*DUNGEONS & DRAGONS* is actually good! 

As a longtime D&D DM, this movie is INCREDIBLY accurate to how actual tabletop games play out. The humor, the DM having to figure out how to keep it moving after the players screw up in a way they didn't anticipate ("TURNS OUT THE WALKING STICK IS A PORTAL GUN") and then the players coming up with an ingenious but incredibly precarious plan that uses the item you gave them, the dialogue, etc. all feels very much like a tabletop game. I love this film so much. It has no business being as good as it is

Bradley Cooper was infact, a mini cooper in this movie.

A lot of the movie is structured like an actual D&D game played by a group of friends. 1. When characters are introduced, they immediately give their backstories just like real people reading their character sheets in the game. 2. You mentioned the plot being very convenient when they went to a tavern and each person had the exact knowledge required to progress. This is typical of how to find information in the D&D game. 3. Xenk the paladin acts like an NPC inserted into the game by the dungeon master. He gives them crucial information, then peaces out when the group knows where to go. After his job is done he just walks away in a perfectly straight line. 4. The rochnon monsters not being attracted to the intellect of any party member is a joke based on the D&D classes. None of the members of their group actually use the intelligence stat for their character class. For example bards primarily use the charisma stat, druids use wisdom etc. 5. The bridge trap is a typical puzzle devised by a dungeon master in the game. Of course the players immediately mess it up, so the dungeon master has to think of another way to get the group across the bridge. "Oh hey, that walking stick you have? It's actually a portal gun!". Doric even comments that was a great save.

"I said I wasn't gonna cry today"...Yeah, none of us believed that.

15:53 - You are actually quite right! Simon is not only a descendant of a powerful wizard but his confidence quite literally tied to his power as a Sorcerer because in the game's mechanics, their CHarisma score determines the effectiveness of their magic.

That fat dragon was actually inspired by Gary Gygax's cat, who knocked over everything on his gaming table on one occasion

13:41 on the second viewing, this really got me. He knew she was sad and wanted to lift her spirits. Barbarians are notorious for not crying, but you could tell Holga was really upset.

I’d never seen a crit hit with a potato before. What a fulfilling sight.

The tip of the hat to the 80's Dungeons and Dragons cartoon in the maze gets me every time lol

Some clarifications for the Characters and their roles. First: Fun Fact: The other group in the High Sun Games in the cage are the characters from the D&D Saturday Morning Cartoon. Fun little easter egg there. Edgin is a Human Bard. While Bards typically can cast spells using magic, they left that out of the movie to simplify what each class can do. You tend to see him be a Jack of All Trades and use his words and music to inspire others. Holga is a Human Barbarian. Barbarians can rage and hit things really well. They also tend to not be the smartest, but they aren't idiots. Forge is a Human Rogue. He's good at talking his way into/out of situations and VERY good at stabbing people in the back. Simon is a Half-Elf Sorcerer (Wild magic). In D&D, a Wizard (like Sophina)uses Intelligence to cast magic. They study Arcane knowledge and lore and understand it on a very fundamental level in order to cast spells. It's very much like a computer programmer. Sorcerer's are born with a connection to The Weave (the source of Magic) and are able to use their Charisma to pull and manipulate their connection to achieve spells. That's why Simon having no self confidence was an issue, because the way a Sorcerer casts spells is basically in having confidence that they can do the spell. being a Wild Magic Sorcerer also means that his connection to The Weave is....a little off. Sometimes he gets more than he bargains for with a Wild Magic Surge, like when he accidentally casts Reverse Gravity (7th level spell) when trying to cast a Shield (1st level) spell. Doric is a Tiefling Druid. Not Elven, but actually Infernal in nature. She has the horns and tail because she has Devil Blood in her. How she got it was probably some ancestor either made a pact with a Devil, or was born from a Devil/Human mating. Tieflings tend to be very much looked down on in the Forgotten Realms setting. Xenk is a Human Paladin. paladins draw their power from Oaths that they make and live by. Their most iconic ability is to infuse their weapons with power and Smite their enemies.Paladin's are traditionally very "must always do right and never tell a lie" characters. Now, you can certainly make evil Paladins, but his writing and characteristics in this are SO GOOD and a great way to show how you can still play a goodie-too-shoes character without stopping the rest of the party.

