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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

2023, Fantasy/Adventure, 2h 14m

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Critics Consensus

An infectiously good-spirited comedy with a solid emotional core, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves offers fun fantasy and adventure even if you don't know your HP from your OP. Read critic reviews

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves entertainingly blends action, fantasy, and comedy -- all while respecting the source material. Read audience reviews

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A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.

Rating: PG-13 (Some Language|Fantasy Action/Violence)

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Comedy

Original Language: English

Director: Jonathan M. Goldstein , John Francis Daley

Producer: Jeremy Latcham , Brian Goldner , Nick Meyer

Writer: Jonathan M. Goldstein , John Francis Daley , Michael Gilio , Chris McKay

Release Date (Theaters): Mar 31, 2023 wide

Release Date (Streaming): May 2, 2023

Box Office (Gross USA): $93.2M

Runtime: 2h 14m

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Co: Allspark Pictures, Paramount, Hasbro Studios

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

Cast & Crew

Michelle Rodriguez

Regé-Jean Page

Justice Smith

Sophia Lillis

Chloe Coleman

Jonathan M. Goldstein

John Francis Daley

Screenwriter

Michael Gilio

Chris McKay

Jeremy Latcham

Brian Goldner

Denis L. Stewart

Executive Producer

Zev Foreman

Greg Mooradian

Barry Peterson

Cinematographer

Dan Lebental

Film Editing

Lorne Balfe

Original Music

Production Design

Jennifer Bash

Art Director

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The introductions to “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” at the SXSW Film Festival emphasized that they “made this movie for everyone .” There’s clearly a concern that the film may not reach outside the demographic of people who once played or still play the wildly influential role-playing game. And there should be because branding can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it targets a massive fan base already familiar with an IP. On the other hand, a film has to be good enough to break out of that familiarity to reach a wider audience—think of how well “The Last of Us” is playing to viewers who never played the game. So how will fans of Dungeons & Dragons respond to this expensive foray into their favorite fantasy experience? Paramount is rolling a 20-sided die and hoping to get the right number, but the fickle Dungeon Master of Hollywood may have a fatal surprise around the next corner.

The truth is that the game Dungeons & Dragons is often at its best when it’s at its most ridiculously unpredictable and downright silly. Co-writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley and co-writer Michael Gilio attempt to recreate that “we need a plan” structure of the game in a script that feels like it's often making itself up as it goes along. Or pretending to do so. While that’s an ambitious way to approach a fantasy film, it can make for oddly unsatisfying stretches of the final product by eliminating stakes and forcing lightheartedness. Manufactured spontaneity is almost impossible, and too much of “Honor Among Thieves” feels like it’s unfolding with a wink and a nod instead of being legitimately rough around the edges, in-the-moment, and fresh. There are stretches of “Honor Among Thieves” that have the whimsical chaos of Sam Raimi ’s “Army of Darkness”—including a great sequence involving the talking dead—and the film often recalls the “ragtag team of saviors” tone of “ Guardians of the Galaxy .” Still, the film often plays out like it’s faking what the creators love about the game instead of trying to translate it from one medium to another.

The typically charming Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a former member of a group called the Harpers. After his wife is killed by an evil group known as the Red Wizards, Edgin tries to execute a heist to retrieve an item that can bring her back to life, but he’s betrayed, imprisoned with his BFF Holga Kilgore ( Michelle Rodriguez ), a stoic barbarian. In a clever sequence, the pair escapes and discover that Edgin’s daughter Kira ( Chloe Coleman ) has been taken in and lied to by their team’s former ally Forge Fitzwilliam ( Hugh Grant ). The rogue betrayed Edgin and the team in several ways, including partnering with a vicious Red Wizard named Sofina ( Daisy Head ).

Edgin and Holga have several missions in this D&D campaign: Save Kira, get revenge on Forge, stop the Red Wizards, and maybe find some loot along the way. The mission will reunite them with an unconfident wizard named Simon ( Justice Smith ), a shapeshifting druid named Doric ( Sophia Lillis ), and a charming paladin named Xenk ( Regé-Jean Page ). Like any “team of heroes” movie, these characters each bring different skill sets that the group will need to accomplish their goals, and the writers pepper the film with odd hurdles for the group to overcome, including a clever sequence involving some undead enemies and a chubby dragon in a dungeon.

If it all sounds like it’s more for fantasy gamers than “everyone,” well, it undeniably is. The film is filled with references to D&D—name drops like “Baldur’s Gate” and “Neverwinter” created audible responses during the premiere—but I wouldn’t go as far as to say the film won’t work at all for people who have never made a character for a campaign. Most of the references here will sound like depth for non-gamers who may see more parallels to products like “ The Lord of the Rings ” or “The Witcher” than their actual source. It’s a film that’s rich in fantasy terminology in a way that seems like its creators affectionately remember creating characters in their mom's basement when they were young. That genuine interest in the lore of D&D may be enough for some people. But what about everyone else?

Affection for a source doesn’t always translate to execution in terms of craft, and the filmmaking here is shoddy. In terms of the flashes and bangs, "Honor Among Thieves" works much better when it focuses on practical effects (or at least ones that look practical—everything is CGI nowadays) and can find a tactile quality that the CGI-heavy sequences lack. When Edgin and his team are waking up corpses to get information, or Sofina is merely scowling in her malevolent makeup, the film is more grounded than when it’s drifting off in magic-driven sequences of people casting spells both willy and nilly. There’s also a lack of world-building in a movie that should be dense with it when it comes to design. Forge’s city looks like a generic fantasy video game setting, and the opportunity to craft interesting backdrops for these varied characters is rarely taken. It looks like a film that's going to age poorly visually.

The cast is reasonably strong, with Pine leaning into the rough charisma I’ve always thought would have made him a massive star in the ‘60s. All of the cast was clearly chosen to play to their strengths, with Grant amplifying his smarm and Rodriguez kicking ass when needed. Relative newcomers Smith and Lillis are effective, too, with the former finding some vulnerability and the latter being consistently engaging as she uncertainly becomes a hero.

What’s most shocking about “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is how little meat there is on these reanimated bones, even with a bloated 139-minute runtime. When a cast of characters runs from plan A to plan B and back to plan A, the constant motion doesn’t allow for much else. Most of this film is “What we do now?” Again, that's fun with friends, less so when you have no control over the answer.

This review was filed from the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" opens on March 31.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie poster

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Rated NR for fantasy action/violence and some language.

