That said, Pine and Page are so charming as medieval bards and soldiers that the lulls of Honor Among Thieves feel less disruptive. Be ready for well-earned belly laughs scattered between Pine's likeness used as a distraction or Page's hatred of irony. Not to downplay action sequences where Lillis' druid morphs into an Owl Bear that bashes heads or when Smith's wizard throws wind gusts from his hands, which are thrilling moments. Daley and Goldsmith just put comedy first in most instances – these are the filmmakers behind the hilarious comedy Game Night, and they make sure we don't forget.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Spells, Creatures, and Other D&D Easter Eggs

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves may not be as epic as The Lord of the Rings or as treacherous as Game of Thrones, but there's nothing wrong with being the jokier sibling of the fantasy adventure genre. Writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein display a passion for Wizards of the Coast's famous tabletop roleplaying game through humor that both roasts and respects dungeon masters everywhere. You're here for the mystical creatures, magical enchantments, and everything Chris Pine does as a laughable yet persistent bard. It's a bit longer than its storytelling can comfortably sustain, but special effects go a long way in holding attention as dragon's flames, snarling monsters, or other flashy effects and costumes often dazzle and delight. There's plenty to honor here beyond sticky-fingered thieves, which hopefully is the start of an on-screen universe that only gets stronger as quests continue.

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‘dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves’ review: chris pine anchors a buoyant and accessible adaptation.

The actor stars alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Regé-Jean Page and Sophia Lillis in Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley's highly anticipated adaptation of the popular game.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

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Prince harry reveals all in itv doc on tabloid lawsuits, saying u.k. press is "why i won't bring meghan back", prince harry, hugh grant set for itv documentary on phone hacking scandal 'tabloids on trial', dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves.

The lore surrounding Dungeons & Dragons film adaptations is outmatched only by the lore surrounding the game itself. Developed in the early 1970s by Gary Gyax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons’ commercial success inaugurated modern role-playing games. It also influenced a generation of creators. Jon Favreau told the Los Angeles Times in 2008 that it strengthened his imagination and storytelling abilities. Ta-Nehisi Coates has written about how D&D taught him about language. And various figures in Hollywood, including a showrunner for HBO’s Game of Thrones , have cited the importance of the game to their creative lives.

Early attempts to translate the magic of the tabletop game to the screen flopped (see Courtney Solomon’s 2000 Dungeons & Dragons ), but Goldstein and Daley were bold enough to try again. Their efforts will surely meet a better fate than their predecessors’. This version of Dungeons & Dragons not only checks the boxes of a satisfying studio blockbuster; it arrives at a cultural moment that embraces — even fiends for — the epic fantasy adventure.

We meet the hopeful bard Edgin ( Chris Pine ) and his best friend Holga ( Michelle Rodriguez ), a reserved barbarian, near the end of their second year in prison. They are up for pardon, which means they must argue their case against a council. Edgin’s appeal lays the ground for the necessary backstory; through his florid tale (he’s a bard after all), we learn about his daughter Kira (played by Chloe Coleman), his dead wife, how he and Holga met and teamed up to commit petty theft, and how their last heist went awry.

They manage to get out of prison — though not in the way you might expect — and are soon off to reunite with Kira and their friends in Neverwinter. The city they come upon is markedly different from the one they left two years ago. Their friend Forge ( Hugh Grant ), whom Edgin tasked with caring for Kira in his absence, now rules the land. And Kira doesn’t trust her father, who she thinks abandoned her for untold riches. Edgin can’t believe his fate, and suspects that more sinister forces are afoot in this new world order.

The actors who embody these wacky heroes and villains are the heart of Dungeons & Dragons : Their performances are lively, robust and well-judged. Pine and Rodriguez make for a particularly enjoyable duo as they volley light jabs and break the tensest moments with their teasing asides. Even as they repeat blunders and missteps, these adventurers are worth rooting for.

The drawback of a film having as good a time with itself as Dungeons & Dragons is in the narrative, which becomes too baggy and drags in the middle. As the journey grows more treacherous, the group’s adventures resemble a blur of swords piercing flesh and dragons hunting for their next meal. Edgin’s quippy revelations don’t land as sharply. The confrontations exhaust. Holga’s comments begin to sound one-note, and patience wears thin with Simon’s diffidence and Doric’s indifference. Those more tapped into the world of the game might not share the same feelings, but the film could lose some neophytes at this point.

Thankfully, the threat of the closing credits enlivens Dungeons & Dragons ’ third act. It’s an energetic, if predictable, conclusion that restores our faith and confidence in Goldstein and Daly’s vision.

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‘dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves’ review: everything i wanted from a d&d movie.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

From the very first trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I suspected we might be in for a treat. When the trailer dropped last summer, I noted that it looked “surprisingly great” and then I tried hard to keep my expectations in check. I’ve been down this road before, and pretty recently. I had my hopes up for The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power and we all know how that turned out. Then there was the Willow Disney Plus series, which left me heartbroken.

Far too often these days, movies and TV shows are a huge disappointment, especially when they’re adaptations or sequels. The creators of The Rings Of Power clearly didn’t understand Tolkien. The creators of Willow created a show that feels nothing whatsoever like the original movie. In fantasy especially this seems like a problem. I’m not even a big fan of The Wheel Of Time books but the show mangled that adaptation as well.

Well I’m here to tell you that Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons film has avoided all the modern pitfalls of botched adaptations as well as the shortcomings that plagued fantasy movies of old (including the previous D&D movie which was, to put it mildly, an embarrassing mess). Instead, Honor Among Thieves succeeds for many of the same reasons The Legend Of Vox Machina works so well.

It’s written by people who clearly love D&D. The spirit and humor and silliness and adventure that a good session of tabletop gaming consist of all carry over into this film in the best possible way. From references to classic D&D locations along the Sword Coast like Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate, to magical items and monsters, the movie is a lovingly crafted homage to what makes D&D so great.

Better yet, while non-D&D players might not get every inside joke, the terrific characters and swashbuckling adventure are plenty to keep moviegoers of all ages entertained. It’s exciting, often hilarious and the 2 hour and 20 minute runtime manages to feel just right. Indeed, perhaps the highest praise I can give the picture is this: I will be going back to see it again in theaters, something I almost never do. I went to a showing Sunday that was for Amazon Prime members only with my regular D&D group and our kids, and everyone walked out of the movie gushing. We are not the easiest bunch to please, either.

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I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’ll give you some vague highlights:

• There’s a dragon scene that had the whole theater rolling with laughter.
• The lawful good paladin character, Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page) is hilariously perfect in every way. It was during his scenes that I became certain that the people behind this movie were real D&D players and fans. Only a Dungeons & Dragons player could write such a pitch-perfect lawful good paladin.
• There’s something magical about all these D&D references coming to life, from The Red Wizards of Thay to the fact that Druids are super over-powered in the game. Even Elminster Aumar makes an appearance.
• Chris Pine as the ‘harper’ Edgin Darvis and Michelle Rodriguez as the barbarian Holga Kilgore are wonderful and have great buddy chemistry. There’s a moment when Edgin starts breaking into song and you think the gruff barbarian will be annoyed and then she just joins right in. It’s great.
• Rounding out the cast we have Justice Smith as the lousy wizard, Simon; Sophia Lillis as the Tiefling Druid, Doric; Hugh Grant as the opportunistic con-man, Forge; and Daisy Head as the mysterious sorceress, Sofina. It’s a great cast and makes for a fun adventuring party with some delicious antagonists.
• Bradley Cooper has a cameo that absolutely slays. I won’t spoil it. Trust me, it’s hilarious. A very small cameo. Very, very small—but it lands big.
• There’s a Staff of Hither and Thither that’s taken directly from the Portal games and it’s awesome.
• Speaking of magic, it’s all extremely creative and fun. There are none of those silly ‘two magic-beam duels’ you see in so many movies and shows these days. The CGI is also quite good, though it’s the creativity of the fights and spells that really make the action fun.
• I could go on and on but again, I don’t want to spoil too much. Go and see it!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is surprisingly great, exceeding all of my expectations and delivering one of the best fantasy movies in years. It's the perfect homage to D&D created by people who clearly care about tabletop gaming. Moments of emotional poignancy and earnestness never come off as cheesy, but help lend the adventure—and adventurers—more depth and texture. And the humor makes you feel like you’re right there rolling dice with characters you hope to adventure with well into the future.

