Dungeons & Dragons
Tags: fantasy, murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, revenge

Plot synopsis:
The Empire of Izmir has long been a divided land, ruled by the Mages, an elite group of magic users. An evil mage named Profion (Jeremy Irons) attempts to create a sceptre that allows him to control Gold Dragons. His attempt to control a captive golden dragon fails, and he is forced to kill it. The dragon bleeds into the river, causing it to catch fire, which many inhabitants notice, including a pair of thieves, Ridley (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans).
Later, Profion and the Council talk about the controversial views of Empress Savina (Thora Birch), who wants to give rights to non-mages in Izmir. Meanwhile, Ridley and Snails break into the magic school to steal valuables, but are caught by Marina (Zoe McLellan). She is distracted when the Library wizard is held hostage and interrogated by Profion's henchmen, Damodar (Bruce Payne) for information on where the map to the magic sceptre that controls Red Dragons is. After refusing to talk, Damodar kills him. Marina gets the map and travels through a portal to escape, accidentally taking the thieves with her. After crashing into a pile of garbage, they meet a dwarf named Elwood (Lee Arenberg), who ends up joining Ridley, Snails and Marina escaping through the sewer.
Damodar puts a price on Marina, Ridley, Snails and Elwood's heads and, after letting Profion know that the protagonists got away, Profion creates a tentacled monster inside Damodar's head. The protagonists hide in a tavern and read the map that Ridley and Marina get sucked into. Damodar and his henchmen attack Elwood and Snails, but they manage to get away with the map. Ridley and Marina exit the map and all decide to work together to find the sceptre. They apparently have to find a red ruby called the "Eye of the Dragon" that can open the door to a tomb where the red sceptre rests. The ruby is located in a den of thieves that is led by Xilus (Richard O'Brien) who'll give the protagonists the "Eye of the Dragon" if Ridley solves a maze of booby traps. Ridley manages to get the "Eye of the Dragon" when Damodar arrives to capture him and his friends. Marina is captured while Ridley, Snails and Elwood escape, meeting an elf named Norda (Kristen Wilson) who works for Empress Savina and informs the Empress about Profion's plans to get the Red Dragon sceptre. Meanwhile, Damodar interrogates Marina, using the tentacles in his head to gain her knowledge.
Ridley and Snails break into the castle to rescue Marina, while Norda and Elwood stay behind. Ridley and Snails split up and Ridley finds Marina, but Snails is confronted and killed by Damodar when he throws the map to his comrades. Ridley becomes enraged at Damodar and attacks him, but Damodar disarms him and stabs him in the left shoulder with his own sword. In the confusion Marina grabs some magic dust and uses a magic portal to escape with Ridley, leaving the corpse of Snails behind. During the council meeting, Profion and Empress Savina battle over the domination of Izmir.
Meanwhile, an elf (Tom Baker) heals Norda's soldiers and Ridley, and Marina tries to help Ridley get over the death of Snails, but Ridley angrily rebukes her. After an argument in which Marina convinces Ridley that Snails didn't die in vain, they become love interests. Ridley uses the "Eye of the Dragon" to finally get the Red Dragon sceptre, which is held by a skeleton that comes to life and warns Ridley that "anyone who wields the power of the rod shall suffer a horrible fate", but Damodar arrives to steal the sceptre and brings it to Profion, where Ridley, Marina and Elwood follow.
They travel back to the Empress' castle where Gold dragons controlled by the Empress are battling the Mages below. Profion uses the Red Dragon sceptre to summon Red dragons, which battle the Gold dragons and slowly begin to win the fight. Ridley comes across Damodar, duels him with his new magic sword and then kills him, sending his body off the castle wall, and then, after a confrontation with Profion, Ridley destroys the sceptre and a Gold dragon eats Profion.
Ridley later visits Snails's grave, where Snail's engraved name disappears, and Norda teleports Ridley to a place where "your friend awaits you", along with herself, Marina and Elwood.

Review: I cried every time he appeared on the screen.Thora Birch was also far, far below her level in 'American Beauty', obviously unable to tell how one should put a little life into her bad dialogue and flat character, and somehow even thinking that that was her own fault.If at all, the thief Snails (Marlon Wayans from Scary Movie) had quite some good moments in his slapstick scenes, the only good moments in the whole movie.
His dull and cheap sunnyboy behavior really nerved me, and I saw absolutely no reason for his 'being special', but far more for 'being untalented'.The effects where better than the story, but really not that exciting either.Some people say fantasy is about stereotypes, but that doesnt mean you can forget all rules how to make up a good story !
