Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves

Aged like wine or a very nice bourbon.

I know some hardcore, dungeon crawling, bone rolling fans who are gonna dig the shit out of this movie. And as a newbie I felt very proud to know so many tidbits of the world from creatures to spells, but the overall story and characters is where it's at. The plot is pretty much exactly stated in the trailer, a group of noble thieves help a secret dark wizard to acquire a powerful artifact and while working out their own baggage turn full on heroes. The reason why exactly this movie works so well aside from the performances themselves is the backstory, the motivation, the history of these characters. All easily understandable, grounded, and fleshed out enough to where you get them. Though I think the dialogue is written well enough to where even if the backstory wasn't there you get a solid grip on the personalities of our main characters. Of course Chris Pine is a charismatic, funny, and great lead as the bard Edgin and has the biggest arc of our party. Michelle Rodriguez is...okay without shamelessly fawning over a century for this woman, plays a powerhouse barbarian named Holga who is absurdly awesome, has a dry sense of humor, and an undying loyalty to Edgin. I am smitten. Justice Smith is our residential sorcerer Simon, bit of a klutz, has some awkwardness, but is a strong spell slinger. Sophia Lillis as a shapeshifting Tiefling named Doric I feel gets the least stuff to do but I like her character motivation to join the party and has some really cool moments peppered throughout so she is far from a waste. Daisy Head as Sofina, great villain in appearance but average in terms of scheme and I must admit red wizards were unknown to me in my research, but guys seriously? This woman who stares at you like she's from the fucking dark side, in a cloak, smoky eye to the max, and she wants you to break into a vault housing treasure of villains, none of this tipped you off?? Cause that would be a hard pass for me. But truthfully that's the only nitpick I got. The movie is really dang funny, in situation and dialogue with actors who have good timing, and it never feels unnecessary. The tone makes it all work, it projects a sense of fun, high stakes but not really heavy, adventurous feeling and delivers beautifully. It truly does feel like you are watching the visualization of a group of people playing the game, there are botches, good saving throws, proficiencies, getting loot and better weapons, it all feels legit. It works as a fantasy movie yes, you can walk in knowing jack shit about D&D and have some fun, but if you know your stuff it feels like an extension of that universe. And it feels like there is comraderie, group effort, and combining of skills which is the true spirit of the game. So it works well as a movie, it works well as an adaptation of the most popular role playing game in the world, and it no doubt can work well with sequels either following this party or going on a different quest with a new group. Nothing but 4 stars from me, 8.5/10, check it out even if you have just an ounce of interest. Dungeons & Dragons has been nothing but inevitable in my life, I've been hearing about this game since my teen years and I did the research and bought the books, and I may have gotten sidetracked and made my own character (A high elf warlock in league with an Elder God if you wanna know), but the interest is still there and I'm down for more. Hell I already bought the dice, I think I'm pretty much in at that point. Tune in next week for some adaptations of good old Nintendo games.

In Retrospect: IT (2017)

It has gotten better on a second viewing, I will give IT that. (Ha, ha, ha......)