This movie took me by surprise. I ended up LOVING it. So well done, so much comedy, clever plot devices/magic. Glad you liked it as well!

Bravo! I started playing D&D in 1978. They're have made D&D movies before, but they have all sucked. This one was great! Really captured the spirit of the game. There are a lot of Easter eggs in it for long-time D&D players, but still enjoyable for people who know nothing about the game. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Awsome reaction like always, the "fat" dragon its called Themberchaud and he appears for the first time in D&D in Drizz't Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark in 1999 which was a 2nd Edition supplement for the Forgotten Realms setting, but in 2015 an adventure called "Out of the Abyss" came out and it was where he got well knowned in D&D in general. And he was basically raised as a living furnace, sitting in place using his breath to heat up metal while being given endless food. That's why he's a lazy chonker! It was really cool seeing him on screen. And a fun fact that Themberchaud was first conceptualized when Gary Gygax (Co-creator of D&D) was running a game and a cat jumped onto the table during the session and started knocking things over, he improvised and used the cat as a fat dragon, who later had their lore expanded to become Themberchaud. God i grew up playing D&D and i love this movie hope it gets a sequel. Keep up the amazing work.

When in the maze event, there are a couple of other groups in there including the kids from the 1983/85 cartoon. That group of friends aged between 9 and 15 who are transported to the realm of Dungeons & Dragons by taking a magical dark ride on an amusement park roller coaster: Hank the Ranger, Eric the Cavalier, Sheila the Thief, Bobby the Barbarian, Presto the Magician, Diana the Acrobat. The cartoon ended on a cliff hanger where the kids could return to their world or keep going in the D&D world, seems they stuck around. Seems there are a few youtube channels that have the whole show.

I was really surprised how good this film was. Especially i appreciate, that they used different Spells from the game, and not just the obvious Fireball or Lightning Bolt. Reverse Gravity, Stone Fist, even the Cantrip Tricks were included. And showing Wild Shape with good effects. Very nice.

16:00 "Is it just his confidence, then?" - yes, you hit the nail on the head! And in terms of gameplay mechanics, sorcerers rely on the stat of "charisma" for their spellcasting. Charisma can be understood as force of personality, so a sorcerer like Simon being unconfident reflects negatively on his spellcasting abilities. P.S. there's a series of point&click adventure video games called "Simon the Sorcerer". I don't know if this influenced this movie.

As a long time fan of D&D, I can easily tell that the filmmakers are big fans themselves. That is why this movie is so good. And there are TONS of easter eggs for us.

This film did very well at my local theater. The employees were surprised by the legs it had as well as we were all thinking this would not do well the week before it released. While I think it slightly underperformed, I’m still surprised we haven’t heard of any plans for a sequel. I also found out a coworker was a big D&D fan, and I never would have guessed her as a player of the game.

For any Theatrical/Acting/ Writing students, Role Playing Games (like AD&D, Judge Dredd and Star Wars, the roleplaying game) can be essential in their studies! Why read or watch a story when you can become an integral part of one? You can perfect Accents/Dialects (real and Imagined) and can help you separate Character Knowledge from Player knowledge... And it's a fantastic game for friends to hang out, eat Pizza and immerse themselves in a world of their choosing!

I like the pudgy dragon. It’s so funny and random that a dungeons and dragons movie depicted one this way when everyone expects them to be fierce and ferocious and thin. Can’t really name fat lizards except for maybe the bearded dragon.

This movie is incredibly underrated, it's a very funny and very good adventure movie. I am glad you pointed out the subtleties in Chris Pine's acting. He does so much to make this movie work. Thanks for a fun reaction!