The only way it is (slightly) better than that movie is the (very) occasional good set or effect.I could write for hours about what's wrong with this movie, but this is what comes to mind immediately(1) The horrible acting.
Breaking into the magic school to steal they are captured by Marina but, when her master is killed, the thieves find themselves drawn into an attempt by the evil Profion to use the power of a lost sceptre to seize control from Empress Savina, who is trying to reform and make all men equal.It is hard to really judge the plot of this film because I'm sure it could have been a rollicking, engaging "swords & sorcery" affair and it is only the delivery here that has turned it into a massive, insulting pile of rubbish.
The acting was especially shocking and horrific, Jeremy Irons's acting was very bad, from this film alone you'd think he was an amateur and had never made a good film in his life but the truth is, aside of this farce he's a great actor, which is why it was really shocking to see him camp it up as the way over the top villain.
The amount of other fantasy films it rips off is incredible, but The Lord of the Rings and Stars Wars seem particularly prevalent for the movie to plunder it's ideas from, and the resulting effect is merely a travesty of those classics..
The rest of the actors are also bad, but at least the likes of Jeremy Irons, Bruce Payne & Thora Birch, know they are only slumming it, & are at least decent actors if the material is there.The plot is also weird & ridiculous, with no explanation of what is going on, & the upsetting thing was that the poor dragons couldn't have snacked on the lot of them, which would of at least made it a happy ending, for us & the dragons anyway.
I tried to keep watching in all honesty, but I kept on vomiting blood from its sheer awfulness.The dwarf keeps disappearing, the orcs don't attack anyone, there is a big slow guy walking around wearing blue lipstick, Richard O'Brian is forced into a camp off with said blue lipstick wearing man, it was far too long (by too long, I mean it exists in our time and space), in one scene Jeremy Irons looks as though he is mounting the guy with the blue lipstick...why oh why oh why does this film exist?
Even before I hit my teens I was writing better scripts for adventures then exist in this movie; there are so many plot holes the truck hasn't been built that's too big to drive through them, and despite having a cast of actors that aren't all that bad, the acting is in most cases similarly dreadful.So, if you've ever played (A)D&D do yourself a favour and DON'T watch this movie, to avoid all the hair being ripped out of your skull whilst watching.
If i could give this film no stars then i would, its that bad; in fact the only thing that is good about it is the laughs you will have at how poor this title is.If your a D&D fan then steer WELL clear of this movie as you will be shocked at how they can ruin the long running and much loved franchise in one fell swoop.
The movie consists of bad acting, bad special effects and bad script (which comprises of mainly ripping off the phantom menace).The main bad guy is established as being so by having blue lipstick on and talking in a slightly sinister voice, whereas the main good people consist of "that guy from sliders" and a comic relief element who only serves to be so annoying that you wish he would get eaten by a hydra or something.There are no real D&D elements in this film, in fact better inter racial role play occurs in LOTR between Legolas and Gimli than in this sad excuse for a film.Needless to say if your after at least a halfway decent film then DO NOT watch this one, however if you wish to clearly see how to ruin a franchise and make one of the worst titles ever seen on the screen then feel free to indulge yourself on this waste of space..
Two hours of my life are gone forever, and could have been much better spent filling up a cup with drool, rather than suffering through the terrible script, poor overacting, and a critical hit to the future credibility of D&D.I can't believe they're making a sequel.If the Lord of the Rings trilogy were what a fantasy movie should be like, this movie was the antithesis.
The special effects were weak, the plot was a laughable sequence of the worst cliches, the acting was simply awful, and I've seen better scripts written by 12 year olds.Suffice it to say absolutely nothing interesting, unusual, or unpredictable happens during the entire movie.
This much anticipated movie of 2000, titled as the very popular role-playing game, should do much to further the question of "What were they thinking?" A great deal of the movie is spend in grandiose costume and CG sets with the actors, primarily one Jeremy Irons, as Profion an evil wizard, over acting in the most laughable manner.
Which is odd because Jeremy Irons has never really done anything remotely laughable.Irons had company in the theatre of the absurd acting style and that was with back up villain played by Bruce Payne as, Damodar in blue lipstick and shaved pate, delivering lines like a macho Tim-Frankenfurter-Curry.And that is what is at odds with some of the primary components of this movie.
