Dungeons And Dragons Details

The spectre of many other sword-and-sorcery disasters looms large over director Courtney Solomon's belated and instantly redundant screen version of the popular role-playing game. In this time-honoured good versus evil saga, Empress Savina (Thora Birch) wants equality for all citizens in the mythical kingdom of Izmer. But villainous Mage Profion (Jeremy Irons) plots to establish his own tyrannical rule by capturing the enchanted sceptre that controls the golden dragons keeping peace across the land. The only way to stop Profion is to find the legendary Rod of Savrille that controls the even mightier red dragons. The perilous task falls to thieves Ridley (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans), apprentice magic user Marina (Zoe McLellan), Elwood the dwarf (Lee Arenberg) and elf Norda (Kristen Wilson). Shifting uneasily from banal adventure and arch brutality to unintentional hilarity and pantomime camp, this dreary fantasy adventure is scuppered by some dire performances. Whalin (from TV's The New Adventures of Superman) can't breathe life into his cardboard-cut-out saviour, Wayans's hip patter couldn't be more out of place, and Irons chews the scenery in one of his worst-ever performances. Solomon's gaudy but unoriginal extravaganza skips between a Star Wars-style cantina scene and a Raiders of the Lost Ark-type booby-trapped maze without ever sparking into life. Supposedly the first part of a trilogy, this neverending story is just “Dodgy and Draggin'”.

Based on the popular role-playing game, this is risible sword and sorcery, with cheap and lurid effects, hammy role-playing from its cast, and, on the few occasions it can be heard, corny dialogue.