Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

I think people are familiar enough with the franchise. I know tons of people who have never personally interacted with it, but they know what it is.

Theaters are expensive post-covid and loads are limited to maybe a movie trip every other month if that. Which are you gonna take your family to? The action adventure fantasy that might be a miss or... the pretty animated Mario movie with the safe colors?

Or, if you're gonna hire a babysitter and see a movie, are you going to see and possibly enjoy the fantasy adventure movie... or the action franchise that has knocked it out of the ball park consistently and you know what it's about and if you'll like it.

Dn D needs to be in a Deadpool month; something where there's little competition but LOADS of potential for people itching to get out of the house. Which is why people were pointing to August or Sept.

Just had a chance to watch this.

I kinda wish they'd let Marlon Wayans cameo.

Just so he'd get a chance to be in a better Dn D movie.

This was fun. I'm genuinely surprised Sarina(sp) put up with Forge long enough. Like, at the least you'd think she'd have killed him once the plan was set up, but I guess she thought it was a waste.

Glad the kids from the cartoon survived as well. Someone should totally bring back the old series do a special episode where the final events of this movie are retold from the kid's perspective. It'd be fun.

Sofina doesn't kill him because she's Lawful Evil. Being "annoying" doesn't inherently harm her goals and he IS subservient to her plans. And killing him would only cause new problems and further harm future ones. How would the Red Wizards convince more people to trust them with wicked plans if they kill their allies "because they were annoying"?

Yeah the Red Wizards are very good at diplomacy and know the value of keeping their promises. It's why they also try to go for soft power by selling great magical items.

There's a reason two of the biggest and most successful "evil" factions in Faerun, currently, are Lawful Evil.

Like the Red Wizards, The Zhentarim used to be more straight-forward cultists, evil wizards, and priests devoted to the darkest gods. Now, they're basically an organized crime syndicate with a legitimate front—though the wizards and priests are still there, just not as in the forefront. No less evil, but a lot more palatable to outsiders.

Plus, Sofina is three hundred years old. She was around Forge for...two? Annoying to be sure, but you don't get to be a high-level (Sofina is at least level 17) wizard without being very disciplined.

Yeah, there's a reason why Lawful Evil is usually one of the more successful alignments of evil.

Childhood is wanting to be the Joker, adulthood is wanting to be Lex Luthor.

To be fair, the Zhents are funny because the "organized merchants guild of EVIL" thing was how Ed Greenwood originally wanted them to be.

TSR actually said he made them too competent to market to children.

Forge also comes off as the type to have some really annoying contingency plans. Not necessarily anything that'll work to save him, but irritating enough that letting him go isn't a big deal. He's not exactly a threat on his own anyway.

And if it gets around that the Red Wizards stick to their deals and don't mind making their collaborators filthy rich and freely let them go as long as they stick to their end of the bargain, that makes their scheming a lot easier in the long-run.

Edited by Zendervai on May 5th 2023 at 5:08:13 AM

Mind you, I think she WOULD have killed him but Szass Tam said he was useful and he's the Boss not her.

Her stat block claims she is Neutral Evil fwiw.

Just finished the movie, I thought it was a pretty fun ride. Hopefully it does well enough to warrant a sequel or some kind of continuation.

Watched the movie with a friend yesterday, it was fun. Kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision^note It was in my "quite tempted to go watch it, but can't be arsed to go to the theater alone for it" zone for some days already, and chatting with my friend after watching another movie, we noticed we were both in the same case and decided to go back to the theater, one neither of us regretted.

I too, really liked the villains NOT backstabbing each other in the end for once.

Edited by Medinoc on May 7th 2023 at 1:39:37 PM

My mom noticed it was available on Paramount+ so we finally got to watch it. We both loved it; shame we couldn't go see it in a cinema but it was a fun experience regardless.

My only complaint is not enough Dragonborn.

Apparently only the US version of Paramount+ hopefully it will appear here in the UK sooner or later.

Just finished this a bit ago (rented it on Amazon Prime Video) and man I had a blast; I thought it was awesome. Loved how the Gelatinous Cube (one of my favorite D&D monsters) came in clutch, lol. Plus the performances were great; Hugh Grant was clearly having a blast as a total bastard.

this movie deserved much better that what it got.

how so?

Various PR-related issues near release along with barely managing to break even.

it was a box office bomb but I think it was good enough to deserve to be succesful.

All of my friends loved the movie. None of them went to see it in theaters, no matter how much I crowed about it. Ultimately, the lesson that they'll probably take from this is that the demographic they were aiming at isn't a demographic that will turn out for movies like this.

A shame, considering more of that demographic might well have seen it if only Paramount had scheduled its release somewhere else (for example, nowhere near John Wick: Chapter 4 or especially The Super Mario Bros. Movie).

Edited by TrashJack on Jul 17th 2023 at 9:50:53 AM

August would have been a good time for it. But they probably wanted to push it out ASAP since it was already delayed from Fall 2022 and August might have been seen as waiting too long?

Idk. Movie studios can be dumb and impatient.

Tbf Paramout is terrible at when to schedule films. Their recent Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is indicted to get slammed at the box office when Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer come out next week. Which are both expected to be juggernauts (though ngl The idea of a slow, heavy historical drama doing well is nice for variety of movies in general).

Reading the film’s wikipedia and the studio apparently initially wanted it out Summer **2021**, but the pandemic slowed development. The Spring 2023 release was decided when they started filming in Spring 2021.

Though with the benefit of hindsight, one can only guess how much worse it would have fared if Pine et al weren’t able to go on the promo tour due to the strikes.

In a new Variety interview with Paramount CEO Brian Robbins, he affirms that he'll like to continue the franchise. However, he would ideally like find a way to cut costs this time.