So don't get me wrong I do love the genre and I know what it takes to make a good Sword and Sorcery story, yet I was expecting more out of this movie.The character of the Empress Savina, played by Thora Birch was so visually reminiscent of Queen Amidala from the Phantom Menace that I could not help but be reminded of Amidala every time Birch was on the screen in those over the top costumes.The story to D&D is real predictable.
You know the standard, "OH my God the Princess, Empress-whatever- is in trouble and the evil mean guy is going to ruin everything for her and that will be terrible because she is so nice and concerned about her people-and she's a hot looking unit to boot- so we have to get some reluctant swashbucklers to go through a whole bunch of cool exciting stuff and find a magical thing that will make everything better just in the nick of time before evil mean guy can make the Princess or I mean the Empress lose everything and cry her pretty Hollywood mascara saturated eyes out.There is a scene in this movie where the character Ridley has to navigate a maze to obtain an important component in finding the magical "thing" to help the Princess err I mean the Empress.
It just didn't feel like a movie that took place in the time of Dungeons and Dragons.By the way did you see the size of that Dwarf?.
I remember when the trailer spawned in my TV screen.I was so excited about this movie.I Love the lore of the forgotten realm .So much content they could have used.To build an epic adventure inside such a wonderful fictional world.They came up with nothing.A movie using some of the race + some dragon and some twit main character trying to role play a rogue(AK).With a retarded story .I can come up with something under 5 minutes better than this mess.I'm sure none of the producer ,scripter ever opened a book of dad.Put some elf and some dwarf and a dragon and name the movie dungeons and dragon...The special effect were horrible .Hell , baldur gate(the game) had better spell effect and visual effect .The costume look so false .It's just unbelievable they could not come up with something decent.With all the material about dad on our tablet it's unbelievable.This attempt to make a dad movie it's the same attempt we have when a studio try to display a video game into a movie.Plain horrible.Rushed for money.If you're a maniac of the forgotten realm don't watch it.If you're someone who know crap about dad don't watch it.If you're bored and retarded.Pinch your ass for 50 minutes.Better than watch this crap.
It introduces some plot lines in the beginning of the movie, that potentially seemed like good and interesting ones but then suddenly decided to abandon these plot lines for such a long time and starts to concentrate on the extremely formulaic and weak 'adventerous' story-line of the young and totally uninteresting characters.
Only after more than halve way through the movie it decides to pick up the first introduced plot-line again, featuring the Thora Birch and Jeremy Irons character.
It was the formulaic type of music you would expect from a genre movie like this, only composed by a composer who will obviously never make it big time.You're better off not watching it.3/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
I an't count how many times I have seen people act exactly the way the characters/actors do in Dungeons and Dragons.The plot in this movie was obviously streamline for time purposes but it doesn't suffer because of this.
I was amazed the special effects, and visual art work were some of the best I had ever seen, and from every thing I remember the characters stayed within there game play roles.
It's like actually watching an adventure played by thirteen-year-olds, and its wonderful.I think people take this movie for something other than it was meant to.
Some have said that those who played the game or enjoy genre fantasy films might find something to like in 'Dungeons & Dragons'.
Thora Birch - wonderful in 'American Beauty' - looks like she was blackmailed into this role, as she's completely catatonic throughout the film, giving her Empress Savina (the wholesome representation of all things Good) zero energy and appeal.How about those heroes?
Dungeons & Dragons makes _Conan the Destroyer_ seem like Hamlet in comparison.The acting generally falls into two categories: mediocre actors who probably did the best they could with the material and normally good actors (Thora Birch, Jeremy Irons) who should be ashamed of themselves.
I think many people go into this movie, expecting a AAA title epic, the likes of LOTR, or comes here after seeing the "review" (which is more a parody review, as all his shows) by Nostalgia Critic.I saw it the first time when it came out in 2000, one year before LOTR set the scale for all fantasy films to come.
and with a similar budget to boot.I found the movie to be a fair representation of the average Dungeons and Dragons adventure, and I have had a lot of those.Although there were some things that I didn't agree with, I saw those for what they were, limitations of the technology of the time and of the budget.
With today's fantasy film special effects tech, with movies like LOTR and Narnia, Dungeons and Dragons could have been taken seriously and been a big hit w/ characters as popular as Capt.
"Dungeons & Dragons" is so terrible, I can't help myself from laughing at people who say they liked this film.This is one of the worst mistakes ever made in Hollywood.
"Dungeons & Dragons" is so terrible, I can't help myself from laughing at people who say they liked this film.This is one of the worst mistakes ever made in Hollywood.
