Rating: Summary: Blue lip man strikes again! Review: Ok, so I was trying to figure out why so many people don't like this movie. I came to the conclusion that most of these people are disgruntled RPG players. The rest are people who are to 'cool' to see a movie titled Dungeons and Dragons, and have no reason to bash it which they haven't. Anyway. I myself play D&D, and I got my hopes up at first about the movie. Then I realized that it wasn't being made for ME. Everyone likes something different about D&D and RPGs. The director tried to include all the elements, but it's hard to do without having a long runtime. They're making more D&D movies from what I've read so don't worry I'm sure something YOU like will be in one of them. For anyone who's willing to look past the title it's an enjoyable fantasy movie so pick it up. =)
Rating: Summary: Thanks again, Hollywood. Review: Whoever the final authority on the story and script was has obviously never played the game. This movie is shameful. I work alongside Dave Arneson and it saddens me to see his highly imaginative creation (which I enjoyed in my youth) reduced to a predictable and formulaic plot, hammy acting (Courtney Solomon's fault), and dialogue filled with one cliche after another. Some of the worst scenes take place in the Thieves' Guild where the Star Wars cantina scene and Raiders of the Lost Ark are blatantly ripped off.The computer graphics, costuming, and set design are all very well done. Unfortunately the movie is lit like a cheap television show (the supposedly dingy Thieves' Guild has brighter lighting than some of the art studios I've seen). I felt robbed. Hollywood profiteers took something that could have easily been really cool and ruined it. Just as with Hollow Man it has once again been proven that all the eye-candy in the world can't save a [bad] story.
Rating: Summary: Torture in Movie Form Review: My only question is: with such a big budget, and such good actors, how could they go wrong? The answer is simple: Its clear that the talent behind this movie spent more time on the CGI than on writing a decent script. D&D is the story of two thieves who decide to take advantage of a magical disaster to break into a Mage Academy and burglarize the place. In doing so, they accidentally get embroiled in a plot to kill the empress's advisor and procure a mystical scepter which will allow the bad guys to maintain the status quo of peasant oppression. What follows is a special-effects extravaganza, with about as much plot and character development as a Shatner movie. Stereotypes abound as the Anglo main character and his ethnic sidekick battle evil in the form of (surprise) a group of evil mages composed of... Guess. More evil Anglo men. The troupe is completed with the edition of a red-bearded Scottish sounding dwarf (of course), and a waifish... Elven ranger. The actors give half-hearted attempts to deliver their lines, but even THEY seem embarrassed to be there. The only thing that worked for me in this movie was the great special effects and the beautiful dragon sequences. (What was with the villian with the blue lip-gloss???) If you want cheesy fantasy action with no plot rent Kull or Beastmater or even Conan. D&D was just embarrassing.
Rating: Summary: When the wrong people get a good liscence. Review: Now I am a big D&D fan, mainly because of Baldur's Gate 2, and this movie just wasn't very good. The first problem is that for some reason you just can't take this movie serious. Maybe it's the Waynes brother, or maybe it's the color that is so rich it's out of character with the movie. The color is so very rich it makes you want to kill someone. The 3D effects look more like a game's FMV than a real life image. Maybe it's the fact that The Lord of the Rings raised my expectations of this type of genre of movie. Or maybe it's the fact that characters that should look normal look like they are freakishly out of place. Or maybe it's that the plot almost goes strait along with that of The Phantom Menace. Or maybe it's the fact that there isn't enough magic. Maybe it's that the characters just don't seem right. The only reason you should ever even fathom buying or renting this movie is to get the Baldur's Gate 2 demo. Whatever it was, this is an example of a movie that could have been great, but wasn't.
Rating: Summary: Easily one of the worst movies ever made Review: If you watch the outtakes included in the DVD, at one point you can visibly see Jeremy Irons look completely disgusted with himself for agreeing to sign on to this film. That just about says it all.
Rating: Summary: Took me 10 minutes to eject the disc Review: It's quite incredible these people at Hollywood are still making this I-have-nothing-on-my-brain movies, since the story of this one it's quite unbelieavably empty and full of mistakes. Imagine this: The clown of the hollywood movie says things like "ok, GAME OVER" and "Dude"... and we're watching and ancient land, with some character's using old forms of language. I'm not a genius in english since it's not my mother tongue, but even I realized of this HUGE mistake. The performance of the bunch of teens playing the heroes is so fake and pityful, mean, who are this people!?? The only acceptable here is of course Mr. J. Irons., but again, sort of mhh... are you really the bad guy or there will be another more powerful than you? The excesive use of 3D computarized scenes where you fly to a window's castle from different points gets a little tyring... What else? Mhh I don't really know, sorry, I just couldn't stand it anymore and after 10 minutes I pressed stop and eject.
