Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

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Jarlaxle and Artemis movie!
Now you're talking my language! That was one of the most interesting things to come out of the FR books and Artemis was a more fleshed out character than Drizzt IMO
 
Saw it today. It was a really good time.

-faithful to the source material (mostly)
-stayed in its lane
-didn't take itself too seriously

Overall, it was like reading a really good piece of tie-in fiction. Lightweight and at times predictable, it still managed to be exciting and even moving.

And the kids loved it. My nephew and his D&D club went (one of their moms bought all their tickets), so my brother-in-law and I went, too. I give it a thumbs up.
 
Saw it today. It was a really good time.

-faithful to the source material (mostly)
-stayed in its lane
-didn't take itself too seriously

Overall, it was like reading a really good piece of tie-in fiction. Lightweight and at times predictable, it still managed to be exciting and even moving.

And the kids loved it. My nephew and his D&D club went (one of their moms bought all their tickets), so my brother-in-law and I went, too. I give it a thumbs up.
Late to the party myself but 100% this. It's all a D&D movie ever needed to be, really.

One point that stuck out ot me was how annoying Justice Smith character's was but we were all geeky teens, and the dorky underachiever crushing on the fierce, smart, cute redhead is probably the sort of audience-insert character a D&D movie needs.

I hope I get to take Baby Butcher to watch it on one of our weekends; dubbed, of course.
 
Also late to the party, but that was a fun couple of hours.

Sure the characters were all pretty stereotyped, but they were well enough written and cast that they were still reasonably fun, aside from the sorcerer, but at least he wasn't totally obnoxiously useless and didn't get to wallow in self-pity too much.
 
Finally saw it at the discount theater with my wife and daughter. It wasn't horrible and I didn't hate it. Seeing a 2d version of a movie shot for 3d is always a bit weird. I'm having trouble putting my finger on what bugged me about it. No gods, no demons, no devils, no clerics on screen. I guess it was an AD&D second edition movie.
 
Finally saw it at the discount theater with my wife and daughter. It wasn't horrible and I didn't hate it. Seeing a 2d version of a movie shot for 3d is always a bit weird. I'm having trouble putting my finger on what bugged me about it. No gods, no demons, no devils, no clerics on screen. I guess it was an AD&D second edition movie.

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Finally saw it at the discount theater with my wife and daughter. It wasn't horrible and I didn't hate it. Seeing a 2d version of a movie shot for 3d is always a bit weird. I'm having trouble putting my finger on what bugged me about it. No gods, no demons, no devils, no clerics on screen. I guess it was an AD&D second edition movie.
I'm not sure we'd have noticed a Cleric if there was one - after all, we spend the whole movie with Edgin and nobody (that I heard) mentioned the word "Bard".
 
I think that's probably because Fllewdyr Flam is a better bard all around. Really, is Edgin good at anything?
 
As he himself says, Edgin does the planning. He can come up with a plan on the instant. OH, he's also worrisomely good at selling those 'plans'. He has tons of Charisma, is reasonably smart, and is also fairly nimble. He's probably a Thief in con-artist line, just not as all-in on that as Forge (who clearly has a real problem with doing anything that looks remotely like actual work).
 
I saw the movie last month and I don't remember anyone's name. Shows how forgettable I found it.
I rarely remember the names of characters in movies unless something makes the name important like "Sarah Connor", "Bond, James Bond" or "My name is Alice and I remember everything". Hell, sometimes I'm not sure I of character names while I am watching the movie (subtitles kind of help with that).
 
I rarely remember the names of characters in movies unless something makes the name important like "Sarah Connor", "Bond, James Bond" or "My name is Alice and I remember everything". Hell, sometimes I'm not sure I of character names while I am watching the movie (subtitles kind of help with that).

Yeah, I even have trouble remembering people's names IRL, I'm not gonna remember someone's name in a movie, unless it's memorable enough AND easy to remember. If they hit me with some weird, hard to spell and pronounce thing I'm probably not gonna remember, even if they make a point about the character's name in the film.
 
I rarely remember the names of characters in movies unless something makes the name important like "Sarah Connor", "Bond, James Bond" or "My name is Alice and I remember everything". Hell, sometimes I'm not sure I of character names while I am watching the movie (subtitles kind of help with that).
This is me but with Love Island contestants.
 
I think that's probably because Fllewdyr Flam is a better bard all around. Really, is Edgin good at anything?
I suspect he's another in-joke character, being a thief that has Perform as a skill...:grin:
 
Yeah, I even have trouble remembering people's names IRL, I'm not gonna remember someone's name in a movie, unless it's memorable enough AND easy to remember. If they hit me with some weird, hard to spell and pronounce thing I'm probably not gonna remember, even if they make a point about the character's name in the film.
Likewise, but I'm more likely to remember the character's name than that of the actor playing them unless I already knew the actor's name. Yes, I had to look up the character names for my post above.
 