That will undoubtably change with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but for now, let us focus on Dungeons & Dragons.As a lifelong fan of the game, I had long known a movie was in the works, but even five years ago when I read the plot outline (the script was being worked on for ten years), I was disappointed.
However, if you have any love or passion for D&D, any desire to be thrust into a fantasy world, or any hope of a gripping adventure, then try to avoid this movie as much as a modern D&D adventurer avoids danger.Given the rich mythology of D&D developed over the last twenty five years, the countless worlds and countless possibilities for storylines, it seems that a script ten years in the making ended up with the most politically correct (gahhhh), Star Wars-like, cheesy, save-the-world scenario possible, which, of course, is totally against the spirit of the D&D game.
At the time when this movie was new, I was still a young child so I was not aware of the terrible acting or background scenery, and I didn't watch other science fiction shows like Star Trek so I had nothing to compare it to.
I still have a soft spot for Justin Whalin after New Adventures of Superman.Special effects are pretty risible in comparison with the Lord of the Rings movies.Script and dialogue are poor and the plotting is loose at best.
This movie is soooo bad,where do you start.How about the so-called "hero's" played by Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayons.They're acting is so bad it's embarrassing to watch.Then there's Damodor,a bad guy that wears blue lipstick.He looks more like drag queen reject than a feared and dreaded warrior.There's also a dwarf(whose name i forgot)who is so annoying i wish the dwarf from Lord Of The Rings would have showed up and chopped him in half for giving dwarfs out there a bad name.Then there's Jeremy Irons,WHAT THE HECK IS HE DOING IN THIS MOVIE!!!!!!He's a good actor.He must have needed the money really bad.A bunch of kids in first grade could put on a much better show than this movie.Anyone that had anything to do with this movie so be locked up in a dungeon for the rest of they're life..
Well, for one thing, I don't have any emotional stock in "D&D." It's a terrible movie with two-dimensional characters, bad writing, horrible direction, and so many cliches that if you tried making it into a drinking game you'd surely die of alcohol poisoning.
It was entertaining enough to watch, but not worth actually buying after the initial viewing, and the performance by Marlon Waynes was rather impressive.As far as the namesake of Dungeons and Dragons goes, this movie was absolutely terrible.
It doesn't matter if you're not a dungeons and dragons fan, you can still enjoy the film and understand it easily.And even if you don't like the beginning, just keep watching for the ending.
The dragons are amazing and it's an explosive finale.Don't expect great acting, amazing battle scenes or a plot that follows smoothly 100% of the time, because let's face it, it's not that sort of film.
Now, I have never played Dungeons and Dragons, therefore I'm so lucky that I could enjoy watching this movie without having to compare it to the game.I have been a fan of Lord of The Rings for many years.
I have fairly mainstream tastes, and in terms of plot, dialogue, lack of characterisation and so on, it is certainly no worse a film than Star Wars The Phantom Menace or one of the Die Hard films - again, not exactly high-brow films but thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless, and certainly the kind of film I like to watch to relax.Indeed, some elements in this film are outstanding: the costumes, the gothic imagery, the real-life locations in Prague (dig that library!).Among the actors, we were particularly impressed by Justin Whalin, who made a fine and believable young hero, without any of the brattish qualities that a lot of actors in similar roles have had (think Mark Hamill), also by Kristen Wilson who is simply a delight for the eyes.
To others, it may seem like a poorly-acted romp through silliness, plagiarising the Phantom Menace and with an over-long dragon scene at the end.However, viewers prepared to watch with tongue firmly in cheek will find this an enjoyable experience, with likeable characters (particularly Richard O'Brien's thief king Xilus resurrecting his role as referee of the Crystal Maze) and a hammishly played villain complete with English accent.Definitely not to be taken seriously but worth watching..
(Here's a tip for the Hollywood: Get Bioware for consultation - they already make D&D computer games the way they should be done.) It's not even a good movie - pretty detailed but cheesy 3D graphics, five-eurocent special effects and composition, and such, cliched plot and dialogue, and lots of over-acting...
I laughed at all the jokes that we commonly use in our playing sessions but mostly I laughed at the film itself.The acting is not very good.The special effects could be better (but I heard there were budget-problems)The story is weak but it works.But overall I enjoyed this film, because it was a BAD film it was something to laugh at with my friends.
Yes, I know I'm going to extremes here, but if your going to call your movie Dungeon and Dragons you should at least keep to the rules of the role playing game and use the spells listed in the book effectively.