I've been playing D&D for 40 years, and this movie was a gift to players! The characters embodiment of the character classes was so fun (Rege-Jean Page as a lawful good paladin was especially entertaining when he walked over the boulder instead of around it😂). Watching this with fellow players and shouting out spells used, the races and character classes shown, the nod to the 80s D&D cartoon was such a gift, the plot twists, the sorcerers chaos magic, the druid shapeshifts, I could go on... I'll always wonder how much the boycot of WotC over the Open Gaming License controversy impacted the box office returns. We finally were given a D&D film done right. Im not expecting a sequel, but I can always hope 😊

I cried at the end as well. A really well made movie that anyone can enjoy, even if you know nothing about D&D.

This movie is so unappreciated. I hope with all the deserved buzz around Baldur´s Gate 3 more people watch it...

I don't know why, but the way the woman in the absolution council yells, "JARNATHAN!" is so funny to me.

One of the things I love about this movie is how well it balanced being accessible to people who have never played D&D, while still including lots of stuff that longtime players like me would enjoy. The D&D movie from 2000 was basically just a generic fantasy movie with the D&D name slapped on it. But this movie really took advantage of the game's lore. I was particularly glad that they included my all-time favorite classic D&D monster, the Displacer Beast(the six-legged panther with tentacles that could project its image). :)

"Something thieves" is a much better title honestly

the genius of this movie is that it mimics a table top adventure D&D players would be having on their own. like right here, at 7:50. the dungeon master would say, you are in a position to lose you head. do you choose wits? or do you chose brute strength? the player playing their character holga would be like "i choose wits," the dungeon master would see her "wits" points, and decide what the player needs to roll in order to achieve it. the player would then roll the 20 sided dice... and hopefully hit the points to get out of that situation. if that player hit the points, the DM would then go, "Holga sees a loose brick on the walkway where she is bent below, and using her wits and cunning to distract the ax wielding soldier, manages to knock him out and free herself from her chains." this scene just captures all of that perfectly. it makes you feel like you're really watching a campaign come to life.

Love the reaction. Highly recommend the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina if you enjoyed that. It will give you another interesting window into D&D stories.

I love this movie as a D&D fan because the thing about D&D is this; failure makes it fun. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had have come from failing a saving throw or a skill check. Plus, all those failures make your successes feel EPIC! And they completely nailed that feeling in this movie.

18:31 That's a Paladin ability called "Detect Evil" It lets him sense undead basically but I love how they made it literal like my guy was out here smelling fools 😆

As a long time veteran of Dungeons and Dragons (if you've seen Stranger Things, II was those kids) I immediately knew that was a Red Wizard of Thay, and then when Szass Tam himself showed up I cheered. This movie was SO good, and truly the D&D movie we deserved all along, especially after the others back on the 90's were so bad. Especially great was I can pretty much tell you the name of every single magical effect used in this movie and I love it. Like the black octopus arms were "Evard's Black Tentacles" heh. In the lore, wizards tended to be very egotistical and so a lot of spells have the names of the wizard who created them (which were all early characters of the creators of D&D). Mordenkainen has a lot of spells named after him, Evard has Black Tentacles, then there's Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

Such a good movie! Like, not only is it kinda true to its origins in Forgotten Realms but it's very much something that anyone even remotely interested in the genre can watch without having to know anything about FR to actually enjoy. I especially like that, as others have mentioned, it plays out just like an actual game amongst friends at someone's home would, which is probably because at least one of the guys behind it does play regularly. I also REALLY appreciate that they didn't force a romantic relationship between Edgin and Holga but instead kept it as a familial love. Probably the best thing about this movie, though, is that it lends itself REALLY well to building up to a natural-feeling extended universe kinda deal, in the way that the characters from this one don't HAVE to be in the next one for a follow-up to work. There's just so much material in Forgotten Realms - and DnD in general - to work with and so many different movie genres they can dip into...