134 minutes

Chris Pine as Edgin Darvis

Michelle Rodriguez as Holga Kilgore

Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar

Justice Smith as Simon Aumar

Sophia Lillis as Doric

Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam

Jason Wong as Dralas

Chloe Coleman

Daisy Head as Sofina the Red Wizard

John Francis Daley
Jonathan M. Goldstein

Writer (story by)

Chris McKay
Michael Gilio
Jonathan Goldstein

Cinematographer

Barry Peterson
Dan Lebental
Lorne Balfe

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‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Review: They’re on a Roll

An ensemble cast aims to bring comedy and adventure to this film made in the image of the popular role-playing game.

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A woman in battle gear and a man in a dark jacket kneeling in a castle.

By Amy Nicholson

In the earliest decades of Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy-loving role players often hid their passion for the game. To the dominant culture, they were dweebs, then Satanists, then back to dweebs. Things changed after Jon Favreau kick-started the modern Marvel franchise in the summer of 2008 and, during the “Iron Man” promotional tour, publicly credited his years spinning tales about goblins and lizardfolk for teaching him to create “this modular, mythic environment where people can play in it.” Since then, D&D fans like James Gunn, Joss Whedon and the Russo Brothers have transformed the multiplex into their rec room where magical supersquads embark on perpetual campaigns. They are the dominant culture — and filmgoers who have never clutched a 20-sided icosahedron are subject to their throw of the dice.

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” an amiable romp by the directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio, comes clattering along just as the public has grown weary of caring about gewgaws with names like the monocle of Bagthalos. It’s late to its own party with good reason. The game hinges on cooperation and imagination — on the joy of friends inventing a creative way to trap an orc — and how in Hextor does that translate to sitting passively before a screen?

After a decade in development , the project that made it to the screen is a noisy, pixelated smash-and-zap that does manage to capture the spirit of play. The story starts with a silver-tongued bard named Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), a divorced barbarian named Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) and a simple challenge. Edgin and Holga must escape a fortified tower — a donjon in Old French, before the English redefined dungeon as someplace underground — to reunite with Edgin’s daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman). When they learn that Kira is under the thrall of a con man (Hugh Grant) who is himself under the thrall of a wizard (Daisy Head), our heroes’ gang expands to include an anti-establishment druid (Sophia Lillis) and a defeatist sorcerer (Justice Smith). Like the game, the team’s initial mission rapidly spirals into detours; the goal is less interesting than the brainstorming sessions that get them to the finish.

Having sat in on my share of D&D campaigns, my personal idea of purgatory is five people debating whether to open a door. Luckily, the film moves faster. Castles, volcanoes and yurts — oh my — whiz past at a clip that would make a dice-roller drool. Plans are quickly made and just as quickly fail. “This is what we do!” Edgin yelps. “We pivot!”

Can a C.G.I.-laden juggernaut evoke the freedom of improv? Not really — though there is a nifty one-shot chase sequence where Lillis’ druid hastily shape-shifts among a housefly, a mouse, a cat and a deer. Daley, a former child actor, once played the nerd on the TV show “Freaks and Geeks” who convinced James Franco’s character that D&D is cool because you can crack jokes and fight dragons. That remains the height of his ambition. There’s no momentum behind the father-daughter story line, so the closer the plot lurches toward all those hugs and tears, the more excuses the cinematographer Barry Peterson seizes to send the camera on a loop-de-loop. I’d rather cheer for a kooky blockbuster that’s all fiascos, like the midpoint Monty Python-esque sequence where the crew botches the resurrection and interrogation of craggy old corpses. Compared to that, the emotional climax is a bowl of cold groats.

The film, produced in part by Hasbro, makes no direct reference to the actual game outside the frame. Yet its mechanics are felt in ways both affectionate and sarcastic. During one brawl, the editor Dan Lebental cuts again and again to Edgin stuck on the sidelines struggling to abrade his rope cuffs. You can sense the character’s frustration to be rolling ones and twos. Later, when Regé-Jean Page strides into the action as a humorless, hyper-competent paladin, Goldstein and Daley permit our eyes to glaze over as he drones on about arcana that’s impossible to absorb. Instead, we snicker as Page solemnly cautions us against “ill-gotten booty.”

For a film about collaboration, the actors aren’t in tonal agreement about the movie they’re in. Grant’s commitment to his dastardly rogue barely goes beyond his cravat — he’d rather guffaw than feign gravitas. By the time a multiple Oscar nominee cameos in a scene played like a Noah Baumbach marital drama, you might wonder if these personality swings are the point? Now that fantasy adventures aren’t dweebs-only, there’s room at the table for all types.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Rated PG-13 for cartoonish violence and mild profanity. Running time: 2 hours 14 minutes. In theaters.

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User reviews

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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. 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. 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.

John Francis Daley
Jonathan Goldstein
Michael Gilio
Michelle Rodriguez
Regé-Jean Page
893 User reviews
276 Critic reviews
72 Metascore
2 wins & 21 nominations

Chancellor Anderton

Chancellor Norixius …

Baroness Torbo

Elvin High Harper

(as Sophia Nell-Huntley)

Chancellor Jarnathan
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Despite not being involved in the production or credited for his work, Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood loved the movie, saying it was a film that D&D fans could be proud of without having to defend the game to non-fans, and he even mentioned that he planned on seeing it multiple times. He was also happy to see his creation adapted faithfully on the big screen.
Goofs In Dungeons and Dragons, Bards are basically a jack of all trades who straddle the line between classes. The have some rogue abilities, are competent fighters, and they have access to magic spells that can damage, heal, and even transform themselves into different animals. Edgin would have been much more useful than a planner and whacking people with his lute. However, this is obviously scripted for laughs.

[the characters can ask a revived corpse five questions before it dies again]

Edgin : Were you killed in battle?

'Yes' Corpse : Yes.

Edgin : Great!

Edgin : Four more questions, right?

Edgin : No, no, no, that wasn't for you.

Edgin : Did that count as a question?

Edgin : Dammit! Only answer when I talk to you, okay?

Simon : Why did you say "okay?" at the end of that?

'Yes' Corpse : I didn't.

[lies back in its coffin, dead]

Edgin : Fantastic. Where's the shovel?

Crazy credits There is a short mid-credits scene
Connections Featured in Projector: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Soundtracks Juice of the Vine Written by John Francis Daley , Jonathan Goldstein & Lorne Balfe Performed by Chris Pine & Michelle Rodriguez

User reviews 893

beauthegeek
Mar 31, 2023
How long is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves? Powered by Alexa
Have any of the cast ever played the game? How or why did they become interested in the movie
Why don't they model the movie after the '80s cartoon?The European car commercial where the kids get in the SUV and drive back to the carnival essentially says this is the only version anyone wants to see.
March 31, 2023 (United States)
United States
United Kingdom
Iceland (on location)
Paramount Pictures
Entertainment One
Allspark Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$150,000,000 (estimated)
$93,277,026
$37,205,784
Apr 2, 2023
$208,177,026

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 14 minutes
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Digital

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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

Arts & Culture Critic

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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.