Speaking of which, there’s plenty of room for sequels. Or even other films in different settings like Ravenloft or Dragonlance. If this is the quality we can expect, I’d show up to each and every one. My only hope is that if this does well enough at the box office, Paramount doesn’t rush things and treats any future installments with the same obvious love and care that it put into this one. I suppose that’s my fear and my hope all wrapped up in one.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hits theaters on March 31st. Whether you play D&D or not, please don’t miss this one. It really is a wonderful film and deserves the biggest screen you can find. I’ll be back for round two on opening weekend.

As always, I’d love it if you’d follow me here on this blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel and my Substack so you can stay up-to-date on all my TV, movie and video game reviews and coverage. Thanks!

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‘Dungeons & Dragons’ movie scores, thanks to perfect tone, spot-on casting

Chris pine, michelle rodriguez have terrific buddy-movie chemistry in fantasy film that deftly balances high-stakes action, warm drama and clever comedy..

A young wizard (Justice Smith, center) joins a band of rebels headed by Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) and Edgin (Chris Pine) in “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”

Paramount Pictures

Full disclosure, I was never a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast back in the day, as my tabletop gaming pursuits were more along the lines of Sure Shot Hockey, Cadaco’s BAS-KET and Strat-O-Matic Baseball—but I know the basics of D&D, and I appreciate its enormous popularity, which has extended far beyond the gaming world.

Still, when you’re making an ambitious, large-budget adaptation, in order for it to succeed, you’ve got to reach millions who aren’t familiar with the source material, whether you’re interpreting a board game, a video game, a book or a popular song, and yes, they’ve made movies from pop songs, haven’t you ever seen “Take This Job and Shove It” or “Born in East L.A.?” Think of all the people who became addicted to “Game of Thrones” without reading a page of George R.R. Martin’s books, or who were enthralled by “The Last of Us” without ever playing the game.

Which brings us to the good news: Even if you’re never once rolled the dice in the role-playing game, there’s a solid chance you’ll enjoy the whiz-bang fantasy adventure that is “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.” Co-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, working from a script they penned with Michael Gilio, have struck the right balance between high-stakes action, warm drama and clever comedy in a consistently engaging, mostly family-friendly romp that features some of the most spot-on casting of any film so far this year. From the moment each of the main characters steps into the story, we’re thinking: Yep, that’s the right actor for that role.

Chris Pine, who has the megawatt smile and the stubbornly perfect hair of a matinee idol from a bygone era, lends his self-deprecating presence to the role of one Edgin Darvis, a member of the Harpers, an organization of spies and thieves who have a kind of rebellious, Robin Hood group mentality. Edgin’s penchant for unnecessary risk-taking leads to an evil and powerful cabal known as the Red Wizards executing his wife, and eventually lands Edgin and his best friend, the fearless warrior Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), in prison. (The cheeky overall tone of “Dungeons” is quickly established when Edgin and Holga execute a daring escape during a hearing before the prison board; they’re just out of earshot when a parole board member calls out that they’ve actually been approved for release.)

Off we go on our adventure in some sort of medieval-fantasy era, with the impressive sets and the inevitable CGI setting the tone. (There are a lot of weird creatures with jarring appearances roaming and flitting around.) Edgin and Holga learn their former ally, the duplicitous Forge Fitzwilliam (cue Hugh Grant to start hamming it up) has risen to power and has also become the de facto father to Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). Why, that rat Forge Fitzwilliam! Now it’s time for Edgin to make a plan, because after all, Dungeons & Dragons is all about making plans to save the day, and adjusting those plans accordingly along the way, yes?

Edgin and Holga form a team that includes the gifted but insecure young wizard Simon (Justice Smith); the shapeshifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis), who for the most part doesn’t trust humans, and the impossibly handsome, ridiculously heroic paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page), who is almost too good to be true but has zero sense of humor, doesn’t understand irony and will bore you to tears with his grand proclamations about how one should live one’s life. They each have different goals, but the elaborate and sometimes dizzying plot boils down to this ragtag but determined band somehow defeating the nefarious Forge Fitzwilliam—and his infinitely more dangerous partner in death and destruction, the Red Wizard known as Sofina (Daisy Head), a pure psychopath with seemingly unlimited powers.

Regé-Jean Page (right, with Jason Wong) plays a paladin with no sense of humor.

Many of the battle sequences in “Honor Among Thieves” are serviceable at best, but there’s usually a nifty twist, e.g., there’s a voracious dragon who is so oversized and heavy he could be on a show called “My 6,000-lb. Dragon Life.” The humor is also crackling good, as evidenced by a hilarious sequence set in a graveyard involving reanimated corpses that can answer exactly five questions before they’re dead again. It’s a scene worthy of a Monty Python movie, pulled off with great panache.

Still, the most valuable asset in this film is the cast. Pine and Rodriguez have terrific buddy-movie chemistry, while the young actors Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis are excellent in their respective roles and have their own vibe, including the possibility of romance between Simon and Doric. In a relatively limited role, Regé-Jean Page effortlessly steals every scene he’s in, while Daisy Head is legit terrifying as Sofina and Hugh Grant does his Hugh Grant thing as the ludicrous and terrible Forge Fitzwilliam. This isn’t the first time someone has attempted an adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s by far the best.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review: A Critical Hit For The Table Top Game’s Return To The Big Screen

The dungeons & dragons movie brings the game to life by focusing on the fun that comes from making it up as you go along..

Dungeons and Dragons is simultaneously one of the easiest and most complicated IPs to adapt into a film. On the one hand, D&D is specifically designed to be open and accessible in a way that allows anybody to tell basically any story they can imagine. But with that in mind, how do you make a movie feel like a Dungeons and Dragons movie and not simply a generic fantasy story?

Release Date:  March 31, 2023 Directed By:  John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein Written By:  John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein and Michael Gilio Starring:  Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant. Rating:  PG-13 for fantasy action/violence and some language Runtime:  134 minutes

In the case of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , this is largely accomplished by blending the traditional fantasy action you would expect from a film of that title,  with something traditional fantasy movies don't usually have but that any D&D player will be familiar with: the fact that things can get awfully silly.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves introduces us to Edgin the bard ( Chris Pine ) and Holga the barbarian (Michelle Rodriquez). They’ve spent two years in prison for attempting to steal from the Harpers, Edgin’s former faction of noble heroes. This has separated him from his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman), and since Edgin’s wife died many years ago, the bard needs to get back home.

The duo escapes and discovers that a former member of their crew, Forge ( Hugh Grant ) has raised Kira as his own, and used their ill-gotten gains to make himself the Lord of Neverwinter. He’s also partnered with a wizard named Sofina (Daisy Head) who clearly has plans of her own. Edgin and Holga must form a new crew to get Kira back, and maybe steal some of his wealth for themselves. They enlist another former ally, sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), and a Druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis) with a score to settle to their cause. They also get help from Paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page).

Honor Among Thieves has plenty for Dungeons and Dragons fans, but it will be enjoyable even if you’ve never rolled a d20.

Fans of Dungeons and Dragons will feel very at home watching Honor Among Thieves . All the names of places and monsters and spells and everything else come right out of the core rulebooks for playing the game. The references and easter eggs are quite plentiful for those people who will recognize them.

The best elements of the game brought to life, however, are even more subtle than that. It’s the way that the adventure results in the heroes going on a necessary side quest before they can progress toward their primary objective, because of course they do. It’s the way that Xenk the Paladin, who is not technically a member of the adventuring party, is incredibly overpowered compared to our heroes, and speaks as if he belongs in a different movie... because he's an NPC who has been inserted into the quest to take the characters down a particular path. The elements in Honor Among Thieves that are taken from the game go beyond the surface level. 

At the same time, nothing about the tabletop RPG is required reading to enjoy the film. Anybody who has seen the Lord of the Rings or just about any other traditional fantasy story already knows enough to follow along. While the film makes a point to introduce you to the iconic owlbear by name, it never wastes its time reciting the stat block for a displacer beast or a gelatinous cube. If you know what it is, great, and if not, the movie will explain everything you need to know within the context of the story, with no massive info dumps required.

Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves expertly balances humor, heart, and action.

The main thing that sets Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves apart from those more traditional fantasy stories is that it’s actually quite funny. This is probably where the film best exemplifies its source material because while D&D most of the time, plays things straight when it comes to the actual story, things can sometimes get a little ridiculous when it comes to the players.