Variety published an interview with the CEO of Paramount, Brian Robbins, about the struggles Hollywood has had lately. The latest Transformers and Mission: Impossible films are going to lose money. The Dungeons & Dragons film lost money. Part of it is because there are 20% fewer movie theater goers in 2023 compared to 2019 (more people are opting to stay home instead), part of it is because Russia is cut off and China is no longer dependable, and part of it is because costs ballooned between the COVID-19 shutdown and inflation. Anyhoo, Brian Robbins mentioned that even though the Dungeons & Dragons film lost money, they may still do a sequel but it has to be cheaper.


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The whole article is worth a read if you're interested in the state of modern Hollywood, IMO.
 
It lost money, but not that much:tongue:?

And, yeah, a lot of people have been looking lately at Hollywood and going "fuck you, that's (stupid/disrespectful/whatever), I'm not giving you money or time to watch it". Personally, I'm looking more and more at Nigerian, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Bollywood titles. Those are harder to get, but often much better outside the special effects...and with some Bollywood titles you can't even say that:grin:.

Granted, HK might get stifled with time due to political issues I'm not going to touch, but at worse it would be equal to Hollywood:devil:.
 
I'ld say the limitations with the Russian market and possibly declining Chinese market are having a big effect, as well as things post-pandemic haven't returned full-steam.
I think it's also because streaming service subscriptions escalated during the pandemic, and more people are entrenched now on an international scale.
Many will just wait for a streaming service release for something like the D&D movie
 
Finally caught this last night and enjoyed it for many of the reasons others have already mentioned: fast-paced, good humour, some nice imaginative bits and most refreshing of all the action scenes didn't drag on forever and were more visually coherent than most big action sequences tend to be these days.

Also good integration of D&Disms without making it feel like a self-referential wankfest.

The character and sentiment moments didn't land as well as they could've, perhaps because of the hectic pace that didn't allow them any room to breath, but overall it was clever and fun, which is more than I can say for the average blockbuster these days.
 
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I'ld say the limitations with the Russian market and possibly declining Chinese market are having a big effect, as well as things post-pandemic haven't returned full-steam.
I think it's also because streaming service subscriptions escalated during the pandemic, and more people are entrenched now on an international scale.
Many will just wait for a streaming service release for something like the D&D movie

From what I've read it is China restricting even further which American films get shown which has had the largest impact. Something like 6 of the last 9 MCU films were not shown in theatres in China.

Honestly, the loss of the Chinese market could be a good thing in the long-run.

With the loss of that market Hollywood can't reasonably expect these absurdly expensive blockbusters to make their money back so perhaps they'll scale back and be more open to trying something different and even *gasp* original.

The recent box office success of Barbie and Oppenheimer are a good sign in this regard.
 
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I think that's probably because Fllewdyr Flam is a better bard all around. Really, is Edgin good at anything?
And everyone knows that a Flam is always the best and first choice available for any task that needs to be doing, because no one can do it better.

*plink*

...I think I need to fix this harp...
 
From what I've read it is China restricting even further which American films get shown which has had the largest impact. Something like 6 of the last 9 MCU films were not shown in theatres in China.

Honestly, the loss of the Chinese market could be a good thing in the long-run.

With the loss of that market Hollywood can't reasonably expect these absurdly expensive blockbusters to make their money back so perhaps they'll scale back and be more open to trying something different and even *gasp* original.

The recent box office success of Barbie and Oppenheimer are a good sign in this regard.

Yeah. The only good part about Hollywood trying to court the Chinese market is that China is not nearly as accepting of sex and graphic violence as the American market is, so films made for an international audience including China are family friendly. With the Chinese audience largely gone now, there's not nearly as much motivation for Hollywood to make films family friendly.
 
Yeah. The only good part about Hollywood trying to court the Chinese market is that China is not nearly as accepting of sex and graphic violence as the American market is, so films made for an international audience including China are family friendly. With the Chinese audience largely gone now, there's not nearly as much motivation for Hollywood to make films family friendly.

I'm not sure that's a good thing. Especially as the Chinese market was also a reason for a lot of homophobia as well.
 
I'm not sure that's a good thing. Especially as the Chinese market was also a reason for a lot of homophobia as well.

True. I just know that there's a lot more sex, nudity, gore, and graphic violence in television these days compared to twenty years ago, much more so than film, and I've largely stopped watching television as a result, but I continue to watch movies, I think largely due to China's influence which is coming to an end. So I'm just wondering if I'll have to give up watching new movies as well and stick to watching old films, much like I now stick to watching old television shows. C'est la vie.
 
Yeah. The only good part about Hollywood trying to court the Chinese market is that China is not nearly as accepting of sex and graphic violence as the American market is, so films made for an international audience including China are family friendly. With the Chinese audience largely gone now, there's not nearly as much motivation for Hollywood to make films family friendly.

I like family films but also value films that deal with adult subjects frankly and even appreciate the energy and extremity of exploitation films.

The puritan turn in American film took place long before the growth of China as a market so I have my doubts that they're linked.