Loved that reaction! You're totally right that there are Easter eggs and i missed many because i haven't been involved in decades but there's a lot of love poured into this movie. There have been attempts to bring D&D to the screen and they've never hit the mark until this one. It really captures the chaos and intended humor of all adventure where a plan can fail because of the roll of a die but ingenuity can save the party. The modern-ness helps make it accessible in the right way and feel like it's a currently running campaign with regular people behind the people.

A terrific movie. One secret of their success is the the viewer doesn't have to know one damn thing about the game to enjoy the show. If you do, that is just a bonus for some scenes and spells and a few easter eggs. Another D&D example of this is the Amazon Primes series "The Legend of Vox Machina" which has two seasons out already and more on the way. Their humor is much more adult oriented, but tons of fun.

For the Simon vs Sofina fight, you could call it a hand-to-hand fight. For a more emotional moment, at the end where Holga says "Don't tell me you wasted it on me. Why would you do that?" it is because she truly doesn't believe herself worth saving at such a cost, to immediately be comforted by everyone around her that she is worth spending everything they achieved to get back. She found her family after all, even if she didn't really know it before.

This was the D&D movie I'd been waiting for since the eighties. I'm glad you liked it.

D&D and pathfinder are such great games. It's a game worth trying

Even though it's not the most powerful build, I've been playing a tiefling druid for the last couple years. So when I saw Doric's horns and tail, I just lost it. (Plus, I really liked Sophia Lillis in I Am Not Okay With This)

16:05 "Janklee" means "Blessings" in the Draconic language.

One of the biggest amazing surprises I’ve had in a movie theater in years. Reminds of all the D&D campaigns I played with my friend and his brother(and all his friends) back in the early 90s. The DM usually had to introduce a Xenk Style character to get us all back on track as well.

Simon’s ancestor, Elminster Amar was beloved by Mystra, the goddess of magic.

My favorite imagining of this going to table is Jarnathan. I could only imagine the players asking the DM the name of, as far the DM is concerned, an entirely inconsequential NPC. Player: "So the aarakocrans late? What was his name again" DM, incredulous: "uhh, Jarnathan, sure".

The banter is reminiscent of Princess Bride, and I love it.

Huge dnd fan, and I think it does a great job of capturing the feel of a game. While at the same time one of the smartest things it does is treating the game rules as guidelines rather than laws of physics. For example Doric would have more nature powers but have rarer shapeshifting, Edgin would actually be a solid spellcaster with good buff spells, and so on. Am I complaining that it's not rules-compliant? Nope, because it's awesome!

Highlight of my day is the notification of a new upload from Ames!!! Woo

If you enjoyed this movie, you might also like Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010), which is based on a comic that drew inspirations from video games. Or Warcraft (2016), based on the video game franchise of the same name if you're looking for more fantasy films.

This movie came out of nowhere for me and knocked it out of the park! its got everything. hilarious jokes "Shes throwing potatoes!" "Im bad at maths" The sound design. like when the shifter was shifting from rat to hawk "squeek squeek squaaaww" the badass fight choreo. Sophia Lillis. One thick dragon boi. a fucking magical arm wrestling contest.i loved it!

one thing I appreciate about this movie, is even though there's obviously lots of cgi for monsters and magic and so on, they still filmed in interesting real locations, unlike some other blockbusters

There's a funny, very nerdy thing about Simon's confidence being an issue, aside from you noticing it faster than reactors I've watched who have played the game. It's clever writing for a very particular reason. This might be a bit long, but if you're curious: The helm posing as Simon's (indeed very famous) ancestor points out he is a sorceror descended from a long line of wizards, and it also says that magic chooses who wields it. Well. Wizards have to train and study and be pretty smart to use magic (literally, wizards depend on the Intelligence stat in the game). But Simon is a sorceror, which is different. Sorcerors are naturally gifted with magic from birth, and more have to explore it and learn control of it. They are also dependent on the Charisma stat in the game, like Bards (Ed's character). Well. One aspect of Charisma is charm, which Ed uses... But another aspect of it is confidence. Simon's ability to use magic effectively is, even in the game's mechanics, tied to his self-confidence. And as a sorceror, he technically was "chosen" to wield magic. The helm wasn't simply mocking him because he wasn't capable... It was subtly pointing to the problem and razzing him for doubting himself, but just in a challenging sort of way. So the creators used the DnD lore's interpretation of the actual game mechanics for Simon's character arc. I LOVE the writing in this movie. Lol