Sometimes when Edgin and his party execute a plan, things go mostly as expected, and you get a well-choreographed action sequence or a cool heist moment. Other times, the plan does not survive for more than a moment before everything goes to hell in a hand cart and the characters have to improvise fast to avoid ending up dead – just as might happen during any player campaign.

The balance of action and humor is handled excellently by directors and co-screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. At no point does the humor make the action any less exciting and the action, when taken seriously, never makes the humor feel out of place. The old joke is that every group of D&D players thinks they’re the Fellowship of the Ring , but they end up as Monty Python and the Holy Grail . Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves walks the line between the two perfectly.

The ensemble cast of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the perfect adventuring party.

While Chris Pine’s Edgin is the main character of our story, and his arc gives us the emotional throughline of the story, a proper Dungeons and Dragons story is an ensemble, and Honor Among Thieves handles this one remarkably well. Each member of the group of heroes is three-dimensional (ish) and each one has a character arc. None of those arcs are particularly deep or complex, as the movie has a lot of ground to cover in its two-hour and 15-minute run time, but everybody has one, and they are complete, and that's something.

Michelle Rodriguez gets to kick all of the ass and she appears to have an absolutely fantastic time while she does it. But she also gets to show a vulnerable side that, while it’s played for laughs, still works. Sophia Lillis’ druid Doric has the least satisfying arc as her character is given less time to develop than the others, but she also has one of the best action sequences in the film to herself, so we’ll call it square.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , being a modern tentpole product, leaves itself open to potential sequels, but like any D&D sourcebook, could just as easily launch any number of spinoffs using new characters and a fresh adventure. There are near-endless permutations of this material if there is an audience there for it all.

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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Dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 25 Reviews
• Kids Say 29 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Cast elevates funny game-based adventure; action violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an action-packed comedy/fantasy adventure based on the classic role-playing game. The story follows a team of misfit bandits led by Edgin the Bard (Chris Pine) and his warrior best friend, Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), who must work together…

Why Age 12+?

Lots of fantasy action violence, with many perilous life-or-death moments that l

Occasional but not frequent use of words including "s--t," "stupid," "bastards,"

In flashbacks, a married couple court, embrace, and kiss. In two scenes, they're

Inspired by a game/product line. Also lots of offline merchandise and tie-ins.

A few scenes of the team in taverns where adults drink. One character makes refe

Any Positive Content?

Movie, like game that inspired it, values teamwork, perseverance, courage. The p

The team might be thieves, but they're brave and loyal. They're flawed, but each

The ensemble of characters is racially diverse, with people from different backg

Violence & Scariness

Lots of fantasy action violence, with many perilous life-or-death moments that lead to destruction and death (including one major character). Several brawls, battles, and one-on-one fights using knives, swords, fists, crossbows, and magic. A woman is such a strong warrior that she routinely takes on multiple people at a time. A red wizard uses magic to cause lots of damage to people and places; she kills people with a magical spell that ends them nearly instantly. Poisoning. A character has flashbacks to how his wife was poisoned by a wizard's blade. A beloved character is seriously injured.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional but not frequent use of words including "s--t," "stupid," "bastards," "son of a bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

In flashbacks, a married couple court, embrace, and kiss. In two scenes, they're shown in bed together, talking and cuddling. The youngest team members flirt with each other and by the end are clearly interested.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

A few scenes of the team in taverns where adults drink. One character makes references to another character's drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie, like game that inspired it, values teamwork, perseverance, courage. The plot demonstrates that even thieves can act according to a code of honor and be loyal, as well as act toward a greater good. One character's story arc conveys that it's important to have confidence in yourself in order to achieve desired results. One subtle message, thanks to Edgin and Holga, is that men and women can be close platonic friends.

Positive Role Models

The team might be thieves, but they're brave and loyal. They're flawed, but each has reasons to work together. Edgin and Holga both love Kira and want to keep her safe. Doric wants to protect the tribe that took her in. Simon wants to prove he's capable of something greater than he imagines.

Diverse Representations

The ensemble of characters is racially diverse, with people from different backgrounds, species, and/or communities. The actors who play them are similarly diverse: Chris Pine and Sophia Lillis are White, Michelle Rodriguez is Dominican, Justice Smith is multiracial, and Regé-Jean Page is half-Zimbabwean, half-White. The women on the team are confident and physically powerful, and discuss more than romance with each other. The villain is a woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an action-packed comedy/fantasy adventure based on the classic role-playing game. The story follows a team of misfit bandits led by Edgin the Bard ( Chris Pine ) and his warrior best friend, Holga ( Michelle Rodriguez ), who must work together to stop an evil wizard. Expect lots of fantasy action violence, including sword, crossbow, and fistfighting; poisoning; and magical battles that instantly injure or even kill. Lots of life-or-death moments lead to death and destruction, as well as one major character death. Occasional strong language includes "s--t," "bastard," and "son of a bitch." Romance is limited to flirting and flashbacks that show a married couple affectionate, kissing briefly, and lying in bed cuddling. The story features a diverse cast and powerful women characters. Although they're thieves, (most of) the characters are loyal to one another and help more than just themselves. Hugh Grant , Justice Smith , and Regé-Jean Page co-star. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (25)
• Kids say (29)

Based on 25 parent reviews

What's the Story?

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES introduces viewers to imprisoned best friends Edgin ( Chris Pine ), a disgraced harper, and Holga ( Michelle Rodriguez ), a disgraced barbarian, who are pleading their case for early release to a judicial board. Edgin explains that they were caught after being double-crossed by a villainous wizard, Sofina ( Daisy Head ), during a heist that they only agreed to do in order to raise Edgin's late wife from the dead. After escaping from prison, the friends try to reunite with Edgin's tween daughter, Kira ( Chloe Coleman ). But they discover that their former partner-in-crime, Forge ( Hugh Grant ), now lord of Neverwinter, has been acting as Kira's adoptive father and has kept all of the old gang's stolen riches, including the much-needed resurrection amulet. After surviving an assassination attempt, Edgin and Holga put together a team of misfits -- including their old half-elf friend Simon ( Justice Smith ), shapeshifter druid Doric ( Sophia Lillis ), and ageless paladin Xenk ( Regé-Jean Page ) -- to steal back the relic and stop Forge and Sofina.

Is It Any Good?

This entertaining, star-studded comic adventure takes full advantage of its "ragtag misfits on a mission" theme. Writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley far exceed expectations -- which, admittedly, are pretty low for game-based genre movies. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ' story manages to be engaging, funny, and occasionally moving, but also lighthearted and not overly violent. And it's significant that the main male and female characters are platonic best friends who aren't romantically interested in each other. The writers give Edgin and Holga a sibling-like bond: They tease and taunt each other but also unconditionally support and love each other, leaving the (refreshingly light!) romantic tension to their younger pals Simon and Doric. Pine is a pitch-perfect lead, and Rodriguez has played so many versions of a woman warrior that you just expect her to fell lots of foes. The supporting characters are equally well cast. Grant is hilarious as the greedy Forge; Page (of Bridgerton fame) is clearly adept at playing humorless, seemingly perfect characters; and Head does a fine job pivoting from her beautiful Shadow and Bone character to play a villainous wizard who's trying to take over the world.

Goldstein and Daley's script is full of zingers and ongoing jokes, but it's also earnest and sweet, reminding viewers that these are indeed deep-feeling characters with kind hearts. In one scene, Holga visits her ex-husband, whom she still loves. He's played by an A-list actor in a small but impactful cameo (no spoilers here!), and their conversation is surprisingly substantive for a relationship talk in an action movie. Speaking of which, the action sequences are slick without being overwhelming, with brawls making up most of the fights until the third act. There's a funny moment when Holga faces off with six or seven opponents on her own, and Edgin is so confident in her chances that he's on a completely different mission. The scenes between Edgin, Holga, and young Kira also pack a punch, as the thieves must reconcile their motives with what the girl actually needs from them. And the world-building, while not as thorough as Lord of the Rings , is enough to make audiences eager for a sequel to this fun, funny family movie pick.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Is it realistic, or stylized? How does the type of violence affect its impact?

Do you consider any of the characters role models ? Are some of them worthier of respect and admiration than others? Why, or why not?

How does the storyline demonstrate themes of courage , perseverance , and teamwork ?