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The cast of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at night holding flaming torches.

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.

A screenshot taken from Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie depicting the cast in the ruins of Dolblunde.

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.

A screenshot taken from Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie depicting the main cast and a gelatinous cube.

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.

Chris Pine as Edgin Darvis and Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar in Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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.

Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam in Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

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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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.

‘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..

Film_Review___Dungeons___Dragons__Honor_Among_Thieves.jpg

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.

Film_Review___Dungeons___Dragons__Honor_Among_Thieves_1_.jpg

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.

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Dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves, common sense media reviewers.

Cast elevates funny game-based adventure; action violence.

Dungeons & Dragons Movie Poster: The characters stand in a circle, looking down/out of the frame

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie, like game that inspired it, values teamwork

The team might be thieves, but they're brave and l

The ensemble of characters is racially diverse, wi

Lots of fantasy action violence, with many perilou

In flashbacks, a married couple court, embrace, an

Occasional but not frequent use of words including

Inspired by a game/product line. Also lots of offl

A few scenes of the team in taverns where adults d

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.

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.

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.

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.

Products & Purchases

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

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.

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 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 .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (23)
Kids say (26)

Based on 23 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

Did we miss something on diversity?

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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Michelle Rodriguez, Chloe Coleman, Chris Pine, Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis in Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves review – riotously enjoyable fantasy adventure

More than just a reboot, this new chapter in the role-playing game franchise is a wonderful piece of world-building

W ell, this is refreshing. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is that vanishingly rare entity – a riotously entertaining family-friendly film that hasn’t been painfully squeezed out of a comic-book franchise like the last, forlorn dregs of toothpaste from a long-dead tube. Admittedly, this isn’t the first film to be based on the enduringly popular fantasy role-playing game – Jeremy Irons starred in a critically reviled version in 2000; a made-for-TV sequel and direct-to-DVD third instalment followed. But Honour Among Thieves is more than a reboot – it’s a fleshed-out, multidimensional piece of world-building, with immediately likable characters, plenty of face-crunching, axe-based fight choreography and a running joke about potatoes.

Kudos to John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who co-wrote and co-directed the picture. As a creative partnership, they have experience in reboots – they co-wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming – and board games, having co-directed the comedy thriller Game Night . With this picture, they strike a satisfying balance between character and action, and ensure that the digital effects are in service of the story, rather than the other way around.

It also helps that the film is exceptionally well cast. Chris Pine’s charm has never been more slippery as incorrigible thief Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez brings formidable action chops to Edgin’s partner in crime Holga. Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page bags the best lines and much of the action as Xenk. And then there’s Hugh Grant, whose roguish conman Forge bears more than a passing resemblance to his Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 . But when the film is this much fun, who cares if Grant recycles some of the greatest hits from his gag repertoire?

Science fiction and fantasy films
The Observer
Role playing games

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review – The Movie This Game Deserves

The magic of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves turns out to be the charm offensive we met along the way.

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Chris Pine in Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves Review

The world isn’t ending. Probably. Yet somehow in the realm of blockbuster cinema and high fantasy, it’s always seven seconds to midnight. Maybe that’s why the prospect of Armageddon has become so tedious at the multiplex? It may also be a factor in why Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldestein’s mirthful and easygoing adaptation of the famed roleplaying game, is so charming. At last, here is a crowdpleaser that actually pleases, and not least of all because the stakes are as small as an evening with some mates going on “a quest” by way of a 20-sided die. Imagine that.

As the second big screen adaptation of the tabletop game, Honor Among Thieves feels about a million miles away from the sinister image D&D conjured in 1980s newspapers and at church luncheons. Really, this is a movie that’s as heavy metal as Air Supply. But that also makes for a breath of fresh air in its own right during a moment where most blockbusters are mired by globs of CGI sludge, and many high fantasy stories, on film and television, bear the weight of war and fratricide.

The Dungeons & Dragons movie, by design, eschews those flavors of bombast for something a little shaggier and a lot more winsome. By echoing the type of anachronistic medieval fantasy movies actually made in the ‘80s—your Princess Bride s and your Willow s instead of J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin—the real magic at work here is a nonstop charm offensive.

Take Edgin, Chris Pine ’s quick-witted yet perpetually sweaty bard-turned-thief. When the film begins, we discover Edgin is not a particularly good minstrel or criminal, considering we pick up with him and sidekick Holga ( Michelle Rodriguez ) as they’re imprisoned in a snowy fortress on (just) charges of thievery. If this was a D&D character sheet, there wouldn’t necessarily be a lot to like about Edgin, but as played with a twinkle in his eye by Pine that never quite breaks the fourth wall, nor ever goes for the gravitas of the Royal Shakespeare Company, there is something effortlessly disarming about this Bard who can’t seem to get anything right.

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That same effect applies to the overall film. As with most modern blockbusters, the picture lives in a world populated by digital vistas and creatures like a fire-breathing dragon, yet there’s always a skewed twist. For instance, that fire-breathing dragon has a bit of a weight problem. It would love to devour our hapless heroes… alas it struggles getting even through the ancient mining doorway.

Edgin’s eventual crew of crooks is likewise struggling with their fair share of hangups: Justice Smith is Simon, a Sorcerer who lacks self-confidence; Sophia Lillis is Doric, a tiefling Druid who’s lost her tribe; and the aforementioned Holga… well, she’s a lonely Barbarian warrior who mostly resents being roped into Edgin’s harebrained schemes because it’s caused them to be separated from Edgin’s daughter (Chloe Coleman), whom Holga raised as her own.

It’s that last uncomfortable twist that facilitates the quest, with Edgin and Holga building a team to obtain a magical gizmo here, and a doohickey there, that will reunite them with the child. But often it’s an excuse for the group to get waylaid into crackerjack comedy bits, such as a scene where Simon briefly resurrects from a graveyard the corpses of an ancient battle—only these walking (or at least reclining) dead will stay alive long enough to answer just five questions. It sounds macabre but in effect it comes off a lot closer to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine, where it turns out the dead of a losing side of a battle have very limited perspectives as to what killed them.

Obviously the emphasis on comedy and a breezy, devil-may-care attitude positions Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves to be viewed as a piece with the Marvel Studios formula, which has come to dominate big budget spectacle movies for the last 10-15 years. And while that was clearly a guiding star when this project was developed, as actually realized by Daley and Goldstein, who previously directed Game Night (and had a hand in the script for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ), D&D plays more as an outright comedy instead of as a middle-of-the-road jack of all trades entertainment. In other words, you actually laugh here instead of smile as the next battle scene glazes over.

