Why they’re doing this is less important than the fun of their journey, though at its core the film is another tale of a bad dad. Hugh Grant plays each scene like a tomcat with a ball of wool This one is a fantasy-adventure caper which owes more to Python than Tolkien, especially during one hilarious sequence in which its heroes attempt to glean a key piece of information by interrogating corpses via a ‘Speak with Dead’ spell, which only allows the interrogator five questions (‘That’s arbitrary,’ someone notes). Writer-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are seasoned purveyors of comedy who also love subverting genre conventions, as they proved with 2018’s raucous action-comedy Game Night. While 2000’s monster flop is admittedly a low bar, this second attempt to translate the hugely popular fantasy tabletop role-playing game into cinematic magic is vastly superior.Īs well as properly rooting itself in the game’s lore – a win for its players, who will find plenty of geeky Easter eggs here – Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves crucially captures the spirit of the game: that sense of gathering with friends to embark on deadly quests, while also having a bloody good laugh.
If you’re unfortunate enough to remember the last movie titled Dungeons & Dragons, don’t let that put you off this one.