If you're a fan of the D&D games, how does this movie live up to your imagination of what it might be like to see D&D characters come to life?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 31, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : May 2, 2023
• Cast : Chris Pine , Michelle Rodriguez , Regé-Jean Page , Hugh Grant
• Directors : John Francis Daley , Jonathan Goldstein
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Black actors
• Studio : Paramount
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 134 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : fantasy action/violence and some language
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : September 2, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'Dungeons & Dragons' review: You don't need to be a fantasy gamer to revel in 'Honor Among Thieves'

The “Lord of the Rings” movies, “Game of Thrones” and other fantasy fare have plenty of expansive world-building and eye-popping visual effects. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is where you turn to have some of that and  laugh your lute off too.

Based on the popular role-playing game and far better than that forgettable 2000 “D&D” big-screen outing, “Thieves” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday)  is a clever and often hilarious action adventure that overcomes pacing issues with well-crafted characters and a host of wondrous creatures both stunning and icky. It’s also a good fantasy film for people who don’t really care for fantasy, led by a winningly goofy turn from Chris Pine .

'Dungeons & Dragons' embraces the game's group dynamic

Doing time in an icy prison for thieving and skullduggery, Edgin the Bard (Pine) and his barbarian partner Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) pull off a daring escape with the best of intentions: Edgin wants to reunite with his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) and also find a resurrection tablet that will bring his wife back to life after she died courtesy of a cursed blade. Now on the run, Edgin and Holga find that their old partner, the rogue Forge (Hugh Grant) – who’s been looking after Kira as her guardian – is now the greedy lord of a kingdom working with a shady red wizard named Sofina (Daisy Head).

A betrayal leads to Edgin and Holga plotting both a rescue and a heist, and for that, they need a motley crew with specific skills. They track down an old insecure sorcerer friend of theirs, Simon (Justice Smith), and then recruit Doric (Sophia Lillis), a shapeshifting druid who’s distrustful of humans. When they figure out they need a magical helmet, the gang finds help in the form of paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page), a bit of a charming know-it-all.

Chris Pine moves up in the all-important Hollywood Chris rankings

Writing/directing duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (“Game Night”) put together an inspired cast for “Thieves.” Pine, a highlight of 2022's rather woeful “ Don’t Worry Darling ,” is a silly, lute-strumming gem as Edgin but also gives the thief enough heroic pep to make you care about him. Grant finds a nice balance between smarmy and treacherous, Head is deliciously over-the-top evil, Rodriguez enjoyably crushes so many dudes, and Lillis’ character is the real scene-stealer, spending time as everything from a deer to a fearsome (and seriously cool) owlbear.

The fantasy visuals are pretty slick, especially when it comes to the magical creatures that populate the world. There are assorted dragons (obviously, they’re right there in the title) but also our heroes meet a panther-type thing with tentacles, a monstrous chest with some nasty teeth and an impressive tongue, and a gelatinous cube that traps people and slowly eats them alive.

You don't need to be a 'D&D' expert to dig these 'Thieves'

While it won’t test your patience, “Thieves” does feel bloated at nearly two and a half hours. It’s still shorter than your average round of the game, though you don’t really have to have knowledge of “D&D” going in – or any fantasy fandom, for that matter – to enjoy the movie’s best moments, including a priceless bit where our heroes have to dig up and interrogate dead soldiers for important information. 

Yet the movie never makes fun of its world. Instead, “Thieves” finds its humorous magic by placing relatable characters in fantastical circumstances, sprinkled with heart, whimsy and friendship.

For more on 'Dungeons' and its stars:

• 'Dungeons & Dragons': Chris Pine reveals what game gave him 'trauma'
• Comic-Con: 'Dungeons & Dragons' stars Chris Pine, Regé-Jean Page reveal film's first trailer
• 'Don't Worry Darling': Chris Pine (finally) sets record straight on co-star Harry Styles spit rumors
• 'SNL': Female cast thirsts over host Regé-Jean Pag e

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Review: A Chaotic Fantasy Adventure That Rolls a Hit

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For years, the concept of adapting the vast and immersive canon of Dungeons & Dragons into a successful feature film seemed insurmountable — but there's no denying that the tabletop role-playing game has been given a new resurgence lately, thanks to various campaigns being played out on streaming. Even celebrities like Joe Manganiello are proud to boast their status as D&D players, and successful web series such as Critical Role have been given the animated treatment, so if there were ever a time for Hollywood to try rolling the dice again on a new D&D movie, it would be now. Enter Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , which hails from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley ( Game Night ), who also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Michael Gilio (from a story he crafted with Chris McKay ). The duo brings their existing, goofy comedic sensibilities to an expansive fantasy world, a crowd-pleasing combination that respectfully nods at diehard fans while remaining just accessible enough for any newbies.

It wouldn't be a D&D campaign without a cast of well-defined but somewhat misfit characters, and at the head of the group is Chris Pine 's hapless bard Edgin Darvis, whose backstory gets spooled out for us rather quickly and in a quite memorable fashion. He's come a long way from his former gig as a sworn member of the organization known as the Harpers; in fact, he and his much more reticent partner, barbarian Holga Kilgore (a terrifically dry Michelle Rodriguez ), are currently doing time in a wintery prison on charges of "thievery and skullduggery." The two career criminals have been Robin Hooding their way through various heists ever since the death of Edgin's wife at the hands of a Red Wizard, all with the aim of supporting Edgin's young daughter Kira ( Chloe Coleman ), so being caught on their last heist wasn't really ever the plan. Orchestrating an escape from prison so that Edgin can track down Kira — who's been living under the guidance of fellow ne'er-do-well, Forge (a quite shifty Hugh Grant ) — is only the beginning of this adventure that soon comes to involve paladins, halflings, a diabolical necromancer, a delightful owlbear, and more surprises too good to spoil.

It's inaccurate to label Honor Among Thieves a bonafide star vehicle, not when each actor takes the strengths through which they've made their careers and wields them to the best of their ability here. Pine exudes every ounce of charisma that first earned him the role of Captain James T. Kirk and a name in the pantheon of Hollywood Chrises, but Edgin is a much more luckless character than anyone we've seen him play before, which leads to some of the film's funniest beats. Similarly, Rodriguez gets to lean full-tilt into her capacity for action while making Holga a blunter instrument for comedy in her repartee on-screen with Pine. Justice Smith becomes their third, more unwitting partner-in-crime as Simon Aumar, a young sorcerer who doesn't always have the greatest confidence in his abilities. Rounding out the group is Doric ( Sophia Lillis ), a tiefling druid and resistance fighter with wisdom beyond her young years, who has her own personal reasons for getting involved with this motley crew.

RELATED: Final 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Trailer Ramps Up the Action and Excitement

And then there's Regé-Jean Page , who was clearly only showing us the start of what he could do when he rode into the Regency world of Bridgerton three years ago. As paladin Xenk Yendar, a warrior of legend with good looks to match, Page enters into a clear charm-off battle opposite Pine where the real winners are all of us who get to watch them on-screen together. Next to the rest of our less-than-noble characters, Xenk is the straightforward, cut-to-the-chase, noble type, saving infants and protecting the important magical relic that the group needs in order to continue their quest. He may not understand sarcasm or modern colloquialisms, but he successfully manages to utter such phrases as "ill-gotten booty" with a completely straight face. By the end of our all-too-brief time with Xenk — who's clearly intended to serve the very important role as guiding NPC — he's not only won over the biggest skeptic in Edgin, but also nearly walked away with the entire film solely on the power of Page's inherent magnetism.

The biggest appeal of Honor Among Thieves , then, lies in its characters and the journey they undergo together, rather than their target destination — which is also the biggest draw about D&D in the first place. In spite of the arguably perilous situations this group finds itself in, there's also a lot of room left for laughs, and the film's writers know how to utilize jokes that not only ease the tension but keep the story from descending too hard into darker places. In the hands of another script or a different franchise entirely, Edgin's story would be a tragic one, suffused with man-pain about the loss of his wife and his failures as a father, but Honor Among Thieves isn't written to make his narrative the sole priority. Each character's motivations and issues are given equal weight. Holga's history isn't only wrapped up in being a surrogate mother to Kira; she's also dealing with the aftermath of her failed marriage to a halfling, which resulted in her being exiled from her own people. Simon has struggled all his life to measure up to his ancestors, powerful sorcerers in their own right, but his magic often fails more than it succeeds. Doric, who was abandoned by her birth parents, has sworn herself to the Emerald Enclave and now dedicates herself to resisting everyone who would threaten her new family. Ultimately, all of their individual stories come together in surprising ways, especially since these characters wind up fighting against a shared enemy in the formidable wizard Sofina ( Daisy Head ), who serves as acolyte to a shadow-lurking baddie.

