Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Shred

I've been cautiously looking forward to this and the reviews do seem good so I think I'll pop along to see it with the family this weekend.

Xofpod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120419518#Comment_120419518

Same.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120401828#Comment_120401828

https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-dungeons-and-dragons-opening-projection-john-wick-4-1235567908/

Predicting roughly 60m world wide opening which would be pretty decent, good reviews might give it good legs.

I am gonna check it out this weekend.

MisterAnarchy

$150 million budget, yikes !

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120420528#Comment_120420528

I doubt its going to displace Wick this weekend, my hunch would be families will wait for Mario instead of going to 2 movies so close together. It might have a decent weekend but in the category of films that dont get legs even if those that see it enjoy it.

TheIrishGrover

Getting decent reviews but, yeah, hard to see it competing with JW4. It's one of those "Middling" films (Well, if a budget of 150 million is considered "middling"). You know the type: Not part of a superhero/sci-fi franchise. Advertising seems to be a bit underwhelming. I like the look of this, to be honest. It looks like a goof. Like the cast are having fun and not a cynical cash-in (Which is the vibe I get from that Mario movie. Hey, let's get some celebrity voices, even if they don't suit their character at all.)

Once upon a time this would have been one of those films that (maybe) broke even in cinema but good word-of-mouth would have generated huge and long-lasting DVD sales. Which would have resulted in a (Much belated/delayed) cheap sequel which would die.

pixelburp

Yeah, by all accounts reviews are saying it's good; nothing transformative but solid fun so maybe there's a chance it gets some legs through word-of-mouth alone. Not unheard of, even these days. The Jumanji reboot made bank through a solid run from people going "it's fun, give it a try!", while arguably Top Gun: Maverick absolutely dominated the box office through that kind of audience virality.

Something I've seen a number of people remark is that the humour is far less meta in that "hey, we're in a stupid movie, lol!" way that's common now. In that the jokes are interior to the film, not on the exterior.

It’s the jokes aspect that makes me want to give this a miss (in the cinema at least)

seems like a weird route to take for D&D

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120422773#Comment_120422773

its not in the same camp as Top Gun or Jumangi , this film is niche and D&D is dated nerd culture, it would do ok as a 30-50m dollar film but not as one that needs ~400m to break even, a financial flop is pretty much baked in

MisterAnarchy

Lorne Balfe seems to have done a good job with the soundtrack from a brief listen on Tidal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzTCR8fRD1s

JohnnyChimpo

Saw this a couple of weeks ago and it was excellent, crowd were loving it. Really written and directed with a love of the game. I would recommend people to catch it in cinema. JW4 was also enjoyable but it felt long, whereas DnD skipped along and Hugh Grant was a treat.

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120422995#Comment_120422995

Could say the exact same about the MCU, being that they are all based on comics. It's less about the IP than the execution and sales pitch, I'd say.

I think you might be significantly underestimating how much more widespread D&D has gotten in recent years - there are some very popular podcasts/ YT video series which are basically real-time campaigns (whether D&D or other settings). Whether that's enough to build momentum when sandwiched between John Wick 4 and the Super Mario Movie is a different and trickier question...

Where I will agree is that there's less scope for this to use any kind of familiarity/nostalgia to pull in an audience, because while there was a cartoon way back when, it doesn't really have any obvious connection other than the name to this film.

silverharp

Mr H Reviews gave it a great review spoiler free

https://youtu.be/DUBkf-Dj3CQ

gmisk

Saw it this morning.

No familiarity with dungeons and dragons but I found it thoroughly enjoyable, some good laughs, fun beasties and the like , solid special effects, kind of by the numbers story wise.

Chris Pine is really on good wise cracking form, Hugh Grant scene stealing as usual.

I hope it does well I would watch more!

Spoiler Warning

The Bradley Cooper cameo was an odd little surprise.

Jarnathan got a bit of a rough time bless him ha.

santana75

It's an enjoyable romp that definitely adheres to the Joseph Campbell school of storytelling. Chris pine us great but Hugh grant steals the movie, dialing the sleeze up to 11

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120429113#Comment_120429113

He seems a funny guy Hugh, no bullshit unlike so many modern celebrities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrEbCA_fT8

CastorTroy

Dunno what it is, but Hugh Grant looks like Sean Maguire in that video.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432294#Comment_120432294

The film does seem to have a Krod Mandoon vibe...

Fysh

I ended up catching this today and it was an enjoyable watch. The humour in it was handled well - it felt like it was derived from the characters reacting to events around them, rather than either that tedious "we'll just improv some stuff and work around it" approach or any kind of sketch/meta guff. In terms of the general story and quest it's done well but nothing new, but the characters are fun and entertaining enough to watch that you don't mind.

As mentioned by someone upthread, Hugh Grant is absolutely the MVP of this.

