Profion, a tyrant, attempts to overthrow a peaceful kingdom ruled by a tough empress.Profion, a tyrant, attempts to overthrow a peaceful kingdom ruled by a tough empress.Profion, a tyrant, attempts to overthrow a peaceful kingdom ruled by a tough empress.
- Awards
- 11 nominations
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen asked why he did this film, Jeremy Irons replied, "Are you kidding? I'd just bought a castle, I had to pay for it somehow!"
- GoofsWhen Damodar is holding Snails up on the castle, a combine harvester/ tractor is visible in a field in the background.
- Crazy creditsNo dragons or other animals were hurt or injured during the filming of this motion picture.
- Alternate versionsThe DVD contains several deleted and extended scenes as well as alternate versions of scenes used in the movie. According to director Corey Solomon, most of these were not used because of budgetary constraints in regards to special effects. They include:
- A cameo by D&D co-creator Dave Arneson as a council wizard during the dragon fighting toward the end of the movie.
- An extended Council meeting where Profion (Jeremy Irons) tries to convince the Council that Empress Savina (Thora Birch) is somehow responsible for his botched experiment at controlling dragons.
- Ridley (Justin Whalin), Snails (Marlon Wayans), Marina (Zoe McLellan), and Elwood (Lee Arenberg) escape the city watch through the sewers. Elwood introduces himself to the party and Marina gets sewer water dumped on her in copious amounts.
- Ridley and Marina's encounter inside the magical scroll they both get sucked into. Ridley explains why he has a hatred of mages, and the duo are charged with the quest to seek the Rod of Savrille.
- The party enters the Thieves' Guild of Antioch through a series of secret doors and passages.
- An extended version of the Thieves' Guild fight. In this version we see footage of Elwood going into a battle rage when his helmet is knocked off.
- An extended version of Snails trying to woo over Norda (Kristen Wilson). They have a conversation about the moon and "sensing" things.
- A conversation between Marina and Norda after Snails' death. It is revealed that Marian has feelings for Ridley and Norda had some degree of affection for Snails. They are interrupted by an elven search party.
- While being healed by the Elf King (Tom Baker), Ridley has a vision of a gold dragon hatching from an egg.
- A scene of the party wating outside the cave while Ridley seeks the Rod of Savrille. They are discovered by Damodar (Bruce Payne) and his men.
- An alternate ending sequence, where Ridley stands at Snails' grave alone, speaking to his friend. After his speech, Ridley walks away from the grave, presumably back to the celebrations.
Featured review
Ridley and Snails are thieves in the underclass of their world. Breaking into the magic school to steal they are captured by Marina but, when her master is killed, the thieves find themselves drawn into an attempt by the evil Profion to use the power of a lost sceptre to seize control from Empress Savina, who is trying to reform and make all men equal.
It is hard to really judge the plot of this film because I'm sure it could have been a rollicking, engaging "swords & sorcery" affair and it is only the delivery here that has turned it into a massive, insulting pile of rubbish. The way that the characters have to explain every single action in BIG LETTERS for the audience was something that grated on me and took me from thinking of it as lazy writing to finding it offensive that the writers thought I was too stupid to follow the story myself. Instead of being a strong narrative the film is just a basic adventure for kids, with effects and noise to keep them distracted. As such it is still only so-so because even children might struggle to care about the unimpressive CGI backgrounds and action set pieces. It'll please the very undemanding genre fan under 12 years old but unlikely many others.
The characters are another major failing who thought that writing obnoxious, annoying or smug characters across the leads would cause an audience to be engaged by them? With this to work with, is it any wonder that the cast are roundly poor? Whalin must have thought his luck was in when he landed this role, but he messes it up with a performance that shows he is out of his depth and unsure of himself. McLellan is bland and quite irritating for the majority of the film but her faults pale in comparison to a trio of performances that stick in the mind as the worst of the film. Irons hams it up with all the carelessness of a pro who knows an easy payday when he sees it he is hilariously terrible at times. Payne's blue lipstick seems to have affected his voice and every line is delivered as a sneer it is never menacing and quickly becomes tiresome. However the worst performance is form, surprise surprise, Wayans who made me understand what Spike Lee's Bamboozled was getting at. He is a shrieking, mugging ethnic cliché even worse than he usually does and even more annoying. The odd cameo from O'Brien or Baker do nothing to stop the rot and the cast add to the impression that this was cheaply made without much love.
Overall a poor film that will probably only appeal to kids. The plot is badly delivered and the effects are not as impressive as director Solomon was clearly banking on them being. The cast are lost in the middle of it all and not a single on of them gives a performance that you could call "good", all in all producing a pretty poor attempt at a blockbuster.
It is hard to really judge the plot of this film because I'm sure it could have been a rollicking, engaging "swords & sorcery" affair and it is only the delivery here that has turned it into a massive, insulting pile of rubbish. The way that the characters have to explain every single action in BIG LETTERS for the audience was something that grated on me and took me from thinking of it as lazy writing to finding it offensive that the writers thought I was too stupid to follow the story myself. Instead of being a strong narrative the film is just a basic adventure for kids, with effects and noise to keep them distracted. As such it is still only so-so because even children might struggle to care about the unimpressive CGI backgrounds and action set pieces. It'll please the very undemanding genre fan under 12 years old but unlikely many others.
The characters are another major failing who thought that writing obnoxious, annoying or smug characters across the leads would cause an audience to be engaged by them? With this to work with, is it any wonder that the cast are roundly poor? Whalin must have thought his luck was in when he landed this role, but he messes it up with a performance that shows he is out of his depth and unsure of himself. McLellan is bland and quite irritating for the majority of the film but her faults pale in comparison to a trio of performances that stick in the mind as the worst of the film. Irons hams it up with all the carelessness of a pro who knows an easy payday when he sees it he is hilariously terrible at times. Payne's blue lipstick seems to have affected his voice and every line is delivered as a sneer it is never menacing and quickly becomes tiresome. However the worst performance is form, surprise surprise, Wayans who made me understand what Spike Lee's Bamboozled was getting at. He is a shrieking, mugging ethnic cliché even worse than he usually does and even more annoying. The odd cameo from O'Brien or Baker do nothing to stop the rot and the cast add to the impression that this was cheaply made without much love.
Overall a poor film that will probably only appeal to kids. The plot is badly delivered and the effects are not as impressive as director Solomon was clearly banking on them being. The cast are lost in the middle of it all and not a single on of them gives a performance that you could call "good", all in all producing a pretty poor attempt at a blockbuster.
- bob the moo
- Sep 7, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $45,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $15,391,970
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,237,422
- Dec 10, 2000
- Gross worldwide
- $33,978,694
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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