‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Brings Fantasy Fun

by Alexis Gentry · Published March 31, 2023 · Updated September 4, 2023

Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin, Sophia Lillis plays Doric and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

While I have never played Dungeons & Dragons myself, I have a decent pop culture knowledge of the game through many of my favorite comedians, writers, actors, and directors who love it. Trey Parker has described how being a Dungeon Master helped him become a better storyteller, Mike Stoklasa from Red Letter Media credited the game with expanding his creativity, and Zach Cregger, Sam Brown, Timmy Williams, Darren Trumeter, and the late, great Trevor Moore of The Whitest Kids U’ Know did a hilarious 15+ hour campaign on their YouTube channel during the pandemic. So while I might not have played, I had a pretty good idea of the game’s lore going into Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Justice Smith plays Simon, Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

This story sees a party of adventurers led by the charming Edgin (Chris Pine) and featuring his closets friend, barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), not-so-skilled sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), and druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) as they seek to rescue Edgin’s daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) from deceitful rogue Forge (Hugh Grant) and Red Wizard Sofina (Daisy Head). Along the way, they battle fantasy creatures including an adorably chubby dragon, use magic spells to talk to resurrected corpses, and get the assistance of a gorgeous hero (Regé-Jean Page) who doesn’t quite understand sarcasm.

Chris Pine plays Edgin and Regé-Jean Page plays Xenk in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

The film clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the comedies of decades past, not getting too hung up on franchise building and letting the characters play up the jokes. An early bit involving a character named Jarnathan got some solid laughs from the crowd at my screening and that fun, humorous tone continues throughout the runtime.

None of these characters take themselves too seriously and the fantasy elements are often used for jokes. This is most evident with Pine, who is just as charming as ever, and Grant, who is serving that Michael-Douglas-in-Ant-Man-not-giving-a-shit energy that works well with the humor here. A surprise cameo was particularly fun and really leaned into the blending of fantasy races and classes from the game.

Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

A few gags occasionally run a bit too long and could have been tightened up to bring the movie in at under two hours. In one moment, I wondered why we played the same joke so many times instead of keeping it moving, but it didn’t detract from the overall fun tone of the story.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fantasy story more in line with Guardians of the Galaxy than Lord of the Rings. We don’t have to get too hung up on explaining all the lore and setting up a bunch of cameos for later films. We can just hang out with a cast of charming, humorous characters and enjoy the fantasy silliness. Frankly, that type of lighthearted movie is a welcome one in a landscape where every PG-13 adventure feels weighed down with franchise expectations.