It’s to the film’s credit that Honor Among Thieves is unashamedly trying to keep the chuckles going throughout with its chubby dragons and bumbling cadavers. It’s also more visually pleasing than at least the last five years of MCU flicks because the directors and their cinematographer Barry Peterson take the time to make the thing look polished. Filmed on locations in Northern Ireland and Iceland, D&D doesn’t quite look like a Peter Jackson movie, but it does look like an actual film. The emphasis on practical effects in some of the creature designs also enhances the movie’s appeal and occasional belly laughs.

Two of the secret weapons of landing the loudest guffaws are Hugh Grant and Regé-Jean Page. Grant in particular steals the movie as Forge, a con man and scoundrel that reconfirms that the greatest rom-com star of the ‘90s and 2000s really wanted to play sniveling cads all along. While not the film’s ultimate antagonist, Forge is an overbearingly smarmy presence with a cheshire grin and constant self-promotional conviviality. It should be infuriating, and yet it is ingratiating as Grant walks away with the most giggles.

Bridgerton ’s Page also does well as Xenk, a Paladin who I am assured by actual D&D players is the most noble and holy class of knight in the roleplaying game. As someone who’s never actually played it though, I’m assuming this would make him your Aragorn or Eddard Stark. It would seem the Honor Among Thieves writers/directors agree, since Page’s Xenk essentially acts as a parody of those types: a knight so good and devout that he comes off as downright insufferable to Edgin. The scenes between Pine and Page hint at a buddy comedy that might’ve been in a different script, but even in the limited ensemble setting it’s still a highlight.

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Alas, not all of the party benefits so well. As aforementioned, Honor Among Thieves is more of an outright comedy, and when the movie is focused squarely on the laughs it casts a beguiling spell. However, in its effort to tick every box, some of the dramatic beats fall flat, particularly near the end where plot twists will give most viewers the gift of prophecy, as you’ll know where things are headed 30-45 minutes before the characters do. Also not all members of the questing party are equally served, with the conflicts endured by Lillis and Smith’s characters feeling largely tacked on. Smith’s doubting Thomas arc is particularly unenviable when juxtaposed with a comedy-adventure setting where everyone else is allowed to just go with it.

However, these are smaller inconveniences in a journey that is wholly enjoyable and which seemed to leave everyone in the SXSW audience eager to go on it again with their own guilds at home. In a dark age of franchise beige, this movie’s splash of off-color magic really does make for a good game.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves premiered at SXSW on March 10 and opens wide on March 31.

3.5 out of 5

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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DVD & Streaming

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Action/Adventure , Comedy , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

March 31, 2023
Chris Pine as Edgin; Michelle Rodriguez as Holga; Justice Smith as Simon; Sophia Lillis as Doric; Regé-Jean Page as Xenk; Hugh Grant as Forge; Chloe Coleman as Kira; Daisy Head as Sofina; Spencer Wilding as Gorg; Will Irvine as Tobias; Georgia Landers as Zia; Nicholas Blane as Chancellor Anderton; Bryan Larkin as Chancellor Norixius; Sarah Amankwah as Baroness Torbo; Clayton Grover as Chancellor Jarnathan; Ian Hanmore as Szass Tam

Home Release Date

May 16, 2023
John Francis Daley; Jonathan Goldstein

Distributor

Paramount Pictures

Movie Review

Charismatic bard Edgin’s plans don’t always work. And that’s why he and his barbarian friend, Holga, are rotting away in a prison in the frigid Icewind Dale.

They, along with a con man named Forge, were hired by a mysterious woman, Sofina, to steal an item from a heavily guarded vault of goodies. There was a personal stake it in for Edgin, too: One of the many goodies was a Tablet of Reawakening, which has the ability to revive his long-deceased wife.

But they didn’t plan on the vault being booby trapped. So while Forge and Sofina got away with both Sofina and Edgin’s bounties, Edgin and Holga were captured. It’s been a couple years since that heist, and Edgin longs, more than anything, to get back to his daughter, Kira.

That’s why Edgin made another plan that arguably goes better than the last one, resulting in his and Holga’s escape from their confinement. But when they meet up with Forge, whom Edgin entrusted to look after both Kira and the Tablet, things are a bit different.

While they were locked up, Forge weaseled his way into becoming lord of the grand city Neverwinter, storing the Tablet behind a magically protected vault. He’s also quite enjoyed getting to shape Kira into a smaller version of himself, so he’s not keen on giving her back to Edgin, either. Backed up both by his power as lord and Sofina’s deadly spells, there’s not much Edgin can do about any of it.

Which is why cooks up yet another plan: They’ll need to pull off one final heist, one that’ll break both Kira and the Tablet out of Forge’s greedy clutches. For that, they’ll need a team—a team of people who don’t mind Egin’s admittedly shaky track record when it comes to planning and heists gone awry.

Positive Elements

When Edgin reunites with Kira after his years in prison, she’s not too excited to see him. And we quickly learn that Forge has been lying about Edgin to her. However, even apart from those lies, Edgin does shoulder some of the blame. He never told Kira about the heist (as he didn’t want to get her hopes up of seeing her mother again if the Tablet ended up being false). But when Edgin returns, he blames his absence on outside circumstances.

Kira isn’t having it. “You’re acting like it wasn’t your fault,” she says. Edgin takes that criticism to heart, eventually culminating in a genuine, heartfelt apology about how he hasn’t been a good father to her and desires to change that.

Kira is excited to see Holga, however. Holga took pity on Edgin when she found him trying to raise then-baby Kira by himself. She’s become a surrogate mother of sorts to the girl, and her friendship with Edgin is unwavering. In fact, after Holga is told by a former love interest to find herself a family, she comes to realize that she already has.

When the party of thieves wants to give up on their quest to save Kira, Edgin tells the group that they can’t give up just because they fail. He says that he’s aware of how often his plans don’t work, but he keeps trying anyway, because he only truly fails if he stops trying.

The party Edgin and Kira build is full of thieves looking to score a hit against Forge. But when a real evil emerges, they band together to stop it from hurting innocent lives.

Spiritual Elements

We see many magical moments throughout Honor Among Thieves . Simon, a sorcerer, joins the party. He casts many spells to help Edgin and Holga fight off bad guys. He also uses an incantation that allows him to raise a dead corpse in order to ask it five questions. Simon also attempts to “attune” to a magical helmet, essentially to bond with it so that he can use it.

Another person who joins the group is a druid girl named Doric. As a druid, Doric has the ability to “wildshape,” or transform, into many different creatures. Doric is also a Tiefling, a race of people cursed with an infernal bloodline after their ancestors made a pact with the demon Asmodeus. (And although Tieflings sport horns, they merely look the part and don’t necessarily act it.)

Another team member, Xenk, is a paladin, a holy warrior that strives to only do good. He imbues his sword with “positive energy” to help him slay some enemies.

