I’ll start: “Happy Death Day”
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
I didn’t think the trailer looked good and it felt meh, but I ended up loving the movie a lot.
It was super attentive to d&d details such as almost all the classes of the party using intelligence as dump stats or the specifics of the spells mechanics while also not needing the audience to know any of that to have a good time and understand what was going on.
And the use of d&d lore and mechanics were woven into the characters and narrative, it wasn’t just hey remember this thing from d&d. Way underrated, probably bad marketing.
The Cabin in the Woods. Only seen it once so far and I’m still floored thinking back on it and how well it did its thing.
I was about to say the same, the purge was such a creative joy
WWF wrestler discovers magic sunglasses and yuppie aliens. It’s a John Carpenter film and has one of the longest fist fights.
Con Air
It is absolutely not well written but I just love how the film and all the actors are completely aware of how dumb the entire thing is.
Oh, and casting Chief Engineer Miles O’Brien as the jerk that everyone hates is the icing on this guilty-pleasure cake.
I loved this movie when I was younger but it’s been a while… I’m sorry, WHAT?! O’Brien?! oh I need to see this one again
Con Air is an amazing “Sunday evening after eating too much dinner” film.
Sucker punch.
Looks like a mindless action with titties, but it’s actually a good movie. Give it a try if you haven’t.
This description reminded me of Club Dread, loved that movie as a preteen/teen
I watched a lengthy video essay about this movie that really made me want to watch it. Was definitely shocked by the level of thought put into the symbolism within the film.
The In-Laws (2003)
Right before his daughter’s wedding, a man finds out his future son-in-law’s dad is a spy.
The Cell (2000)
A detective has to enter the mind of a serial killer and search his dreams for the location of his latest victim before time runs out.
Skulls (2000)
At an ivy league school, a law student joins a secret fraternity known only as “The Skulls.”
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
Two stoners get the munchies for White Castle cheeseburger sliders.
Swiss Army Man (2016)
I’m not even going to try and explain this.
Old School (2003)
A group of men wanting to relive their college days start a fraternity at a nearby school.
+1 for swiss army man.
Swiss Army Man
Ok, part parody, part comedy. But why “Swiss Army”?
Army of thieves.
Prequel to army of the dead, actually an amazingly enjoyable film superior in every way to its stupid predecessor
VVitch (=witch) Logan Eklavya (Hindi)
ink. looks cheap and weird but has a huge heart and vision.
Black Bullet?
I’m going to have to make a list of the movies recommended here that I want to watch. Lots of interesting picks. Cool idea for a post.
Bunraku is one of those movies that has a stellar cast, but no one’s ever heard of it. It’s a revenge movie but it’s over-the-top cheesy and edgy, but in all the good ways. Seriously give it a chance. It’s not a good movie, but it is a fun one.
Oh man I had forgotten this one. It definitely fits the bill. Just so much fun to look at.
A few that come to mind
2022 - Lovecraftian Horror/Dark Comedy/Fantasy - Glorious
2019 - Mystery/Horror/Thriller/- The Colour Out Of Space (or Color Out Of Space)
2015 - Action/Violence/Scifi - Hardcore Henry
2010 - Action/Violence - Machete
2010 - Action/Comedy/Romance - Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
2009 - Zombie Horror/Dark Comedy - George: A Zombie Intervention (or George’s Intervention)
2009 - Adventure/Fantasy/Scifi - Ink
1999 - Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy - Dogma
1997 - Action/Adventure/Scifi - The Game
All were really good movies that I myself initially passed over (numerous times even) before coming back a while later to be blown away on the first watch. Most of these I ordered on dvd as the credits were still rolling. I can list some more if you like any of these.
I watched Running Scared with Paul Walker at like 3am probably over fifteen years ago. I thought it was brilliant, really dark but fun.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is always a good mention.
It’s a fun and very accessible movie.
Absolutely loved that movie. It’s mixture of slapstick humor and melodrama are a perfect representation of actual D&D.
And the 80s Dungeons and Dragons movie is… well, it has Tim Curry.
I may be biased, as an RPG nerd, but man, they hit all the notes so damn well. That was such a good movie.