Yes, IT has grown on me since the first go around. The tonal issues I had have subsided and now that I think about it, I have never seen a straight up horror movie with comic relief throughout. That jarred me a bit but now I can roll with it. The characters are all memorable and the actors have done an amazing job with them, the Losers Club being some of the best acting I've seen in awhile, especially from kids. The whole film was just so well made, and yeah maybe they made it the 80s because of it's resurgence in popular media because of Stranger Things but truthfully, it was bound to happen soon. Same stuff happened in the 80s with the 50s, every roughly 30 years a decade has great fondness for a past decade, which brought up a really good point from one of my friends. He said something to the extent of, everyone who is making movies now has fond memories of the 80s, they grew up during that time and have become nostalgic of it so that's why it's cropping up so much now. That generation is grown up and making stuff now. Which is really awesome to me, for various reasons. I am a highly nostalgic person, I love the things from my youth and share my opinions and views about them. So does that mean in say...2025 the 90s are gonna strike back and everyone will be wearing Jinco jeans, and drinking Zima and Crystal Pepsi while listening to N*Sync and movies will reflect that era of history? That seems to be the trend so I'm curious as to what the future holds. I do love the 80s and seeing that time frame be so prevalent now is a real treat, regardless of if it's a popular trend or not (It is, don't tell anybody. Shh.). But yeah, the movie really did get better, I still cannot contain my laughter at Bill Skarsgard, I am so sorry to all those people afraid of clowns but he just cracks me up. I mean he's weird, but god dang it is he entertaining and makes me laugh. I cannot hate things that make me happy! I like clowns! They are wonderful people and really due to the 90s IT movie is why people have this stigma against them. But I see the humor in his performance as Pennywise and it is a great performance, he is what made this movie for me. Granted I have no idea how this next movie will go down set in the modern day, though thinking about it now Maine probably hasn't changed terribly since the 80s, just saying. No idea if they're doing the spider thing, most likely are, it's more a matter of how the design looks for me to be on board with that element. Really the book is notoriously long, spanning over 1000 pages, War And Peace is over a 1000 pages but for a book like War And Peace it makes sense, and many people have said it reads pretty much like a cocaine bender with tons of oddities and thankfully cut scenes in the adaptations, so really anything can go. I doubt it will be better than the first but here's hoping. So yeah, it is well worth your money to own it, it is a great movie that is done almost pitch perfect, so buy it, rent it, watch it, and you'll float like the rest of us. Now I'm off to listen to New Kids On The Block. Pray for me.

IT (2017)

Okay, new movie! New horror movie even! Was it good? Eh...

Okay so I have not read the novel, and haven't even really sat and watched the whole TV miniseries because I...favor my sanity, so how did this movie stack up? Well, it was really good. Had it's faults mind you, but most could be overlooked. So for the people who are wondering what's the deal with the clown I shall try and tell the story without sounding like I forgot to take my medication. So basically a town is plagued by a supernatural being, able to shift into your worst nightmares, and a small group of kids are being hunted by this thing and they have to try and save themselves and their town from It. Now, onto the bad things! This movie aggravated me. Not because it was bad, but certain elements rubbed me the wrong way. A lot. I pose a question, why does every horror movie rely on jumpscares? Every...single...time a legit scare happens BANG! Loud noise. You're killing me Smalls. You just can't be properly scared anymore, gone are the days of atmosphere and suspense. And the worse part is, the movie tries to build atmosphere through set design, music, lighting, and pacing. But then it gets ruined by the friggin' jumpscares! God give me strength. I'd dare you to take a shot everytime a loud noise happened but you would be comatose, if not dead before half of the movie was over. You can scare people with silence, I assure you. And the other problem, the biggest problem is mood. My sweet baby Moses, this movie has such tone issues. If you want to scare people silly, do it. Do not, I repeat DO NOT make endless jokes. Now granted the comedy in this is funny. But that's the problem! It shouldn't be funny!! When you go from, child being murdered in the sewers to talking about how big someone's johnson is, this is what we call 'ruining atmosphere' or as I like to call it, bipolar. Stop it! But...the movie has good parts in it. The kids are great, so great that this movie passes supernatural horror and could be a really thoughtful and realistic look in pre-teen years. The human element was believable, you can empathize with these kids, and they are all very likable! I hate to say this but, IT would have been a better movie without the clown! Now don't get me wrong Bill Skarsgard was, phenomenal. He made me terrified and laugh at the same time! Loved his performance in this movie! God, he's awesome! But I kinda just wanted a movie about these kids and their problems because they were that great. And you do get this Stranger Things vibe, the movie is set in the late 80s, supernatural things are occuring, and it focuses on kids but it does not distract from the movie. This was leaps and bounds better than the miniseries, the only thing that had going for it was Tim Curry and I laughed at him more than be scared of him. This movie allowed for more creative things because of it's budget. There is cgi in this movie, and it's only noticeable near the end, but it does more than the miniseries. In fact, it takes scenes and scares from the miniseries but add it's own twist to it. So like, I knew what was coming but was thrown a curveball. So that helped out a lot. So all in all, it was a good movie, I do think I would recommend it for the actors in it but not so much the scares. Oh, and while I'm here why do people hate clowns? Everyone says IT made people afraid of clowns, and I don't get it. I like clowns, they are funny people whose sole goal in life is to make people smile. So what's the stigma against clowns? They get a bad rep man. But anyway, it's good to be back at this time of the year and I will be back next week with more things to talk about. See you then!