Finally a half decent D&D film. As a kid I was a huge fan of the cartoon, and seeing those characters turn up in the arena made my year.

This movie has everything! I definitely teared up watching it the first time, even now on watching your reaction :) my favourite D&D Easter Egg is: there was an 80s Saturday morning cartoon called "Dungeons and Dragons" that wasn't half bad, especially for the time, that followed a team of adventurers. They're one of the other competing teams in the background of the Games! Kinda hoping they get their own movie, but I want to see more of these guys too, or at least have the same writers/directors on another one! They clearly know how to handle the source material! You should try a D&D campaign *if* you can find a good group to play with. I've played many times, but it's rare to get a good group together.

Ames - How did I not catch Bradley Cooper in this? Mini Cooper (ok, I stole that one). It was better than I expected: high production value, Chris Pines rocks, and I always appreciate a good resurrection (which you called ahead of time). Not to mention, a really amped up Hulk smashes Loki tribute at the end. Hugh Grant plays a good "stinker", and super fat dragon was totally unexpected. You're right though, they did keep the plot pretty obvious - maybe just a lot of D&D nods I don't know about. And the name Jarnathan cracks me up.

The more you find out about the movie the funnier it gets. I can only think of a couple movies with more hidden gags and subtle humor.

The entire time I watched this movie, i could completely imagine a bunch of friends around a table rolling dice and making decisions for these characters. If you liked this movie, maybe check out the podcast "Tales of the Stinky Dragon" by Rooster Teeth. They started the podcast during COVID and it is very entertaining.

There is nothing like a good fantasy adventure film. You are practically in the movie with the characters! If you have played the game you can understand the movie a bit better but it is beginner friendly. A great adventure movie is great on a cold Winter's night.

As someone who has played this game for decades, this is exactly what I wanted out of a DnD movie!

Nicely paced!👍

Such a fun movie, so happy you could enjoy without being a DND player. A great cast, effects and script, I hope there is a sequel, Love you Hold Down A!

funny how you asked about Simon's bloodline... his full name is Simon Aumar, and he is descendant of Elminster Aumar, arguably one of, if not the the most powerful wizard/sorcerer in history, in the DnD universe. (that's who the elder version of himself during the attunement is supposed to represent).

I wasn't expecting to actually enjoy this movie. It's quite good and very fun!

Improvised melee weapon and Improvised Throw Weapon...saves the day, Barbarians ftw lol

Grew up with D&D (since 1979), so I was leery of this film (some of them have been god-awful). But it exceeded my expectations, perfectly capturing that balance of quirky fun and serious storytelling that is the heart of the game. And yes, there's so many Easter eggs - including having the cast of the beloved cartoon appear during the maze sequence XD

Such a good, fun movie. I am very interested in sequels.

Love it good job Ames :) back in the day umm about 30 years ago i played D AND D for about 13 years with a group of thirteen of us, played a Paladin all that time, loved it, now play GW1/GW2 mmo, for the last 13 years. keep up the gj., Best wishes kind regards Chris.....

Did you say Golden Axe? ... My favo game. Thank you for this amazing reaction

I've been playing D&D for over 25 years. I was deeply concerned with how this movie was going to go. Happy to report that the intro alone is peak D&D fuckery, and the rest of the movie was just as dope. So, so good.

Even though I own and play a lot of board games, some that follow a basic dungeon crawl theme inspired originally by D&D, I've never actually played it but this was a really fun film and really well done. You can really tell that they were setting it up for a franchise with future sequels, but I hear that this didn't do well at the box office so not sure it's going to happen, which would be a shame. Great reaction, as always!