I went to an afternoon screening and there seemed to be a fair amount of family groups along.

Dr Bob

I saw that too...I assume Uni will bail them out.

TheIrishGrover

I found this quite enjoyable.

The characters were all very likeable and fun. Even Michelle Rodriguez who has been doing the same one-note badass character since Girlfight. Chris Pine is doing his usual wisecracking leader who's a bit of a moron. Regé-Jean Page playing the (intentionally) super-straight straight-man. Spouting tolkienesque dialogue to the bemused team. And, of course, Grant hamming it up post Paddington 2. There are dungeons. There are dragons. There are quests: They need to get the thing to do the other task in order to do the other. All (I assume) very... uh... Dungeons-N-Dragon....y?

I know next to nothing about DnD. A few of the major location names etc. That's about it. I never even watched the cartoon (Although I am aware of it and I believe I did catch a nod to it). So I'm sure a good 90% went over my head but that's fine. I didn't feel that I NEEDED to know everything. But I certainly got the impression that others would be laughing at stuff I missed. No problem there. It certainly seemed to treat the source material with respect. Having fun WITH rather than AT the world. No nudge-nudge sly gags at the expense of players (At least none I could see).

I would be interested to know what a seasoned player thought but I thought it was entertaining (If forgettable) fun. It's not going to set the world on fire. It will make its money back but I don't think it will be the start of another franchise.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120420528#Comment_120420528

71.5 million dollars opening world wide, so higher than expected, but needs to make a lot of money still to break even, fingers crossed.

It was a lot of fun.

https://deadline.com/2023/04/dungeons-and-dragons-honor-among-thieves-john-wick-china-global-international-box-office-1235315760/

El Gato De Negocios

For those that have seen this, would it be suitable for a 4.5 & a 6 year old? They've watched a number of the star wars movies with no issues.

TheIrishGrover

There are a couple of bits that may be scary for younger audience

Spoiler Warning

A flashback about some people being turned into red priests and a similar scene towards the end.

But in general it's pretty safe. Yeah, think of that level of action violence and scary bits. Some scenes in one section (Advertised quite a bit) with corpses and violence but mainly played for laughs.

johnny_ultimate

There’s a few ‘sh*t’s scattered throughout as well but generally it’s very family-friendly fare.

pixelburp

Wow. That was ... a surprisingly large amount of fun, all played honestly with a glint in its eye, and without much metatextual winking or eye rolling. Chris Pine truly is the greatest of the Chris'.

The CGI could get a little ropey in places, but the action set pieces were legitimately imaginative in places, there were some good jokes with funny pay offs, and a cast of interesting characters who had a relatable sense of banter between them.

Nothing remotely revolutionary - but in going back to blockbuster basics, it has managed to seem "fresh". Amazing the difference it can make when it felt like the script came first, then the action set-pieces around it - rather than starting with a bunch of PreVis and trying to tie it together with zingers.

If this bombs, then we truly don't deserve Nice Things.

Brief_Lives

yea, I saw it last night... mostly empty Limerick Omniplex... good fun..

PhiloCypher

Thoroughly enjoyed this. While it is a bit fetch questy in its story structure, that's actually in keeping with the game and genre on which it's based. The characters were all charming and well set up , even Rodriguez who I normally have no time for, and as people have already mentioned Grant, as he's prone to doing these days, stole every scene he was in. There are too many set up and payoffs to mention but my personal favourite was the scene that began and ended the film

Spoiler Warning

With Hugh Grant making a similar plea for leniency as Pine had at the start of the film.

"You it all started with my dear old mumsie"

*sees the perennially late Winged judge arriving , grabs him and runs head first for the curtained window only to find it bricked up after Pines previous escape😂

johnny_ultimate

The film is the epitome of ‘grand’ - faint praise, but a bar very few blockbusters of this type clear. It’s affable enough stuff, with a decent mix of adventure, humour and heart.

Its biggest problem, other than fairly rudimentary direction, is its Marvel-style quippy dialogue. It just to me makes it feel like a hundred other modern blockbusters, and is at odds with the material. I’m not saying they should all be going around talking like Page’s character, but the achingly modern dialogue simply jarred and made things feel focused grouped. And it’s a shame, because it’s a film that at least takes its world somewhat seriously - the strange logic of the game is present and correct, to varying degrees of depth. The jokes mercifully aren’t about ‘real world’ characters making fun of the fantasy, even if its playful on its own terms. But the dialogue and tone weren’t finely tuned enough to really stick the landing IMO, and honestly it’d be better if it just leaned more into its, well, Dungeons & Dragonsness (without being po-faced high fantasy).

silverharp

they really should have released this film during the summer and give it a chance to breath , on the plus side a chunk was the production budget was covered by Hasbro (e one) so they seem to want to leverage off the movie somehow