Action
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (12A)
Review: Previous attempts to translate the co-operative monster-slaying and spell-casting of Dungeons & Dragons to the big screen, including a 2000 fantasy adventure starring Jeremy Irons and Marlon Wayans, failed to replicate the unabashed fun or thrill of a campaign of the roleplaying game. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s boisterous romp is a confident step in the right direction, combining special effects-laden action and tongue-in-cheek humour under the aegis of two dungeon masters, who struck a similarly irreverent tone with their previous film, Game Night.
The duo’s breezy script, co-written by Michael Gilio, acknowledges the game’s legacy with a cheeky homage to the 1980s animated TV series and fleeting appearances by creatures from D&D lore including a Mimic, Displacer Beast and Gelatinous Cube, which absorbs and digests organic matter including unfortunate adventurers. A reliance on practical visual effects, including animatronics, puppeteering and make-up, imbues the film with nostalgic, old-fashioned charm in keeping with the gaming origins although a mind-bending sequence with a portal inside a moving stagecoach necessitates some nifty digital trickery.
Character classes such as barbarians, bards, paladins, sorcerers and wizards and the principal setting of the Forgotten Realms on the continent of Faerun are immediately recognisable but for all the reverence and revelry, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves feels like it’s always one roll of a polyhedral die shy of glory. Expertly choreographed fight sequences land glancing blows but never a sucker punch, jokes elicit warm smiles but rarely a full-blooded chortle and a big emotional pay-off is telegraphed far in advance. Greatness is within Daley and Goldstein’s grasp but it slips tantalisingly through their fingers.
Following the death of his wife Zia (Georgia Landers), lute-playing bard Edgin (Chris Pine) abandons a noble pledge and turns to petty thievery with his surrogate sister, exiled barbarian Holga (Michelle Rodriguez). The duo recruit self-doubting sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and incorrigible rogue Forge (Hugh Grant) to their merry gang. A plan to steal the fabled Scroll of Reawakening backfires and Edgin is incarcerated with Holga in the giant panopticon of Revel’s End on charges of grand larceny and skulduggery.
A daring prison break shepherds Edgin and Holga to the seemingly impenetrable vault of Castle Never and a hare-brained heist that harnesses the combined talents of sorcerer Simon, shape-shifting tiefling druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) and dreamy paladin Xenk (Rege-Jean Page). In their way stands menacing Red Wizard Sofina (Daisy Head), who specialised in the school of necromancy.
Shot on location in the UK and Ireland, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is an entertaining and imaginative jape that aims bigger than Daley and Goldstein can ultimately deliver. Pine sparks a pleasingly antagonistic relationship with Page while Rodriguez performs the majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to on-screen fisticuffs. Ray Chan’s impressive production design constantly dazzles the eyes but the heart goes wanting.
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Animation
Mummies (U)
Review: Spanish filmmaker Juan Jesus GarcÃa Galocha, who previously worked as art director on Tad The Lost Explorer And The Secret Of King Midas, makes his directorial debut with a computer-animated adventure that imagines the Egyptian afterlife as a world hidden from prying eyes where bandaged citizens go about their day-to-day business, fall in love and even marry. When greedy human interlopers gate-crash this secret realm, a trio of mummies reluctantly ventures to 21st-century London for a fish-out-of-water comedy co-written by Jordi Gasull and Javier Barreira.
Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Ricky Roxburgh polishes an English language translation that relies on a single running gag – the chief villain’s subservience to his well-to-do mummy (voiced by Celia Imrie) – to carry the simplistic narrative through protracted diversions. Chase sequences by chariot and a red London bus are well executed with bright, crisp visuals and the introduction of a pet baby crocodile that communicates in breathy squeaks like a dog toy fulfils the brief of a cute critter to charm young audiences. As solid, undemanding family entertainment, Mummies ticks every box except for originality. Pixar’s magnificent Coco bridged the divide between the living and dead with considerably more imagination, directorial verve and catchier original songs.
Beneath the shifting sands of the mighty pyramids, the Pharaoh (voiced by Sean Bean) presides over a secret afterlife for Egyptian mummies. In this subterranean kingdom, the Pharaoh calls upon Hathor, goddess of love, to help his daughter Princess Nefer (Eleanor Tomlinson) find a worthy suitor so she may ascend the throne with the royal family’s treasured ring on her wedding finger. Hathor’s messenger, a fiery phoenix, chooses charioteer Thut (Joe Thomas) and he is entrusted with the ring for the seven-day period leading up to the nuptials. Failure to produce the precious jewellery will result in Thut sacrificing his tongue and eyes.
Fame-seeking archaeologist Lord Sylvester Carnaby (Hugh Bonneville) and bumbling hench-twins Danny and Dennis (Dan Starkey) steal the heirloom and spirit it away to the Carnaby Museum in London. The soon-to-be-weds give chase along with Thut’s younger brother Sekhem (Santiago Winder) and their pet crocodile. Far from home, Egyptian interlopers are introduced to curious British customs and rely on the kindness of strangers including music producer Ed (Shakka) to reclaim their stolen property.
Mummies resolutely avoids on-screen violence and doesn’t place characters in serious jeopardy so there is never any possibility that Thut will relinquish his tongue and peepers by the end credits. The script gets tongue-tied when it comes to elegantly articulating emotions including a messy final act that resolves deep-rooted insecurities with minimum effort. Galocha’s picture doesn’t completely unravel over the course of 88 minutes but there are a noticeable rough edges and loose ends.
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