Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has turned out to be a commendable film that has won over fans of the saga with its white humor and good dose of adventure and monsters. With 89% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes -much higher than its competitor Shazam! 2 – the film seems to have managed to capitalize on the brand it defends.
However, long before Chris Pine led the fun group of thieves in this movie, another Dungeons & Dragons film came out… and it didn’t do as well as you might expect. In 2000, Courtney Solomon made his feature debut – yes, this was his first film and one of the few he made in his career – with this adaptation of the role-playing game. And, although it didn’t look too bad, the production turned out to be a disaster.
Madness made into a movie
The worst thing about the film, beyond the cheap special effects and poor production design, is its script. The film’s plot is as confusing as a dungeon without a map. There’s an evil sorcerer named Profion-played by Jeremy Irons, who we’ll talk about next-who wants to control the world. But he’s up against a group of heroes, the protagonists, who must find a magical artifact to stop the wizard. Oh, there’s also a dragon, I guess to live up to the title.
The curious thing is that the leading cast includes actors of the highest level at the time: Marlon Wayans, Thora Birch and the aforementioned Jeremy Irons. The latter is an enormous actor, and no one doubts it anymore, but in this film he is so great that he seems to be in a completely different production.
While the “good guys” stay cool, sober and trying to lower the tone of the film, Irons gives the craziest performance of his career. And if you don’t believe it, watch the following video in which they have recalled his strangest moments in the feature film. It’s not to be missed.