I never played d&d or any games of that style, and probably missed out on a bunch of the catered moments, but I still enjoyed it very much
It’s very much worth watching the older dnd movies just to see how amazingly bad they were(i still like the first one they did but acknowledge how bad it is)
Agreed. Also doesn’t hurt that I enjoyed Pine when he played Kirk
I thought it might be a stupid movie to hate watch but I enjoyed it. The bread crumb trail quest line type of movie scratched the itch for me.
Which is precisely the problem: I am not, and not only was I mildly bored, I also found the narrative to be just plain incoherent. It was obvious to me the story was driven by some Reference Guide on RPG stuff, and not on captivating an audience.
I guess it hit every nail on the head. That’s all it hit, actually.
I sometimes like to pride myself on my ability to take a different viewpoint, but today it’s absolutely failing me, lol. I really thought this was a movie everyone could at least enjoy.
I guess it hit every nail on the head. That’s all it hit, actually.
That’s a fascinating statement. Could you elaborate a bit?
Not much to it outside of trying to convey “perfect by RPG standards, tropes and parameters (probably)”, but failed to “hit” me in any way.
Watching it, I was expecting to see something akin to a Franchise movie, where you may miss a bit or two if you’re not in on all the lore. But I was also expecting true entertainment with striking visuals, gripping storytelling, stuff like that
Imagine watching a spy movie. 20% in you have adversarial hierarchy, 30% in the car chase, 66% in the romantic pause, 80% in the unexpected traitor, 95% in the final hand-to-hand fight to avert the end of the universe or whatever… And it’s boring, but everybody around you is telling you it was so great because it’s got it all, the car chase the traitor the, the.
Doesn’t make a good movie.
On the contrary, the best part about it is that it’s not a compilation of references the audience is supposed to already know about. It’s just a fun adventure movie. The reason the RPG crowd sing it praises is that in addition, if you know how to read it, the actual plot is “girlfriend is curious about what we’re all doing every Tuesday evening”
Yeah, the entire story follows the major beats of a group of people playing DND. Everything that happens would be familiar to a player. Your party always gets captured and thrown in a prison from where you must escape. Dungeon Masters (the people running the game) will frequently introduce an overpowered “helper” NPC to move the party along in the right direction, but that character won’t engage in the fights. Parties will find several puzzles that the DM has spent hours creating, only for the party to use some magic or tool in a creative way to bypass the entire puzzle.
To someone expecting standard fantasy storytelling, it’s jarring and weird. The anachronistic language, the character decisions that don’t make sense, the magic artifacts that seem to just happen to be exactly what the party needs in the moment, it’s all stuff that would happen around a table in someone’s basement. It helps to think of each character as a regular person you know today playing a game where they make all the decisions for the character. Convenient contrivances or frustrating failures are the DM having fun with the story. Sometimes the dice rolls 20 and you do something miraculous, and sometimes you roll a 1, trip over a pebble and stab yourself in the face.
You don’t have to be a dnd player to enjoy the movie, but you do need to understand the lens through which you’re watching it. Otherwise, the tone and pacing seem really strange.
It had a lot of heart and you could almost “feel” the good/bad dice rolls happening.
The Paladin had me in stitches
I loved the 5 questions.
One of the best movies of the year for me, and I was expecting hot garbage.
Good call! Wife and I watched that one on a whim, thinking it would be a good “bad” movie to watch while having a few drinks and were pleasantly surprised!
You probably need be at least familiar with RPG/fantasy tropes to fully enjoy it, but it definitely felt like it came from a place of love and self-awareness, rather than the cynical cash-grab I was expecting.
Pine as a character and narrator def carried a lot of the weight.
This movie took me completely by surprise by how good it was. I feel like you could tell everyone involved had experience playing TTRPGs, from the director, to the writer(s), all the way down to the catering crew!
Although the interviews with the cast are hilarious just because Hugh Grant doesn’t have a single clue about DnD but also couldn’t give a single fuck about it.
Should he need to? He’s an actor. He can pretend to know what he is doing.
No, of course not. But it’s funny how he openly admits to his ignorance. He still gives a great performance and was obviously very well liked by the rest of the cast.
I don’t rewatch movies unless its been a few years and I really enjoyed.
Ive provably watched that movie 10x by now. Jarnathan would know what I’m saying if he were here.
I just went and watched it for the first time because of this message. FANTASTIC movie! Excellent recommendation!