Honor Among Thieves wouldn't work half as well as it does without a natural affection for D&D itself, and that element shines through in nearly every scene. Goldstein, Daley, and Gilio have recognized that successfully adapting this franchise doesn't mean flinging every possible Easter egg or piece of fanservice at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, there's a thoughtful, playful deployment of each and every cameo that pops up within this movie's campaign, with jokes inserted more in the capacity of loving winks than mocking finger-pointing. It all ramps up to the film's final boss battle that sees our heroes drawing on every single skill they can in order to gain the upper hand and save the world from imminent destruction, a strategy that undoubtedly calls back to the greatest aspects of the game. (In fact, don't be surprised if you leave the theater with a growing curiosity about how to start a campaign of your own.) Whether you're an uninformed novice or an established fan, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves serves up enough unabashed silliness, memorable characters, and epic storytelling to invite anyone into its entertaining realm.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had its world premiere at SXSW 2023 on March 10 and is slated for theatrical release on March 31.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is everything a D&D fan could want

Our spoiler-free first look digs into the world-building, the magic, the visuals, and why this movie rocks

by Rafael Motamayor

This initial spoiler-free take on Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comes from the movie’s debut at the 2023 SXSW Conference. We’ll have more in-depth coverage as the movie’s release date approaches.

We’re living in a new golden age for fantasy movies and shows. Gone is the time when epic fantasy adventures were given low budgets that crippled production, or scripts that showed open disdain for the genre. Now, elves, dragons, and magic are as big a part of the pop culture zeitgeist as sitcoms were in the ’90s.

And yet, thanks to the huge success of Game of Thrones , fantasy shows and movies are usually dark and bleak, both in tone and in visuals . That’s just one of many reasons why the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is such a shock to the system: It’s an attempt to prove that we’re finally ready to embrace the fun, chaos, and full-on weirdness of the fantasy genre.

What makes Dungeons & Dragons unique as a game is the way the system works as a huge sandbox. No two games are the same, even though players are using so many of the same tools. The new movie, from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, based on a script written by Daley, Goldstein, and Michael Gilio, feels like an invitation to sit on the latest session in a campaign they’ve been running for years.

It’s like watching an episode of Critical Role and realizing the group hasn’t just crafted a good story out of the blue, they were playing together for a long time even before the cameras rolled. Even before Honor Among Thieves ’ bard Edgin (Chris Pine) tells a story about his background so the audience can understand his motivation (his actual words), and we see his past adventures with most of the other characters, the movie feels like the latest chapter in a very long and intricate story.

This is what the best stories do: They invite you into an expansive, intricate world that feels like it existed long before these characters entered the story, and far beyond this particular adventure. Honor Among Thieves aces that world-building. It name-drops several key D&D locations, like Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep. But the real sense of connection for fans of the game comes in the way the film uses real sets and locations to convey the grandeur and size of the world, and populates them with a ton of characters and background sights, from ruins to ancient monuments. In a way, the approach feels similar to James Cameron’s original Avatar , which tells a fairly simple, uncomplicated, often predictable story, so Cameron can focus on building a massive world without overwhelming the audience.

In Honor Among Thieves , that approach pays off. The story of a group of misfits going on a quest to find a magical artifact in order to pull off a heist isn’t very complex, and it’s often predictable. But it’s effective and to the point, designed to let the characters and the world speak for themselves.

For viewers who’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, the movie’s world won’t be harder to wrap your head around than Westeros or Middle-earth, apart from all the creatures and cultures, from dragon people to lizard people to cat people. (The Tabaxi in this film rule.) There’s a similarly large variety of creatures, like owlbears and mimics. The film employs plenty of practical creature effects that look incredible, though at times, the CGI touch-ups don’t blend as well as they could. It’s a testament to the writers’ trust in the audience that they don’t overexplain how things work in this world, whether it’s the magic, the characters’ abilities, factions like the Harpers or the Emerald Enclave, or the anachronistic technology that puts this movie closer to Willow or The Princess Bride than Lord of the Rings .

But the differences between Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy franchises is the sweet spot where Honor Among Thieves really shines. That starts with the film’s portrayal of magic, which is unlike anything else on TV or film. There are no wizards waving their wands, shooting CGI rays of light around. Instead, they need physical ingredients, gestures, words, and even concentration to cast all kinds of spells, simple and complex. The movie makes it very clear that there are limitations to magic — just covering a sorcerer’s mouth stops them from casting spells, for instance.

As cool as the magic is, however, Daley and Goldstein make sure every member of the main party gets a moment to show off their class skills, from the barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) raging and kicking everyone’s ass in stunningly choreographed action sequences to Pine’s bard motivating his teammates to accomplish their goals. The standout, however, is Sophia Lillis’ tiefling druid Doric, who steals the stage with her use of Wild Shape in the movie’s best sequence, a single-shot escape through a castle that showcases different creatures and proves that druids are the best class. (Fight me.)

Arguably no character feels like they come straight from a gaming session as much as the paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). He is this movie’s take on Jesse Plemons’ character from Game Night , an incredibly serious character surrounded by silly doofuses. He also feels like that one older player who joins a table of newbies with an OP character they’ve been playing for years and who takes the game super-seriously, refusing to break character and constantly reminding you they “do not tolerate colloquialisms.”

For fans of the game, or any of its hundreds of derivative products, it’s a genuine joy to see these dynamics play out recognizably on the screen without shame, to see known locations realized in such lavish detail, and to see this world populated by the creatures that make D&D such a unique franchise. (The intellect devourer is a scene-stealer.) The movie also does a great job of capturing the different tones players might experience in their own campaigns, from horror to campy fun, and from epic high fantasy to a thrilling heist.

That last point is crucial to the success of the movie, which juggles several tones and genres while always remaining playfully earnest. The characters are constantly failing in fights and puzzles. It’s a hoot and a riot to see them be total goofs, but also a triumph when they finally succeed. There’s no embarrassment about the fantasy elements or their origins here, and no attempt to hide or undercut the nerd stuff with sarcastic, dismissive comments. No one mocks each other’s names or skills. The appearance of a displacer beast or a gelatinous cube doesn’t elicit quips about them being ridiculous creatures: They’re just treated as dangerous.

The film is playful and earnest throughout, focusing on the fact that for the characters, these are serious situations. Rodriguez’s barbarian is still reeling from a broken relationship, and when her storyline pays off, it’s hilarious — but the audience is still invited to feel and empathize with her pain. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves doesn’t re-create game mechanics or a sense of improvisation as well as, say, The Legend of Vox Machina , but it is the best Dungeons & Dragons movie we could have hoped for. Not only is it a fun fantasy movie, it’s a great adaptation of a gaming session. And it’s an invitation into a new and more visual version of a world dedicated players already love — and that the filmmakers seem to love, too.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will premiere in theaters on March 31.

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Review: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ boasts charisma and dexterity but lacks true magic

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For at least 20 years, it’s been obvious that the geeks shall inherit the earth, pop culturally speaking. Comic books have crawled out of the cons to dominate mainstream movie culture, “Star Wars” is ubiquitous and now “Dungeons & Dragons” has its moment in the sun. First published in 1974, the popular fantasy role-playing game has mostly been relegated to a punchline (or punching bag) in media (see: Patton Oswalt’s Dungeon Master character in comedy series “Reno 911!”).

But now the medieval-inspired game gets a splashy, big-budget blockbuster adaptation, replete with swaggering charm and sex appeal. In a perfectly full-circle media moment, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is co-directed and co-written by John Francis Daley, who played one of the primary geeks on Judd Apatow’s short-lived but much loved comedy series “Freaks and Geeks,” which had an episode dedicated to a D&D campaign (he knows his barbarians from his clerics).

Daley and co-director Jonathan Goldstein (they also directed the raunchy 2015 remake “Vacation” and the surprisingly fun action comedy “Game Night” ) co-wrote the script with Michael Gilio, and they take a genius approach to bringing D&D to the masses, smuggling the heavy-duty lore of the game into a garden-variety bank heist plot. It’s essentially “Ocean’s 11” in a fantasy setting, with massive movie stars riffing on their well-known personae offering a crucial assist.

