Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)

Summary: Edgin, a minstrel and Holga, a barbarian escape from a frozen prison and go on a quest with Simon a wizard and Doric a druid to recover a resurrection tablet from the rogue Forge, which would allow Edgin to reanimate his wife who had been killed by a Red Witch. Forge as also become the guardian of Edgin’s daughter Kira. The group decide first to recover the Helm of Disjunction, which would give the wizard superpowers. They discover that Simon can activate a short range teleporting system, with which they invade various areas under Forge’s control. They are assisted by a paladin, Xenk at various points in their quest, but in the end they are captured by Forge, and are forced to participate in arena games before the assembled population. Can they survive and rescue Kira, not to mention reanimating Edgin’s wife?

Content: No sex or nudity, drinking or smoking. The characters are apparently controlled by their special capabilities in the game, with the wizards capable of casting spells, the bard being a planner, the druid having the ability to shape shift into any animal she wants to, and the barbarian being a fighter. There are many scenes of the barbarian fighting armoured guards and beating them. In underground caverns bridges collapse. The druid, who is a good looking girl with horns, changes into animals as required. Once the teleporting system is working they move from place to place through holes in space. The bard sings occasionally while strumming his lute. There is a comedy scene? when they resurrect corpses and ask them questions.

A View:  I was induced into going to see this film by the involvement of Daley and Goldstein whose work I have enjoyed a lot in the past, so my wife and I sat in a screen at the first showing of the film in Madrid. We were with many people who seemed to enjoy it a lot, laughing at the jokes, drawing breath during the suspenseful bits, and applauding at the end. We were hampered by not knowing the game, since it seemed that the audience enjoyed the fact that the characters seemed to be sticking to their special skills. And it was too long. All in all, only a watch if know the game.

Some of the Goldstein and Daley’s contributions to the comedic universe have been reviewed on this site. They include Game Night, Horrible Bosses and Vacation.