Daley and Goldstein have had success with action comedy in Game Night and light superhero fare in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Honor Among Thieves mimics the tone of both of those in rejecting a lot of the tired punch-up that plagues modern blockbusters and having actual jokes instead of snarky asides. Like in those two earlier movies, a lot of that is just casting funny people and letting them cook. Pine is one of our best Chris’s, eminently capable of holding down a swashbuckling lead character who is himself inept during the fighting. Grant’s smarminess makes him a strong villain, and it must be a relief for Rodriguez to play a straight woman against characters who don’t grumble their lines. She has the funniest scene opposite a major cameo. Though the dialogue in this scene is therapized relationship counseling, the circumstances of it make every heartfelt diagnosis into its own gag.
Alongside the film’s humor is impressive action sequences that alternately showcase individuals and how the team works together. As is the modern style, showy one-rs utilize the medieval combat and the magic of the world. Doric narrowly escapes a castle in animal-form in a long first-person shot while Holga smashes her way through guards in a jittery take. Bigger sequences that incorporate the series’ monster menagerie feel novel in their small tweaks. The requisite dragon is present, but it’s fat and slow, though no less dangerous. Magic is nimbly integrated into the world, powerful but difficult to use. If miracles can be made to happen with the flick of a wand, nothing’s at stake.
The film’s greatest surprise comes in its ending, when this romp of owlbears and gelatinous cubes becomes surprisingly emotional. Actors whose abilities have been spent in projects that don’t use their full range come out of Honor Among Thieves worthy of a big awards push, not necessarily here but in some $20 million low-key drama. Daley and Goldstein put it all together in a film that offers a lot of variety to its audience. Considering the abysmal failure of earlier attempts to bring Dungeons and Dragons to the big screen, this is a stunning success. B+