Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: With 2018's Game Night, John Frances Daly and Jonathan Goldstien showed that their directorial gifts extended beyond comedy as they made an extremely funny movie that had the look and feel of a noir mystery thriller. After the commercial and critical success of Game Night, they earned their first crack at making a blockbuster in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Unsurprisingly, they aced their move to a bigger canvas.
From what I've heard from some friends and people online that play, a big part of the appeal of playing Dungeons and Dragons is the looseness and freedom the rules allow for. Honor Among Thieves brings that feeling into its narrative as its heroes (Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Rege Jean-Page) embark on a quest where everything from the objective to the players involved are constantly shifting. Having a film that celebrate playfulness and spontaneity at the narrative level builds an environment where fun is able to exist in a refreshingly pure state. The action sequences are lively and excellently choreographed/edited, the VFX teams did a great job of using both CGI and practical effects to bring this world's large collection of unique creatures to life and every actor in the ensemble (Hugh Grant, Daisy Head and Chloe Coleman round out the main cast) brings the charisma and plays off their co-stars brilliantly. It was so great to watch an IP-driven blockbuster be so funny, entertaining, and full of reverence for the source material without alienating the people that aren't familiar with it. I'd be thrilled to spend more time with these characters if Frances Daly and Goldstein were behind the wheel again.
Grade: B+
Rye Lane: Of the surprisingly high number of romantic comedies that have released in 2023 so far, Rye Lane is the clear best of the bunch. The chemistry between David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah is abundant, the script features a great mix of heart, charm and humor and the cinematography is shockingly creative and striking for the genre. There's even an unexpected cameo from a member of British romcom royalty that adds some extra oomph to one of the best jokes in the movie. This is a lovely little movie that deserves to find a big audience, so hopefully people will seek it out on Hulu in the US.
Grade: B
Murder Mystery 2: Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's second Netflix-funded vacation miraculously finds a way to be more of a half-assed goof-off of a movie than its predecessor. Despite packing a whole lot of plot into 90 minutes, Murder Mystery 2 feels completely directionless. Nobody on either side of the camera seems particularly interested in investing much into selling the jokes or any of the beats of the twist-a-minute story that eventually reaches a conclusion that only comes as a shock if you weren't paying attention to the initial kidnapping scene and the action sequences are treated like a chore that they were going ahead with because the studio mandated it.
Like the previous installment, any watchability Murder Mystery 2 has stems from Sandler and Aniston's easygoing chemistry and even that isn't as strong as it's been in their previous collaborations. When Sandler and Aniston decided they want to go on another lavish trip to Europe or some tropical island in a few years, they should at least shoot to make something that's a bit better than this relentlessly middling exercise.
Grade: C
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