And Chinese film, both in the mainland 5th Generation movement and the few modern-day Chinese directors working in that tradition (e.g. Jia Zhangke) and the great HK tradition stretching from the Shaw Bros. exploitation films (Kiss of Death, Cheng Cheh's bloody epics) to the excesses of the CATIII period, which produced some of the most extreme sex and violence films of all time, make me doubt it is the 'market' dictating any current reduction in those aspects in Chinese film.
 
True. I just know that there's a lot more sex, nudity, gore, and graphic violence in television these days compared to twenty years ago, much more so than film, and I've largely stopped watching television as a result, but I continue to watch movies, I think largely due to China's influence which is coming to an end. So I'm just wondering if I'll have to give up watching new movies as well and stick to watching old films, much like I now stick to watching old television shows. C'est la vie.

I often hear about all this sex in modernday American film and tv but see little to no evidence for it.

American popular culure is more sexless now than it has been in my lifetime.
 
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I often hear about all this sex in modernday American film and tv but see little to no evidence for it.

American popular culure is more sexless now than it has been in my lifetime.
I think the decrease in romance in Marvel movies has as much to do with their decline in popularity as superhero fatigue. A lot of the mainstream appeal of the early Marvel movies like Iron Man and Captain America came from the romances. Even the forgotten Marvel movie, The Incredible Hulk, put a lot of emphasis on the relationship between Banner and Ross.
 
I think the decrease in romance in Marvel movies has as much to do with their decline in popularity as superhero fatigue. A lot of the mainstream appeal of the early Marvel movies like Iron Man and Captain America came from the romances. Even the forgotten Marvel movie, The Incredible Hulk, put a lot of emphasis on the relationship between Banner and Ross.

Good point, especially as the secret sauce in Marvel comics was the combo of the superhero with romance/soap opera elements.
 
I often hear about all this sex in modernday American film and tv but see little to no evidence for it.

American popular culure is more sexless now than it has been in my lifetime.
It's largely peaked now and is going the other way - especially in regards to sex on TV.

Compare the early seasons of Game of Thrones to the latter. Or HBO's Rome to anything being made now.
 
It's largely peaked now and is going the other way - especially in regards to sex on TV.

Compare the early seasons of Game of Thrones to the latter. Or HBO's Rome to anything being made now.

As a fan of 70s film, both American, Euro and Japanese, I never found the nudity of those series that surprising.

Unusual by the superstrict standards of American tv, sure, but much ado about nothing imo.
 
As a fan of 70s film, both American, Euro and Japanese, I never found the nudity of those series that surprising.

Unusual by the superstrict standards of American tv, sure, but much ado about nothing imo.
Back in the '80s, HBO's original programming was largely, "It's a sitcom, but with boobs!"
 
Yeah. The only good part about Hollywood trying to court the Chinese market is that China is not nearly as accepting of sex and graphic violence as the American market is, so films made for an international audience including China are family friendly. With the Chinese audience largely gone now, there's not nearly as much motivation for Hollywood to make films family friendly.
On the other hand, when a movie is written and made subject to the necessity of commercial success in dubbed or subtitled versions there is an irresistible pressure on the producers to substitute spectacle for plot, to reduce drama and romance to established clichés, and to replace characters with comic relief and points of identification for the "young adults". Dependence the world market not only made Hollywood output censor-friendly, but also tended to make it simplistic and bombastic.
 
On the other hand, when a movie is written and made subject to the necessity of commercial success in dubbed or subtitled versions there is an irresistible pressure on the producers to substitute spectacle for plot, to reduce drama and romance to established clichés, and to replace characters with comic relief and points of identification for the "young adults". Dependence the world market not only made Hollywood output censor-friendly, but also tended to make it simplistic and bombastic.
Movies made for everybody often aren't made for anybody.
 
I'ld say the limitations with the Russian market

Yup. Though I don't know the numbers for cinema goers from Russia. I do have a fairly good understanding of the piracy network costs (I wrote an assignment about it at film school)

and possibly declining Chinese market are having a big effect,

China was a big source of film funding so there a lot of movies who have a Chinese actor alongside the "planned" cast. If China isn't accepting films they didn't fund (or have influence in) or having a higher bar for entry that would be significant.

The MCU issue with China - wasn't that something obscure like the reference to Taiwan on a map or something?

Many will just wait for a streaming service release for something like the D&D movie

I love movies but I hate cinema. The idea of sharing a room with uncomfortable seats and loud eating noises, to watch a movie that I can't pause, leaves me cold. I won't shed a tear for those relics of our society.
 
On the other hand, when a movie is written and made subject to the necessity of commercial success in dubbed or subtitled versions there is an irresistible pressure on the producers to substitute spectacle for plot, to reduce drama and romance to established clichés, and to replace characters with comic relief and points of identification for the "young adults". Dependence the world market not only made Hollywood output censor-friendly, but also tended to make it simplistic and bombastic.
Another aspect people rarely think about is the need to have movies for people who may be watching in English but whose English is not very good, or are watching dubbed versions based on translation.

That pretty much rules out sophisticated plays on words or many types of humour.
 
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