Meanwhile, a man from the wicked cult of the Red Wizards uses a spell called beckoning death to turn his victims into an undead army. The spell is said to enslave their souls to his will. When someone is attacked by a Red Wizard, a magical mark is placed on them.

A vault is protected by an “arcane seal.” A hallowed location is called “sacred ground.” Xenk tells Edgin that bringing his deceased wife back from the dead “is to deprive her” of her new life. A man says that some magic chooses who is able to wield it. The Tablet of Reawakening is allegedly able to bring someone back to life. Forge tells Edgin that shaping a child into your own image is like “being a god.”

Sexual Content

Holga wears cleavage-baring outfits at times. Edgin shares a kiss with his wife. An orc makes some suggestive remarks about Holga. A man bathes, though nothing is shown.

Violent Content

The combat in Honor Among Thieves can be intense, but it isn’t bloody—even when characters are killed in ways that would likely spill a lot of blood. The combat violence we see here is reminiscent of that in The Lord of the Rings movies in their fierce, yet mostly bloodless battles.

A “beckoning death” spell turns many victims into undead soldiers, shambling and zombie-like corpses that froth at the mouth.

Other people are killed in swordfights and by magic spells. A guard’s head is decapitated inside his helmet. One attacker’s throat is slit (off-camera). Debris crushes some people. Guards get hit in the helmet with a cobblestone. People are tossed around by gravity spells and hit with fireballs or electricity. Holga breaks an orc’s legs. A body is burned at a funeral. A man is poked in his eyes by someone’s fingers. Someone punches through a skeleton’s chest. A tabaxi child (a cat-like race) is pulled from the mouth of a big fish.

The land is full of dangerous creatures, too. A dragon eats a man, and the beast is stabbed in the head. A displacer beast (a panther-like creature) maims many. A gelatinous cube dissolves a man who is trapped inside it (we only see the skeletal end result). A mimic (a creature that pretends to be objects in order to catch and eat people) attacks Holga, and its long, sticky tongue is cut off. People are grabbed by tentacles. An owlbear (pretty much exactly what it sounds like) throws guards around and smashes an enemy into the ground multiple times.

The party talks with a few undead corpses who died in a ferocious battle. We see the battle take place, and its combatants get slashed with swords and attacked by a dragon. One corpse tells of how he died by being hit through the eye with an arrow, and we see his decayed eye hanging from its socket as he speaks. Another corpse was cut in half. A third corpse tells of how he slipped when stepping out of the tub, and we see the man hit his head and die.

Crude or Profane Language

The s-word is used five times. We also hear six uses of “d–n” and four instances of “b–tard.” “B–ch” and “pr-ck” are used twice. We also hear single instances each of “h—,” “bollocks” and “bloody.” God’s name is abused once.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Edgin is intoxicated and is escorted home by Holga. A man implies that Holga “drinks herself silly.”

Other Negative Elements

People dig up dead bodies. Edgin describes a bucket in his cell as the “bucket where our pee freezes.” Edgin steals jewelry and horses, and his daughter helps him in a couple heists. Forge lies to Kira.

Let’s talk about the Loxodon in the room.

It’s no secret that Christians and Dungeons & Dragons have historically not gotten along. The D&D (as fans call it) at the start of this film’s title, paired with a lot of magic along the way, may be enough to convince you to not see it. (More on those concerns in a moment.)

But just as a D&D campaign has its many battles, it also has its heroic moments, too. Interwoven within this heist story is a father who is desperately attempting to save and reconnect with his daughter. Like most adventuring parties, it’s about a group of broken people who come together to find that, together, they can have a family.

And, like many a D&D group, Honor Among Thieves refuses to take itself seriously, instead coming across more akin to a medieval format of Guardians of the Galaxy . It’s a sillier version of The Lord of the Rings —which makes sense. After all, the creators of D&D took much inspiration from Tolkien’s world.

But also similar to Tolkien’s work, the spells and violence can put a damper on things. Just as Aragorn summons the army of the dead to save the day, Simon the sorcerer asks an undead corpse for wisdom. And you’re right to assume that there’s much more spellcasting, sword fighting and, yes, dragon chomping. Throughout its runtime, Honor Among Thieves puts its adventuring party through various perilous situations that result in plenty of baddies, killed in bloodless fashion.

Honor Among Thieves certainly won’t be a critical hit among the Christian community. But I’d also suggest that its positive messages do keep it from rolling a natural 1.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He doesn’t think the ending of Lost was “that bad.”

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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.

Wearing vaguely medieval clothing, a man with graying temples sits in conversation with a girl.

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.

A woman with red hair dressed in green among mossy tree roots.

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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The D&D movie captures one of the best parts of gaming

Dungeons & Dragons? More like Downtime & Dynamics

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A grubby, battered D&D party (Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Chris Pine, and Sophia Lillis) gather around a glowing circular map in a scene from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

About midway through Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , Michelle Rodriguez’s character, Holga the barbarian, visits her ex’s house to get some closure on their relationship. The scene is played pretty straight, with Holga and Marlamin (played by Bradley Cooper) having a heart-to-heart about where their marriage went wrong. But it’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie, since the two actors are having this deep, emotional conversation while one of them is a tiny, fancy man in a regular-sized chair, and the other is a gruff, ax-wielding, fur-clad barbarian who just beat up a whole team of guards.

This sequence particularly tickled me because in my opinion, having an ex floating around is such a fun mechanic to integrate into a role-playing game. It’s a reminder that even in this fantastical world of dungeons and dragons, the characters still mean something to each other. That goes beyond past romantic dalliances and backstory — I just love having personal, one-on-one interactions within game settings, because it makes the characters feel real, like they exist in this world beyond their quests and adventures. They have an impact on other people, beyond slaying monsters and seizing loot.

LtR: Justice Smith plays Simon, Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga and Chris Pine plays Edgin in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Simon holds up a glowing wand as the others look on, in a rocky, lava-filled cave.

There can be mechanical benefits as well as personal ones. One of my current D&D characters has a long list of exes that I’ve woven into his backstory. Only one of them has made an appearance in our game so far (with more amiable interactions than Holga and Marlamin), but my character constantly references his long string of exes. It’s a telling detail about his history, but I’ve also used it to argue for knowledge of certain languages and historical details, because of all the things he’s picked up from his wide variety of past relationships.