This was such a great film. It was much needed, it was cute, funny,serious and heart warming, very well written. It had everything a film should have and a great family film. Was pleasently surprised by it. Another great reaction beautiful. Thank you for sharing, you have become one of my favorite reactors (if not my favorite) just wholesome reactions. Have a great one and be blessed

This movie was criminally under appreciated and should end up being a cult classic.

This was a fantastic movie and deserves sequels!

you should watch the first D&D movie. Great reaction : )

Have never played Dungeons and Dragons. At first when this movie was released, did not interest me much. I figured if my favorute revier was reviewing it, I might as well watch your review. It had me laughing. Thanks for your review. Like how your comments and reactions make it fun to watch.

D&D has no cards, it's more of a talking game where players describe what their character is doing & a moderator who manages everything that's not a player, they're called the Dungeon Master. There's lots of monsters from the game in the movie, it's quite accurate in that. The Mimic, Gelatinous Cube, Displacer Beast, Owlbear all come from the game.

Thanks for the Reaction.

We lost Darren Kent, who played the first reanimated corpse, this month.

Golden ask...good pull

Michelle Rodriguez is a big D&D player, there is a lot of Hollywood Stars and Musicians, Pro Wrestlers and etc that play D&D. I own this 🎥 film , i hope they make another.

So fun!!

i love how shes always hitting nat 20s and he cant get out of a rope for a long time 8:00

I absolutely love this movie. I hope that they make more of them. Also, I think that you would make an excellent player or GM.

Such a good movie.

This really was a great movie.

At the mention of Golden Axe I had something to comment about. I’ve been looking for good sales on switch and something called Sega Classics has the Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2, The Golden Axe trilogy, and some other popular games amongst 50 titles for $8.99. Golden Axe is an old favorite of mine and I should get it for the co-op alone. Kicking those blue little thieves is weirdly fun. Recently I picked up Immortals: Fenyx Rising Gold Edition, Stardew Valley, and Sword of the Vagrant collectively for $30 and all currently on sale.

Yeh I don't play D&D either, but what a fun enjoyable film!

"Cards in the games..." It isn't a card game. I mean, there are card games featuring D&D stuff, but D&D itself isn't a card game. It's a tabletop roleplaying game. Books, dice, character sheets, miniatures. It's cooperative storytelling, with one person telling the story and a group of players all controlling a character in that story.

critical role the legend of vox machina. totally react to that

This movie was done by people that actually played and loved RPG's. The 2000 movie D&D was a REAL Stinker, done by an uncaring studio hoping to make a few bucks off the Brand.

I think this story is hiding some stuff. I don't think Edgin is responsible for his wife death. I think Edgin is a flawed character that was set up from the start before he was a Harper. His wife pushed him to be a Harper. He is barely Harper material. Then Forge pushed him to steal from the Harpers. Dose Szass Tam want Neverwinter or dose he want to neutralize a powerful underling who is seeking to usurp him? Sofina has a greedy attitude for an underling. What if his wife was somehow from They? Forge was keeping his word about the girl for most of the movie he just did it in a twisted way and notice he never actually killed anyone. I play D&D and you just end up very suspicious about plots when you play D&D. 😂

I think you'd enjoy The Man Who Would Be King with Sean Connery and Michael Caine if you haven't seen it.

Please do watch 3rd part

yah fine

Dungeons And Dragons Honor Among Thieves or, as I prefer to call it DAD HAT!

And now The Legend of Vox Machina.

fav movie of 2023

Goodfellas would do numbers

"Cards in the games" oh no

There's alot of Easter eggs.

The bridge puzzle was just hopscotch overexplained.

Script writers call the moment when the hero shows he's the hero, as the Save the Cat moment. They took that literally. This whole movie is inside jokes, including why the story has so many convenient coincidences.