Rating: Summary: There was a lot of Potential Review: I am not a D & D player. Maybe that is why I found this film so enjoyable. I didn't see it for oscar worthy acting or airtight storylines. I saw it as a popcorn film. Thats what it is and it fills the requirements well. A lot of thought went into the production of this flighty movie. The film crew was not given a lot of money to work with. They came up with quite a bit considering. The Prague locales were droolingly lovely. In particular the mage's court room and the library. There was loving effort in the dragon special effects. Also there was some nice camera work. Jeremy Irons is so over the top that he is fun to watch. The rest of the cast was likeable. All in all this film is a nice way to waste a Saturday afternoon.
Rating: Summary: wow.... Review: there are worse movies, but only because they arn't quite bad enough to laugh at. this one will make you laugh hard. and since we've already estabished just how horrid this movie is, i'm going to go the other direction and just tell you why the movie is so funny, you might just want to watch it. (only if you've played D&D and are planning on getting wasted, of course.) basically it comes down to the actors and their characters. the two main characters aren't really bad actors, and the leading lady is pretty cute. but then you've got a surly dwarf who never does anything, an elf who looks like hally berry strung out on crack (i'm guessing after she sighned on for the film and found out just what she had gotten herself into, they had to pry her bottle of wild turkey out of her hands every take.) a princess who is apperantly the skipper to queen amildala's barbie, and the roast of the toast, the bad guys. there are three of them, two main ones, and a side one, and i'm convinced they had a contest to see who could over act the most. a contest which acadamy award winner jeremy irons won hands down. the side villain was very entertaining. i don't know who played him but he looked like patrick stewart with scurvey. he was funny though. then you have damadar. imagine darth vader if he was trapped for several weeks in the rocky horror picture show. vader goes in, damadar comes out. and then there's irons. the archmage with turrets syndrome. you know, it's almost enough to make me want to watch it again, but i just don't think i can get that drunk...
Rating: Summary: Long live the RPG! Review: I am proud to say that I play the RPG Dungeons and Dragons. When this movie was in production all the people I played D&D with were so excited about the movie. I even sorta dressed up when I went to see it the 1st (and last) time. This movie is a complete flop. The acting is poor and corny and the plot is lacking. The only reason I gave it 2 stars was because of the special effects and scenery. No offence to the producers who obviously attempted to make a movie out of the great RPG classic, but I've played campaigns with a better plot. Lot of things in the movie aren't explained (i.e. the whole mission given to them when they were teleported in the map) and it was obviously made for a sequel, but I don't know how they are going to do that with the low box office sales of this one. Another downfall is that it has very little to do with the RPG, with the exceptions of the small camemo of a beholder, a hold-person spell(although it's done with a rope), and the occasional joke or comment about the classes of characters from the RPG ( i.e. mage, theif, dwarf, elf, fighter, etc.). Please if you have an interest in this, DON"T WATCH THE MOVIE, PLAY THE RPG!!! Maybe someone will get a crtical hit on the producers.
Rating: Summary: Unfortunately this is one DVD I can't add to my collection. Review: My brother saw this movie in the theater with high hopes,seeing that he's a fan of the Dungeons and Dragons game, but came home disappointed. I just rented it yesterday-seeing that I had a free rental coupon- and saw it that night. From the very start you could tell that this movie is going to be-what's the word?-corny. They could of made it better if they improved on the acting and it could have been better if they lost the cheesiness of the movie and possibly loose the jokes/humor and instead made it serious. On the other hand, the scenery was good but I thought they could've shown more of it. Unlike many of the viewers I am not familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons game, but I did hear someone say that the way they potrayed it was all wrong and is really a serious game rather than the childish(?) humor of Snails ect. in the movie. In fact I didn't even know their was going to be a sequel until the end. I wonder how that will do? Maybe they are working to improve it?? But anyways, for those of you who did like the movie I do reccommend purchasing the DVD for the special features including deleted scences and an alternative ending.
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