I’ve already written about my love of downtime filler episodes many , many , many times here at Polygon, so it’s probably not a huge surprise that I love video games where one of the core mechanics is just hanging out with other characters. Fire Emblem: Three Houses and its tea-party system owns my entire heart, but I also adore Marvel’s Midnight Sun s , which not only builds in player-initiated hangouts, but adds extracurricular activities, even though it isn’t even a school setting. The best Mass Effect DLC is the one where you go on a light-hearted, banter-filled mission, then throw a party and hang out with your friends. That scene in Dragon Age: Inquisition where rogue storyteller Varric ropes everyone into a game of cards? Amazing. (And yes, I’ve been told I should play the Persona games; they are on my ever-growing backlog).

all the mass effect characters taking a photo after a total rager

I’m the type of person who likes to stop and talk to every NPC, so when a game acknowledges that and integrates that into the gameplay, I get really excited. I like that my player character has an effect on the world around them! I like that people have opinions about them, and want to hang out!

It makes sense that as I started to explore tabletop gaming, I would still adore downtime and role-play, the chance to interact not just with puzzles or battles, but with other people. Initially, not having preset dialogue options was a bit daunting, but now I realize that tabletop RPGs have everything I loved about video games, but with more freedom. I’ve been lucky to have DMs who indulge this preference, from specifically engineering a watch schedule for character interaction to setting up a whole gathering where player characters and NPCs alike brought dishes for a potluck luncheon.

Don’t get me wrong — I still enjoy some good combat in my games. But there’s something particularly satisfying about a memorable role-play interaction that always gives me a burst of creative energy. It’s part socializing with friends in a fun way, and partly the joy of creating something together, even if the audience is just us.

LtR: Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin, Rege-Jean Page plays Xenk, Sophia Lillis plays Doric and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. All the other characters look at Xenk skeptically, while he seems unaware.

And that’s something the Dungeons & Dragons movie captures surprisingly well. Between the action sequences and heists, the main adventuring party has fun together. Since this is a movie and not a long-form television show, there aren’t designated filler episodes where they all go to the beach or play a drunken game of cards. But within the framework of the movie, the filmmakers managed to integrate enough social scenes and personal interactions to really emphasize that these characters get along and interact outside of what we see on screen, something all too rare in big genre action flicks these days .

The characters might bicker. They might struggle to attune to magical items, and get crap for their insecurities. They might have uncomfortable conversations with their exes. But afterward, when Holga sadly mounts her horse and starts to ride away, her good buddy Edgin the bard (Chris Pine) sings a song to cheer her up. It’s not long before a smile flutters to her face and they’re both singing along together. That’s the type of shit I’m here for!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is in theaters now.

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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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Dungeons And Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

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'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Cast and Character Guide

Here’s everyone who will be rolling the dice!

Gone are the days when Dungeons and Dragons was a game regularly associated with dorks, a tabletop amusement created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in the 70s where everyone could be their hero or villain and live out their fantasies. The Paramount production, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , is the latest attempt at converting one such quest into live-action, even though previous adaptations have yet to attract the audience as magically as the millions of Dungeons and Dragons players worldwide.

One of the major pushes behind the project’s successful completion is the game's popularity in recent times, thanks to top-rated shows such as Stranger Things , Critical Role, and The Legend of Vox Machina . And despite years of delay, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has proven itself to be exactly what the fans and fantasy lovers have been waiting for, scoring a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed and co-written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley , the film follows the usual trope of D&D campaigns, a rag-tag group of characters coming together for a single mission. However, these misfits unknowingly complete a task that threatens the entirety of existence and now have to go back and correct everything they did wrong. The fantastical heist movie arrived in theaters on March 31, 2023, and has had quite a box office run.

If you still haven't seen the movie, here's a guide to all the players rolling the dice and a few NPCs you'll encounter along the way.

Editor's Note: This article was last updated on May 13.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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.

Related: 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Directors Talk Deleted Scenes & Jarnathan's Backstory

Chris Pine as Edgin (The Bard)

Edgin is a fun-loving, witty, and adventurous bard played by the charismatic Chris Pine in all his earnest glory. He is the leader of the party (a self-acclaimed party planner), who is more brains than brawn and is highly persuasive, skilfully talking his way out in most situations. Equipped with the best one-liners, he is particularly wary of his paladin comrade, Xenk, who he feels is competing for his place as the leader. On the rare times when he can’t finesse his way out of a pickle, Edgin boosts his companion’s spirits with his magical songs and trusty lute.

Pine’s filmography is as illustrious as Edgin the Bard’s musical numbers, ranging from action films like Unstoppable (2010) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) to his more famous nerdy outings as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise and Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman film series. Pine's recent work includes a lead role in Don't Worry Darling , a psychological thriller directed by Olivia Wilde , released in September 2022.

Michelle Rodriguez as Holga (The Barbarian)

The muscle of the pack, Holga the barbarian isn’t as ruthless as her character trope. She has a soft spot for her ex-husband, who left her for another woman. She is the perfect counter to Chris Pine’s Edgin, talking straight to the point and preferring actions to words. A genuinely badass warrior, she is among the first to notice Edgin’s jealousy towards their new comrade, Xenk the paladin.

Michelle Rodriguez stars as Holga, who is most famous for her role as Letty in the action-packed Fast and Furious franchise, where she does not shy away from throwing a few punches, a skill she unleashes with full fury in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves . She last appeared as Letty Ortiz in F9 (2021) and is set to reprise the role in Fast X , releasing May 19.

Regé-Jean Page as Xenk (The Paladin)

Xenk the Paladin is a true example of a knight in shining armor and belongs to one of the most preferred classes among the players of Dungeons & Dragons and any RPG in general due to the wide-ranging abilities available at their disposal. Xenk puts the honor in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , which makes one wonder how a lawful and virtuous knight like him came to work with a band of thieves in the first place. His skills, including sword fighting and magical spells, which even impress Holga, the most badass fighter in the party.

Xenk is portrayed by Bridgerton (2020) breakout star Regé-Jean Page . The actor’s last role was in Netflix’s The Gray Man , where he starred opposite Chris Evans ( Avengers: Endgame ) and Ryan Gosling ( First Man ). Here's what Page told Collider about what drew him to his character:

I think it's getting to revel in being Inigo Montoya a little bit, you know? It's like, I am so much the shiny, chivalrous hero. Someone previously in the interviews pointed out the first thing I do in the movie is save a cat. I think that they know full well that they're winking towards what kind of hero this is, and then immediately subverting that, and playing around with that trope.I think getting to do that is what really turned me on about this character. Because the straight-up hero is one thing, but then getting to play around and interrogate what heroes actually are is, I think, what the heart of the movie really is, that's why I kind of let Edgin go and fly on his own two feet because if I did all the hero-ing for him, there'd be no hero's journey for Edgin. There'd be no development.

Justice Smith as Simon (The Sorcerer)

No Dungeons and Dragons party is complete without a sorcerer, and Justice Smith ’s Simon fills that role. Even though he is wiser and more knowledgeable than his compatriots, he is not a know-it-all and is still a work in progress. His powerful spells often break out the group from numerous tough situations, and the young sorcerer plays a vital role in narrating the game’s lore.