Daley and Goldstein don’t ask their team of actors to stretch much beyond what we already know and love about them. Chris Pine is on the charm offensive, Michelle Rodriguez plays a tough warrior and Hugh Grant grins and fumbles and fops endearingly, as he has for decades. With this trio in place tackling a familiar plot, Daley and Goldstein thread D&D mythos throughout in a way that’s not too challenging for a newbie but will serve as a treat for the experienced player.

Aside from its clunky title, “Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” has a relaxed, loose energy that puts the viewer at ease, especially combined with the throwback appeal of a style that harks to ’80s fantasy classics like “Willow,” “Labyrinth” and “Legend.” Yet the tone is decidedly modern, thanks in large part to Pine’s laissez-faire, ironic energy as the lute-playing Edgin, the bard of this tale.

Edgin’s vibe, however, is a bit at odds with his goal of reuniting his family by bringing his wife back from the dead and reclaiming daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) from his former compatriot Forge (Grant). He intends to do this by stealing a reanimation tablet from a magically fortified vault with the team he assembles: his ride-or-die warrior Holga (Rodriguez), insecure sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and disaffected druid Doric ( Sophia Lillis ). They receive help from stone-faced paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page), whose straight-arrow nature bounces off Ed’s inability to take anything seriously. This odd couple is one of the most amusing interactions of the film, but it’s unfortunately brief.

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” boasts some eye-popping set pieces, including Rodriguez’s fight scenes and a truly remarkable “one-shot” sequence that showcases Doric’s shape-shifting abilities. The film’s affable nature and the sheer charisma oozing off Pine and Grant is intoxicating, but overall, there’s a sense that it doesn’t quite gel, the engine revving but never hitting the speed of which it seems capable.

Daley and Goldstein make for fine dungeon masters; the film is an unapologetically big, fun, swashbuckling slice of hardcore fantasy and leans into that without any self-deprecation, which is the core lesson for our merry band of misfits. And yet there is some ineffable quality lacking — perhaps an emulsifying ingredient — that prevents all these elements (the stars, the lore, the creatures) from coming together into something truly magical. Maybe on the next roll of the 20-sided die.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’

Rated: PG-13, for fantasy action/violence and some language Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes Playing: Starts March 31 in general release

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves Review

31 Mar 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

The last attempt at a Dungeons & Dragons adaptation was a disaster to make you wish they’d lock the dragons in the dungeon and throw away the key. But this new effort comes courtesy of Game Night ’s John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein , and establishes them as the go-to team for any attempt to make a board-game related movie. If this is not quite as consistently hilarious as their last effort, it’s still just as much fun as a weekend D&D session and doesn’t require any complicated dice. Minute one establishes that we’re in a fantasy land, as a heavily armoured cart delivers a monstrous prisoner to an Orthanc-looking tower. Any sense of foreboding, however, doesn’t last long. This is a fantasy made by people who have seen Shrek , so that each time you’re presented with a looming fortress, hand-drawn map or tragic backstory, someone will undermine the moment with a quip, or Lorne Balfe’s score will deliver a witty Lord Of The Rings parody to poke fun at whatever is happening.

That knowingness is necessary because, almost by definition, a Dungeons & Dragons film must look like a pretty generic fantasy world. Call it John Carter syndrome, but when you’ve influenced almost everything that follows, it’s difficult to stand out. There have to be taverns, caverns, robed baddies and leather-clad heroes: all the tropes. Daley and Goldstein still pepper in visual innovation, filling the world with bird people, halflings that manage not to look like hobbits and the odd person who happens to have a cat head. Even their dragons — and the film does technically deliver multiple dragons and dungeons — are a wry take on the familiar terrors. But it was never going to be the visuals that distinguished this one: its success all comes down to the plot, the characters and the gags.

It turns out that there is a serious core to this story after all, one that serves as a really lovely tribute to the game.

That’s because, beneath the fantasy trappings, this is a heist movie, a group quest in the best traditions of the game. Ex-cons Edgin ( Chris Pine ) and Holga ( Michelle Rodriguez ), a bard and a barbarian respectively, set out to steal a treasure for commendably sympathetic reasons. They must find a way past smarmy con man Forge ( Hugh Grant , living his Phoenix Buchanan best life) and evil sorceress Sophina (Daisy Head, genuinely unnerving).

Against these formidable foes, Edgin and Holga recruit Justice Smith ’s insecure sorceror Simon, who’s charmingly hapless, and Sophia Lillis ’ idealistic shapeshifter Doric. The pair are a pleasant contrast to the breezily confident Edgin, Pine dialling the charisma to maximum and the effort to near-zero. Pine in blockbuster mode might be the most consistently fun of the Chrises — here mixing Captain Kirk’s insouciance with Steve Trevor’s mission focus. He’s paired beautifully with his glowering, platonic life-partner Holga, Rodriguez playing much the same character she does in the Fast films: all stoicism and physical strength, but really shining here as a comedy foil as well as a bone-crunching physical force.

This Ocean’s quartet becomes a quasi-family, and the film gives them room for eccentric and bickering growth. On the plot-front, however, it does get occasionally bogged down in side quests while our heroes seek the Noun Of Whatsit to break into the Fortified Location Of Wherever. But just as it all threatens to get lost in the fantasy weeds, Regé-Jean Page turns up with a scene-stealing turn as an outrageously perfect paladin. His tragic hero has no sense of humour whatsoever, and, like a more chiselled Drax, that utter lack of irony serves to make everyone else seem ten times funnier. He also gets some cool bits with a sword, before his shining morality prods Edgin to (reluctantly) become a very fractionally better man.

From there, everything proceeds exactly as it should. There are no big surprises in the last act, but there’s some of the film’s best comedy, and a bit where Chris Pine goes a-wassailing with a lute. The action climax packs in references to favourite bits of game play and even some visual nods to its players. And then they hit you with an emotional whammy. It turns out that there is a serious core to this story after all, one that serves as a really lovely tribute to the game. Our heroes — all outsiders, rejects and self-perceived failures — ultimately gain strength, acceptance and friendship in the found family that they build together. As the adaptation of a game that helped generations of socially awkward teens to find their tribes and their confidence, that’s a beautiful note to hit.

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Strange Darling

Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree.

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I'm not convinced d&d's 2024 player's handbook is as backward compatible as it claims.

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• D&D 's 2024 Player's Handbook largely boosts character power, affecting various classes with new features and tweaks.
• More powerful adventuring parties could affect the balance of encounters in past DnD adventures.
• The upcoming 2025 Monster Manual might provide answers to rebalancing the game, but it's too early to say.

Dungeons & Dragons is currently in a very weird transitional state. The 2024 Player's Handbook marks the first major revision to the fifth edition rules established in 2014's core rulebooks, but it's not sweeping things aside in favor of a new edition or even taking up a 5.5e mantle like 3.5e did. Fifth edition has been hugely popular, and publisher Wizards of the Coast is promising that the new Player's Handbook will maintain backward compatibility with all the adventures released over the past decade of play.

It's a nice sentiment, but I've never been convinced that it would be that simple. With a copy of DnD 's 2024 Player's Handbook now in my hands (well, digitally), I'm more skeptical than ever. It's true that the book doesn't overhaul things to a degree that would completely break the system, and anyone familiar with the rules from 2014 shouldn't have much trouble adjusting to the changes. When all is said and done, however, it doesn't feel like slotting into the same place that the 2014 Player's Handbook did is the new book's highest priority .

D&D: I Wish I Could Show You My Favorite Thing About The 2024 Player's Handbook

There's a lot of exciting stuff to talk about in the new Player's Handbook, but sometimes showing is better than telling, and I wish I had that power.

D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook Changes The Balance

Characters are more powerful across the board.

One of the most-talked about aspects of DnD 's 2024 Player's Handbook is how it addresses traditionally underpowered classes like the Monk and Ranger , but the new book's approach to balance goes a lot farther than just buffing classes that lagged behind. Everyone has at least a little something to be excited about , whether that's an interesting new feature or a tweak to something that was previously hard to use. There are a lot of changes that affect multiple classes as well, like reworked spells and feats that are often more powerful or require less to use than previous iterations did.

I completely understand why the 2024 Player's Handbook is taking this approach, and I'm not immune to its charms. The first thing I did upon getting the book was check out how some classes I was interested in fared, skipping over the new introductory material to revisit later. Buffs are exciting, and tweaking every class upward to varying degrees in an attempt to maintain balance makes everyone happier than buffing some and nerfing others would. If players saw new versions of their classes that felt like downgrades or even sidegrades, they wouldn't be as motivated to embrace the new rules.

