EF 10.01 – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

“It’s intoxicating when you realize that what separates you from what you’ve always wanted can be as thin as a pane of glass.”

A swashbuckling, hell-of-uh good time adventure awaits you this St. Patty’s Day. A production so slick it makes EF want to quit filmmaking!

Plot (imdb): A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

This movie is too smart for me. And I love movies that are too smart for me. Because that means I get to re-watch and crack it like a puzzle, while savoring the aesthetics. Here the puzzle begins with the smart script, which I have little doubt rural America whiffed on the first-go-round. “What did he say, dear?… I thought he did.” The characters are embellished to the fullest with intricate backstories and complex personalities – Hugh Grant is conniving trickster AND a loyal friend. A backstabbing mogul AND a loving father. Maybe??? How he keeps us on the edge of our seat!

A tumultuous awards season cast doubt on the future of movies. This one restored my faith that the industry is alive and well, granted it is from 2023. D&D: Honor Among Thieves is a delightful surprise, a filmmaking tour-de-force that goes above and beyond each and every shot. Cutting no corners, carving ornate corinthian detail into them instead… There were 5 crew members in the drapes department alone. Everyone understood the assignment.

8.5/10 (Joy)

EF

23 thoughts on “EF 10.01 – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

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    1. Did you review this one? I can’t remember. I have not seen the other movie adaptations, but it’s hard to imagine a better D&D adaptation than this one. A $150 million dollar budget!

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      1. I believe I did but I’m really behind republishing my Letterboxd reviews on my blog. Others I have in a draft form far too long. Just have to get back to it!

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  1. I object on principle to films showing women warriors, as if they actual could exist in any world. D&D the game unfortunately does allow this abomination in its gameplay, and the game suffers correspondingly as a result. Women are simply too weak to lift a heavy sword. They are too fragile to endure the wilderness setting of most war. They get pregnant and when knocked up waddle around like upstuck penguins. They’re fucking useless. I imagine a typical left-winger would disagree with all this.

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    1. Lol! Thanks Greg. But don’t forget the woman protagonist in this one is Michelle Rodriguez! (Resident Evil, Fast & Furious) and it’s clear she trained for this as she’s built like a brick shithouse. Her action scenes are compelling and well choreographed.

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  2. I literally squee’d like a fanboy when the kids from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoons made their cameo in the arena.

    Doric the Tiefling druid totally stole this movie; that continuous-take scene where she goes through a series of Wild Shapes to escape from the bad guys was epic. In fact, my friends and I just started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and I made my character a druid just so I could use Wild Shape, too. My druid is also a Tiefling. His name is Tief Garrett. (I’ll show myself out …)

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  3. Good review. I was quite surprised how much I love this movie. Never played D&D, so understand all the namedrops and lore behind everything was bit of a headscratcher for me. Still, I love a good fantasy adventure and this movie was really a lot of fun.

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