Justice Smith began his acting career via theater and landed his first role in Nickelodeon's superhero comedy series The Thundermans (2014). Since then, he has appeared in several famous franchises, such as the Jurassic World series, and played one of the leads in Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019). He also lent his voice, likeness, and motion capture in the video game The Quarry (2022).

Related: Does ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Have a Post-Credits Scene?

Sophia Lillis as Doric (The Tiefling Druid)

Sophia Lillis ’ Doric, the Teifling Druid, seems to be one of the later additions to the party, as the characters are amazed at her shapeshifting skills. The innocent-looking druid packs a powerful punch. A teifling druid’s powers range from spells and shapeshifting to communicating with animals. All of their abilities are mostly nature-based.

Lillis shot to fame after playing Beverly Marsh, one of the lead characters in the rebooted It horror film series. She also played Nancy Drew in the film adaptation of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019) and Gretel in Gretel & Hansel (2020). She received praise for portraying Sydney Novak in the Netflix series I Am Not Okay with This (2020).

Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam (The Rogue)

The rogue class in Dungeons and Dragons is necessarily not evil, but they are more self-centered than any, using any means necessary to further their own gains. Forge Fitzwilliam, played by Hugh Grant , is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He uses his knowledge and experience of the D&D world to trick the group into stealing an ancient artifact for him, which later helps him to rise to power and serve as an antagonist in the campaign.

Hugh Grant is a British Academy Film Award recipient and a Golden Globe Award winner, with many acting credits under his belt. The actor is best known for his work in Maurice (1987), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and The Undoing (2020).

Daisy Head as Sofina the Red Wizard

When the supposed antagonist of the film claims that you are a more significant threat than him, you are definitely someone not to be trifled with. As mentioned by Hugh Grant in an interview with Collider , Sofina, a Red Wizard of Thay, is even more evil than the rogue himself. She initially appears as Forge's partner but eventually reveals a sinister plan on a much larger scale than Forge's schemes. The villainous character is played by the talented Daisy Head , who is quite famous for her roles in shows such as Hulu’s Harlots (2019) and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone (2021).

Wizards of the Coast Unveils Dungeons & Dragons' 50th Anniversary Plans

A rundown of all the new d&d books that are on the way..

To mark the golden anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast is unleashing one of its most powerful monsters to destroy it all.

At GaryCon XVI in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (the hometown of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax), gaming publisher Wizards of the Coast unveiled its product plans for the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary tabletop role-playing game.

While the brand is releasing tie-in products that include fashion wear, like Converse sneakers and Hawaiian shirts by Reyn Spooner , and a partnership with Lego for D&D sets , it’s Wizards’ news gaming-centric books that really get the jubilations going.

In a press-only presentation at GaryCon, Wizards of the Coast — repped by story designers Amanda Hamon, Justice Arman, Jason Tondro, and senior story designer Chris Perkins — revealed more in-depth information about each of the new books than what’s been previously announced.

The main attraction is undoubtedly Vecna: Eve of Ruin , a high-level campaign in which players must stop the dark lich wizard Vecna. While Vecna’s origins date back to the Greyhawk setting in 1976, his name became widely known more recently through the blockbuster fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things .

Perkins says that all the books for D&D’s 50th anniversary “tie so closely to the past, present, and future of Dungeons & Dragons.”

IGN quickly runs down each of the new books hyped by Wizards of the Coast for D&D’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, which you can read below.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin

A new hardcover adventure at 256 pages, Vecna: Eve of Ruin is designed to take player characters from level 10 to maximum level 20. It is scheduled for release on D&D Beyond on May 7, and at retail on May 31.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin’s story opens in the Forgotten Realms, where players are recruited by three powerful known mages — Alustreil Silverhand, Tasha, and Mordenkainen — who inform them of Vecna’s plans to enact his Ritual of Remaking. If successful, all of D&D becomes Vecna’s domain.

Story designer Amanda Hamon revealed Eve of Ruin as “a journey of the multiverse.” “The player characters are made aware of a plot by Vecna to remake the multiverse,” Hamon said. “As you can imagine, that is not a good situation. Vecna is a nasty, petty, evil jerk who has permeated D&D’s fifty year history.”

She added that a key plot device is the Rod of Seven Parts, an artifact weapon from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. Players must travel to different D&D settings, including Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Eberron, Greyhawk, Avernus, and more, to assemble the Rod of Seven Parts before fighting Vecna head-on. Hamon teases these locations also house more iconic villains from D&D past who will show up in Eve of Ruin to foil their efforts.

Perkins says the return of the locations, almost all of which have been reintroduced throughout D&D’s Fifth Edition , are meant to be “subtle nods” to its history. With the inclusion of Greyhawk, Perkins teases Wizards is seeding possibilities for the future.

In addition to Eve of Ruin, Wizards of the Coast will also release the “prequel” adventure Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye . Described as a “bonus adventure,” it is designed for lower-level players to acquaint themselves with Vecna as a threat through his minions, the Cult of Vecna. Nest of the Eldritch Eye will be available with all pre-orders of Eve of Ruin. It can also be purchased for $4.99 on D&D Beyond.

Quests From the Infinite Staircase

A new 224-page anthology book, Quests From the Infinite Staircase republishes six classic adventures from D&D history, all updated for Fifth Edition. It will be released for early access on July 9, and at retail on July 16.

Senior game designer Justice Arman explained that Quests From the Infinite Staircase is unified by a theme of “historical significance.” “I wanted to select adventures that were memorable, beloved, [and] had a common theme to them,” he said. These include creative innovations for D&D, such as quests that subverted hack-and-slash conventions, or defined D&D as a brand, such as adventures written by luminaries Tracy and Laura Hickman.

The revised adventures of Quests From the Infinite Staircase are as follows: The Lost City (1982), When a Star Falls (1984), Phaorah (1982), Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982), and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (1976).

Arman revealed the adventures are connected by a central nexus: The Infinite Staircase, an extra-dimensional realm with a staircase that spirals, well, infinitely. Every landing opens a door that leads to one of the adventures. Inhabiting the Infinite Staircase is Nafas, a new character and noble genie whose existence comes from winds blown through Infinite Staircdase’s doorways for eternity. “He is a distant and benevolent observer that helps characters travel from place to place,” Arman said. Arman confirms that Nafas has a statblock, but cautions against fighting him.

Unlike other D&D anthology books featuring planar travels, there is no requirement for plane shift spells or spellcasters. “All that’s needed is to happen upon the right door,” Arman explained. He adds that Quests From the Infinite Staircase are “slottable” into virtually any other campaign.