Which D&D Subclass Has Been Changed The Most For The 2024 Player's Handbook Revealed By Jeremy Crawford

During GenCon this year, Jeremy Crawford has revealed which D&D subclass has been redesigned the most extensively for the 2024 Player's Handbook.

When backward compatibility is part of the equation, however, even minor boosts in power can threaten the maintenance of a decade-old ecosystem . Counting both full-length DnD campaign books and anthologies, over 20 substantial adventures have been released for fifth edition play, to say nothing of various smaller modules from starter sets, promotions, and more. All of these books were designed with 2014 characters in mind (or alternate options from books like Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that built on top of that framework), and they're about to get hit with characters that are more powerful than ever before.

Balance In Dungeons & Dragons Is A Tricky Subject

There's certainly some room for leeway.

I don't want to make a mountain out of what's maybe a mid-sized hill, because balance in DnD 5e has always been a fairly loose concept . Running a campaign with three adventurers is very different from running it with five, and campaigns could be erratic in their difficulty to begin with. Some are intentionally designed to be more challenging gauntlets, while others that aren't particularly threatening can feature random difficulty spikes. Taking the median of all this mess still results in a rough approximation of 2014 power levels, however, not 2024 ones.

Community fixes or tips for campaigns with inconsistent difficulty can typically be found online, so coming up with original reworks isn't always necessary when things don't feel quite right.

The biggest argument to make for the idea that this doesn't really matter is that DnD 5e is fundamentally heroic fantasy , where heroes should feel powerful and capable of consistently triumphing over foes. Over time, a larger percentage of the DnD community has skewed toward telling character stories over long stretches of time, and losing those characters in grueling dungeon crawls can be disappointing. My players tend to fall more in line with this ideal, and I tend to present them with challenges that they can consistently overcome without casualties as long as they make smart decisions.

D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook Fixes One Of The Least Useful Subclass Features

Some D&D subclass features get used a lot more often than others, but an adjustment to one in the 2024 Player's Handbook should give it a big leg up.

Even so, I feel like the largely minor buffs in the new Player's Handbook could sometimes snowball into making challenges a bit too trivial. The party gains a good chunk of control over the action economy, with changes like more powerful bonus actions and more opportunities to recharge expendable abilities giving everyone more opportunities to steer the course of combat. Feeling like fights don't present genuine threats is likely to bore even a party that's intent on keeping every character alive, and DMs might need to make more tweaks to published campaigns to avoid this sensation.

The 2025 Monster Manual Could Rebalance D&D

2025 will bring some additional answers.

There's still one big unknown, which is how the new balance might be affected by the Monster Manual that's coming in February 2025. Wizards of the Coast has made the same promises of backward compatibility for the 2025 Monster Manual , but I don't necessarily know what that means. Although the new monster tweaks are meant to make them more interesting rather than harder, if they end up just a bit more powerful in a way that matches the party, balance might be restored. If they truly are the same level of challenge as before, it won't fix much of anything.

D&D’s New Monster Manual Will Have “Over 500 Monsters” In First Look At The Upcoming Rulebook

The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual will be a lot bigger than the 2014 one, and it's aiming to do more than just throw new foes into the mix.

Challenge level is only really one aspect of how tricky backward compatibility is with the 2024 Player's Handbook , as attempting to pull in subclasses, spells, and more that have appeared in past books can complicate things even more. Seasoned DMs shouldn't have much trouble navigating these challenges as they come, and I'm not too concerned about how an adventure I'm planning with the new rules will fare. The 2024 Player's Handbook is supposed to make Dungeons & Dragons less confusing than ever, however, and although I think that's largely true, backward compatibility certainly isn't that simple.

Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the '70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.

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Review: Incarcerated fathers and their daughters dance in the heart-wrenching doc ‘Daughters’

This image released by Netflix shows a scene from “Daughters.” (Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Aubrey Smith in a scene from “Daughters.” (Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Donte Brooks, Allan James, Leonard Smith, and Jeffrey Saunders in a scene from “Daughters.” (Netflix via AP)

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A group of incarcerated fathers are warned in the documentary “Daughters” that they’re about to go on “emotional rollercoasters.” A truer prediction has never been uttered.

In the film, directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, the imprisoned fathers at a Washington, D.C., correctional facility, are given a rare gift: a few hours to spend with their daughters, who range in age from 5 to late teens. For one afternoon, they can be together to dance, hug and laugh.

For some of the girls, the program, called the Daddy Daughter Dance, will be the first time they’ve ever touched their father. Others haven’t seen their dad in years. The trend in U.S. prisons has been toward video calls and away from in-person “touch” visits. Even “in-person” visits are often through plexiglass and a phone.

The unspoken question that runs through “Daughters,” which debuts Wednesday on Netflix, is: Should it be this seldom that incarcerated men have real human interaction with their children? In this heartache of a documentary, the most plaintive plea is a basic one. Whatever else they are, one of the incarcerated men says, “We’re still fathers.”

“Daughters,” a prize-winner at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, first turns its attention to some of the young girls as they prepare for the afternoon. Aubrey, a chatty, immediately loveable 5-year-old, says, “When he says he loves me, I’m gonna say I love him more.” Aubrey’s father, Keith, will be in prison for another seven years, a time period that even a 5-year-old as bright as Aubrey simply can’t conceive. She’s learning to count.

Others have more complicated feelings before the dance. Santana, 10, vows not to shed a tear when she goes. “The only reason he ain’t here is he wants to keep doing bad stuff,” she says. Her father, Mark, didn’t hug his daughter until she was a year old. For Ja’Ana, 11, seeing her father is even rarer. Her mother didn’t want her to see her father behind bars. “I don’t remember nothin’ about my father, nothin’ at all,” she says.

On the day of the dance, the fathers, all wearing suits and a flower on their lapel, are sitting in a long row of seats when their daughters arrive. The filmmakers capture the moment almost like a fairy tale, with lots of light and little sound besides some music, a few shouts of “Daddy!” and a little muffled crying.

Inside a gym, the fathers and daughters play and dance. Some have a ball. For others, it’s clear that the gulf between them can’t be bridged in a day. When it’s time for the daughters to go home and the fathers to return to their cells, the parting is inevitably crushing. Before the girls depart, the fathers sign pledges to remain their life. In the 12 years of the program, 95% of participating fathers don’t return to jail.

We’ve had the good fortune of two exquisitely tender films this summer about the lives of incarcerated people and the paths they might take to redemption in “Daughters” and the recently released true-tale-inspired drama “Sing Sing.” In “Daughters,” the dialogue around the dance is cause for reflection, also, on the imprisoned men’s own upbringing and cycles of parental absence that can extend across generations.

Time is the fundamental metric of prison life, which makes a documentary like “Daughters,” filmed over years, uniquely, maybe even monstrously capable of capturing its passing. As much as “Daughters” can be an emotional rollercoaster, there’s no preparing for the film’s painful years-later epilogue. Aubrey is now 8. She hasn’t seen her dad since the dance. When she’s finally permitted to visit her father, she doesn’t recognize him through the plexiglass. On the ride home, Aubrey no longer looks like the bundle of optimism she was at 5. Make no mistake. This is tragedy, in very real time.

“Daughters,” a Netflix release, is rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and language. Running time: 107 minutes. Three stars out of four.

How a video game adaptation starring 2 Oscar winners became the year's biggest flop

• "Borderlands" has been trashed by critics and fans alike.
• On Friday morning it had a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 7% and an audience score of 48%.
• Multiple changes behind the scenes might explain why it turned out so bad.

Based on a beloved video game and starring two Oscar winners, "Borderlands" should have been an easy win for movie studio Lionsgate. But it debuted with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 0%, as fans and critics trashed the film.

The movie follows a ragtag bunch of humans searching for a vault full of superweapons hidden in the postapocalyptic world of Pandora.

When it debuted in 2009, the video game was an immediate hit, spawning two sequels that were equally loved by fans.

Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox, the company that created "Borderlands," told Entertainment Weekly in July that he started talks about making a movie adaptation in 2011.

Thirteen years later, the movie was released in theaters on Friday and stars A-listers including Cate Blanchett , Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart.

But the casting wasn't enough to it. One critic said it was an " insult to gamers, movie lovers and carbon-based life forms ," while others wondered if it was the worst movie of the year.

