Starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant

Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley

Paramount, out now

Edgin Darvis is a former Harper, former thief, current inmate and widowed dad of Kira. Holga Kilgore is an exiled barbarian, his best friend and cellmate. Simon Aumar is the world’s best worst magician. Doric is a shape changing eco-activist fighting a losing battle on behalf of the Wood Elves. Everything is Forge Fitzwilliam’s fault. Well, Forge and Sofina. Forge is a con man who loves money, Sofina is a member of the infamous Red Wizards and hates life as it is.

None of them are heroes (well, Xenk’s pretty heroic to be fair). Some of them are going to have to be.

There are two locks Honour Among Thieves has to pick and it picks them both with alacrity and wit. The first is to make a movie that is D&D to its cells that’s accessible to a mainstream audience and it definitely seems to have done just that. I saw it in a packed charity screening with a friend who’s an avid player and the jokes all hit, the action all bounced along and my friend was very approving (some stuff doesn’t work how it works in the movie but it does still work). Waterdeep and Neverwinter are vital locations, one fight clearly has someone increase their armour bonuses halfway through it and the closing action scene is a joyously panicked combination of improvisation and cunning. That fight is tabletop RPG to the core as our heroes refuse to back down from a vastly powerful opponent who swats one away as the next chips away at them. It’s wickedly clever stuff, mapping the dramatic beats of a TTRPG session onto the dramatic beats of a movie and it fits like a glove.

The second lock it picks is to be a good story and this isn’t just good, it’s unusual. The found family element, which makes some people’s eyes roll but not mine, is earned and has real emotional resonance here and the tired trope at the core of the movie has never looked more awake. Chris Pine is fantastically good as Ed, combining Han Solo charm and that stillness he excels at. The brother/sister relationship he has with Holga and the complex relationship he has with Kira are central to everything and all three actors involved do great work. Chloe Coleman, who’s doing her Daughter of the Hero Year with this and 65, is excellent but of the three, Michelle Rodriguez stands out. She looks like she’s actually having fun here and, while it’s never wise to ascribe meaning without certainty, there’s a sneaking suspicion she’s not had this much fun working for some time, getting a great running gag with potatoes and a couple of spectacularly good fight scenes.

There’s a lot to enjoy here and it’s very evenly spread. The team dynamic is central to the story and Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis and Regé-Jean Page all get lots of vital stuff to do. Smith’s luckless, unconfident Simon is instantly endearing while Lillis’ intense Tiefling druid gets some surprisingly heavy hitting action sequences and a balletic, shape changing chase out of the city that sets up Rodriguez’s best joke in the movie. Best of all, Page understands the assignment viscerally as a paladin so serious and decent that he comes out the other side into hilarious. He also tempers Pine’s bitter, sarcastic Edgin wonderfully and one of the film’s two best emotional beats is Xenk calling Ed out on being far more heroic than he likes to think he is.

Finally, Hugh Grant is playing Boris Johnson. He just… is. It’s not going to get in the way of the movie but Grant really does seem to have based Forge on Johnson. Cheery, stream of consciousness, always talking and willing to throw anyone and anything under the bus in a heartbeat he’s a great villain and a tangible threat precisely because of how chaotic he is. Forge will help you if it helps him but only for exactly as long as that’s needed and Grant finds a surprising honesty in that. Finally, Daisy Head is excellent as the coldly regal Sofina and she’s a clear, superior threat even in that four-on-one fight.

The movie holds up well on home screens – the 4K version emphasises the darkness in the dungeon scenes, and although some of the CGI (particularly the Owlbear’s first appearance) is a little rough, it draws you in. The gag reel is well worth a look (Pine’s lute playing unsurprisingly threw up a lot of outtakes), and the featurettes, which emphasize the links with the original game, don’t overstay their welcome. 

Verdict: Honour Among Thieves is witty and fun, kind and shabby and loves what it’s about. Better still, it wants you to love it too. So, if you can, go see it. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart & Paul Simpson