While all the adventures are updated for Fifth Edition, including a cultural inclusion process, Arman says their revival is more “translation, not a transcription.”

“I like to think [that], when we update adventures, we polish the text so the best part of these can shine,” he added. “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Revised Core Rulebooks

2024 isn’t just the 50th anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons. It is also the tenth anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, or 5E, which Perkins confirmed at GaryCon is still the most popular iteration of D&D of all time.

To mark the occasion, Wizards of the Coast is revising the three core rulebooks: Player’s Handbook (releasing September 17), Dungeon Master’s Guide (November 12), and Monster Manual (February 18, 2025). Each will also be made available for access on D&D Beyond a few weeks earlier, on September 3, October 28, and February 18 respectively. The 2024 editions will be priced as they were in 2014.

Perkins clarified that the new revised core rulebooks, officially designated by parenthesis 2024 — e.g. Player’s Handbook (2024) — are not “burning down the game,” but “taking books that are many people’s first steps into worlds of imagination to make them more accessible, easier to reference, [its] content easier to find, [to be] more useful at the game table.”

Overall, each revised book features UX improvements, new art, and “other things people have been asking for.” Perkins didn’t say much more on that particular subject, though he did tease an upgrade to the weapons system.

Player’s Handbook (2024) is a revised and expanded edition of the 2014 original. It has the same core 12 character classes, but now with a total of 48 subclasses with new illustrations for each of them. Perkins said that art is often the invitation that leads players towards classes and subclasses, so it was critical the art feel “aspirational.”

Other changes include a total rearranging of how it dishes out information; Perkins confirmed that the book will first inform players how to play D&D before even creating a character. Character creation will also ask players to select a class first before their species (formerly race) and background.

In a fun twist, Perkins said the characters from the cult classic Dungeons & Dragons animated series from the 1980s appear as illustrations (and aged up, so they are no longer children). Their gear also appears in the handbook with stats.

The Dungeon Masters Guide is also updated “for better flow,” along with tips for new DMs to run “a top notch game.” The revisions are the result of several major DMs that Wizards of the Coast consulted for input; Perkins confirmed only Matthew Mercer of Critical Role and Daredevil star Deborah Ann Woll by name.

The Monster Manual is “bigger” in 2024, with “apex-level monsters” and expanded statblocks for NPCs. Statblocks also have tweaked visuals, with initiative bonuses and even a set initiative score should DMs be disinterested in rolling for them. The revised Monster Manual will not contain every new monster in D&D 5E. Rather, it contains all the monsters from the original 2014 Monster Manual — each monster having undergone mechanical “fine tuning” — plus brand new monsters. Perkins said that other monsters that have appeared in other 5E source books “are still compatible.”

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977

The last book associated with D&D’s 50th year is not a source book, but rather a historical one. Billed as the publication of a historical document, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977 is a thick tome (it does 1d4 bludgeoning damage, or so Perkins joked) that publishes D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s original notes that created Dungeons & Dragons. It will be released on June 18.

The book is sourced from the original documents themselves, which entered public record (and subsequently archived at the National Archives in Chicago) by Arneson’s lawsuit against TSR in the 1970s. At GaryCon, Tondro clarified that the book aims to show fans old and new just how D&D originated, without much editorializing. While the book contains commentary by D&D historian Jon Peterson, it is not a documentary nor even a “textbook.” Instead, the book is intended to act as a record that shows the precise germination of one of the world’s most influential and consequential games of all time.

”A lot of our players, quite frankly, don’t know any of this,” said Tondro. “They don’t know where the game came from. They don’t know how it evolved. I think they’d like to know.”

Eric Francisco is a freelance writer at IGN

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COMMENTS

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
September 8, 2023 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…. Pete Vonder Haar Houston Press. TOP CRITIC. "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is an unexpectedly delightful, lighthearted ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie review (2023)
The introductions to "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" at the SXSW Film Festival emphasized that they "made this movie for everyone."There's clearly a concern that the film may not reach outside the demographic of people who once played or still play the wildly influential role-playing game.
'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Review: They're on a Roll
Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. Action, Adventure, Fantasy. PG-13. 2h 14m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. With Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith. 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.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review
Running over two hours leaves too much time for comedy that can fall flat. ". That said, Pine and Page are so charming as medieval bards and soldiers that the lulls of Honor Among Thieves feel ...
'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Review: Chris Pine Stars
The camera takes in the frosty landscape; a blizzard blurs our vision. We hear the clank of metal chains meeting concrete floors before seeing the dour-looking figure being ushered into a cell. He ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves review: just roll with it
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 ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves review
E ven with a surprise resurgence in the popularity of the immersive, exhausting role-playing fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons (2017 saw more players of the game than any other year in its entire ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.
Review: 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' has high charisma
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 ...
'Dungeons & Dragons' review: Movie scores, thanks to perfect tone, spot
'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 ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 23 ): Kids say ( 26 ): 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: Honour Among Thieves review
W ell, this is refreshing. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is that vanishingly rare entity - a riotously entertaining family-friendly film that hasn't been painfully squeezed out of a ...
Honor Among Thieves is everything Dungeons & Dragons fans ...
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 ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review
The Dungeons & Dragons movie, by design, eschews those flavors of bombast for something a little shaggier and a lot more winsome. By echoing the type of anachronistic medieval fantasy movies ...
'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Review ...
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 ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Movie Review. Charismatic bard Edgin's plans don't always work. And that's why he and his barbarian friend, Holga, are rotting away in a prison in the frigid Icewind Dale. They, along with a con man named Forge, were hired by a mysterious woman, Sofina, to steal an item from a heavily guarded vault of goodies.
'Dungeons & Dragons' review: From tabletop to swashbuckling movie
Review: 'Dungeons & Dragons' boasts charisma and dexterity but lacks true magic. Justice Smith, left, Sophia Lillis, Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez venture forth in the movie "Dungeons ...
The D&D movie captures one of the best parts of RPGs
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves makes it clear that its characters, played by Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis, actually get along and have a good time. I ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ... 2023, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office ... the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI: 'Write a Marvel movie except with Dungeons & Dragons characters ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
Revelling in its own ridiculousness but finding an emotional core too, this is a wildly entertaining high-fantasy-meets-low comedy. It will leave you prancing your way out of the cinema, lute or ...
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
D&D takes another swing at the big screen. This time in the form of a fantasy comedy. Is it (at the very least) better than the last big screen D&D disaster?...
The 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie: Cast and Character Guide
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. Release Date. March 31 ...
Wizards of the Coast Unveils Dungeons & Dragons' 50th Anniversary ...
To mark the golden anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast has unveiled its slate of upcoming books, including Vecna: Eve of Ruin, revised 5E rulebooks, and more.

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