"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is a lot of cheeky, nerdy fun, and not just for Dungeon Masters

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Coming from someone who didn’t know “DM (Dungeon Master)” could stand for anything other than “direct message,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is more nerdy fun than it has a right to be. Hasbro’s tabletop role-playing fantasy game has been a geek staple in pop culture for almost fifty years, being featured prominently in TV shows, like “Freaks and Geeks” and “Stranger Things,” and already translated to the screen once with 2000’s chintzy “Dungeons & Dragons.” Whether or not this will start a franchise, the team behind 2018’s “Game Night”—one of the best studio comedies in recent memory—makes the first movie a surprisingly good one. A sword-and-sorcery fantasy adventure with an all-in cast and a bright, cheeky sense of humor, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is a rollicking hoot. 

With a playful blend of arrogance and charisma, Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a scoundrel without many skills besides making a plan. After losing his wife to a Red Wizard’s blade, he was forced to raise his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) alone before meeting his sisterly companion Holga (Michelle Rodriguez). Then he formed a chosen family of thieves, including not-so-skilled sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith with a British accent) and rogue con artist Forge (Hugh Grant). Separated during a mission to acquire a tablet to bring back his wife and Kira’s mother, Edgin is captured, along with Holga, leaving Kira in the care of Forge. Two years later, Edgin and Holga do successfully break out of prison, but they come to find out that Forge, now the Lord of Neverwinter, may have dastardly plans alongside his chief adviser, witch Sofia (a wickedly menacing Daisy Head). In order to get Kira back, this means getting together a ragtag team, Simon included, but also shape-shifting tiefling druid Doric (a winningly quirky Sophia Lillis).

While the first big-screen adaptation of the game was very earnest and tried to be jokey, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is in full command of its tone, embracing the goofy but not above having dramatic stakes that can’t just be solved with magic. The script is knowing without being a straight-up spoof, like when Edgin proves his innocence in court with his “backstory” and “motivation.” Plot-wise, it’s pure hokum and one long fetch quest, where characters have to go to X to get the thing, but the character-filled journey really is the destination. Writer-directors John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein and co-writer Michael Gilio bring visual and verbal wit to the proceedings with a very game and charming ensemble where each actor brings personality and a specialty to the table. 

Michelle Rodriguez, reliable as ever in the physicality department as Holga, shares a lovely, enjoyable banter with Pine and maternal warmth toward Chloe Coleman’s Kira. Hugh Grant doesn’t get to play many bad guys, but as he proved in “Paddington 2,” it’s a real treat to see when given the chance and the character of Forge is a delightfully snaky addition to that repertoire. Regé-Jean Page (Netflix’s “Bridgerton”) is also slyly hilarious with his deadpan delivery as humorless knight Xenk, who loves walking in a straight line.

134 minutes of "D&D" sounds like a daunting task, especially to newcomers, but the movie moves well at a brisk, entertaining clip in spite of a lot of lore and exposition involving Voldemort-looking baddies. The visual effects are seamless, including a cameo made by a certain someone as Holga’s former love who’s as short as he is sweet. A breathless, elaborately staged chase, captured in a single take, has Doric morphing into different animals, and a lethal tournament in an arena maze is quite exciting and imaginative. Throw in a pudgy dragon and a graveyard of chatty corpses that can be reanimated to answer exactly five questions, and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is always filled with whimsical, weird, and macabre touches. Even for those who don’t consider themselves fantasy nerds, it’s a true crowd-pleaser.

Grade: B +

Paramount Pictures is releasing “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (134 min.) in theaters on March 31, 2023.