Some critics questioned why Oscar-winners Blanchett and Curtis starred in an off-beat, mediocre action film.

With 57 reviews on Friday morning, the film still only had a 7% Rotten Tomatoes critic score and four positive reviews, while the audience score was a disappointing 48%.

Lionsgate will be wanting to make some profit back on the $110 million to $120 million Deadline estimated it spent on the movie, but that could be tough considering the response.

Many fans on social media blamed Eli Roth, the film's director and co-writer, for its failure. However, other factors, such as script changes, may also be to blame. Business Insider has contacted representatives of Lionsgate for comment.

Related stories

"Borderlands" was reshot by a different director.

Video game and toy adaptations often take many years to develop because they must please the director, film studios, and the original creator.

"Borderlands" has been in development since 2015 but there wasn't meaningful progress until 2020, when Eli Roth signed on as director.

In July, EW reported that comedian Aaron Berg initially wrote an R-rated script for the movie (the current film is PG-13). But the screenplay was later re-written by Craig Mazin, the co-creator of the Emmy-winning TV series " The Last of Us ," Deadline reported in 2020.

Then, after production wrapped in June 2021, director Tim Miller reshot scenes so Roth could focus on his 2023 horror film "Thanksgiving," Deadline reported in January 2023. The publication listed Roth as a co-writer in the article, implying he had rewritten part of the script.

"Bullet Train" writer Zak Olkewicz, was later brought in to rewrite the script for the reshoots, The Hollywood Reporter reported that month.

Then things started to get weird.

In July 2023, Mazin's name was removed as the movie's co-writer on the Writer's Guild of America website and replaced by a person called Joe Crombie.

Crombie's identity is unknown and this is his only credit, which sparked rumors it was a pseudonym for Mazin. Mazin denied the claims in an interview with Variety and said he cannot claim "authorship" for the film.

The WGA website now lists Crombie and Roth as the "Borderlands" screenplay writers. However, the website stated that Berg, Olkewicz, "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson, and four others, contributed additional material.

That means they didn't write enough to get writing credits but still contributed to the script. Mazin's name is not linked at all to the screenplay.

Further changes came after a few actors were cast in 2021 but were cut out of the final movie, such as Cheyenne Jackson and Charles Babalola as notable game characters Wainwright Jakobs and Sir Hammerlock.

Critics have complained that the characters are " one-dimensional " and the story feels rushed and confusing, which could be the result of all the script changes and reshoots.

Fans and critics have higher expectations for video game adaptations

Video game adaptations have historically been mediocre at best .

But in recent years, a number of adaptations have been well-received and even nominated for awards, such as"The Last of Us," "Fallout," "Sonic the Hedgehog," and "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."

Many fans and critics have also compared " Borderlands " to beloved films like "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Mad Max," and "The Suicide Squad."

Nowadays, critics and fans just expect better from gaming adaptations.

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Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, caligula: the ultimate cut.

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When “ Caligula " arrived in theaters in 1979, it came in on a tidal wave of hype, most of it on the negative side. The production of  Penthouse Magazine  publisher Bob Guccione ’s grand experiment in creating an adult film that included the elements innate to a typical Hollywood spectacle was filled with such strife that both screenwriter Gore Vidal and director Tinto Brass attempted to remove their names from the project. The big-name actors involved—including Malcolm McDowell , Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud , and rising star Helen Mirren —disavowed themselves from it when they discovered that, after firing Brass and taking over the editing for himself during post-production, Guccione went back to the still-standing sets with a skeleton crew and a group of Penthouse models to shoot some hardcore sex scenes. These were added into the mix without their knowledge and threatened the film with legal challenges worldwide.

The final film received universally horrible reviews —  Variety described it as a “moral holocaust,” and the progenitor of this very site dubbed it “sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. If it is not the worst film I have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful.” Despite, or perhaps because of, such critiques, the film would go on to be a success, especially when it arrived on the then-emerging home video market. Over the years, it has developed a cult following, to be sure, but that's almost entirely due to a morbid fascination regarding its bizarre confluence of artistic ambitions and pornographic content. Although Guccione had discussed producing other films in the wake of “Caligula,” he never did—since one of these projects was rumored to have been about Catherine the Great, this is perhaps not that big of a loss.

And yet, what might have resulted if the film kept its initial conception? Is it possible that somewhere in the reported 96 hours of footage shot during its production lay a movie that was actually ... good? These are the questions raised by “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut,” one of the oddest reclamation projects in cinema history. Producer Thomas Negovan has gone through all that footage and reconstructed an entirely new version of the film — using alternate takes and cut scenes and removing all of the hardcore footage — that hews closer to what it was intended to be. This renovation is so elaborate that, although it now clocks in at just under three hours, it does not contain a single frame of footage seen in the original version.

The result is different from what came before and is, in many instances, a marked improvement. This time around, viewers can have a better appreciation for the often-stunning costumes and production design contributions from the legendary Danilo Donati (who had worked with the likes of Zeffirelli and Fellini and who would go on to do the sets and costumes for “ Flash Gordon ”) that were inexplicably given short shrift the first time around. By selecting more nuanced takes instead of the over-the-top ones used before, McDowell’s performance displays more of an actual arc, making his characterization far more interesting than the flat-out loon seen the first time around. He still has plenty of moments where he struts around like a cross between Alex from “ A Clockwork Orange ” and Mick Jagger , but he also has moments that allow a bit of humanity to shine through.

This also has the secondary effect of allowing the work of Teresa Ann Savoy , who plays Caligula’s doomed sister/lover Drusilla (replacing the originally cast Maria Schneider , who reportedly bailed after objecting to the sexual content), not to get steamrolled in their scenes together. Although she doesn’t quite capture Drusilla’s combination of tragedy and transgression, her work here comes closer to hitting the mark. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this new edit is Mirren, who only appeared in the original cut for about 20 minutes but whose role is greatly expanded here and remains both the film’s best performance and the one asset that successfully embodies its artistic and prurient ambitions. (Her work also makes you wonder how much better the film might have been if she had been cast as Drusilla.)

Yet, while “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut” is a marked improvement over the previous incarnation, it still has several fundamental problems so baked in that no revision can overcome them. One of the reasons that Vidal and Brass began feuding during the production is because they had an irreconcilable disagreement regarding the depiction of Caligula and his subsequent reign of depravity — Vidal saw him as a decent person driven to madness after having absolute power bestowed upon him. In contrast, Brass saw him as a madman long before he was given his position of ultimate authority. These differences were never resolved, and as a result, the film never quite seems sure of what it is trying to say about the man and the madness that he inspired during his short reign. While the narrative has a better flow this time around, there are still many instances in which it lurches around as though important scenes are either still missing or were never filmed in the first place.

While I cannot say that I genuinely miss any of the overtly pornographic material that Guccione clumsily inserted into the original version, that stuff was, for better or worse, a key part of what made the film so notorious in the first place and discarded it entirely feels like an awkward attempt at making it all seem more tasteful, even though the project as a whole remains steadfastly removed from most accepted notions of what constitutes good taste. That said, this is not to say that this version of “Caligula” has been neutered — this is a film that still opens with Caligula in bed with his sister, takes us on a tour of an elaborate multi-level sex dungeon, and eventually finds Caligula forcing the wives of the Roman senators to work as prostitutes on an enormous landlocked ship that has been turned into a brothel to replenish the state’s depleted coffers. The equally startling levels of violence are still on display as well, including a demonstration of an elaborate decapitation machine and the still-notorious scene in which Caligula barges in on the wedding night of one of his soldiers and proceeds to rape both the bride and groom. Put it this way: this is not the kind of movie where you want to load up at the snack counter before watching it, though it does make you wonder what kind of commemorative popcorn bucket it might inspire.

In the end, despite the extensive reworking, “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut” does not reveal the film as some kind of unjustly disparaged masterpiece deserving of revaluation along the lines of once-maligned works as “Heaven’s Gate” or “ Ishtar .” This is not a film for everyone by a long shot. Still, those willing to take a chance and embrace it on its own very distinct and occasionally deranged terms are likely to find themselves agreeing with the ultimate assessment of Mirren, who once described it as “an irresistible mix of art and genitals.”

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (2024)

Rated NC-17

156 minutes

Malcolm McDowell as Caligula

Teresa Ann Savoy as Drusilla

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John Gielgud as Nerva

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