WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Dungeons and Dragons (2000) 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.280 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:23.360 we've reached a milestone. It is our two hundredth film selection. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.960 Rob did just have to correct me before we started here. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.880 I was going to say it was a two hundredth episode. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:30.800 It is not, because we had a couple of films 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.400 that went more than one episode, or multiple films crammed 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.839 into a single episode. But this is going to be 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.040 our two hundredth one, and we're keeping with a theme 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.360 we established last week where we looked at a film 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.360 for our one hundred and ninety ninth film selection. We 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.280 did a film set in the year nineteen ninety nine. 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.920 That was the cyberslop movie Virtuosity, starring Denzel Washington and 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.000 Russell Crowe. Today we decided to stick with that into 0:00:58.040 --> 0:00:59.960 a movie I guess not set in the year two 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.319 two thousand, but that came out in the year two 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.679 thousand and that is so the year two thousand in 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.800 film in so many ways. And that is the movie 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.199 Dungeons and Dragons not the one from twenty twenty four, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.440 the old one, the one with Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.880 Justin Whalen, Marlon Wayans, and Bruce Payne. What a cosmic 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.560 adventure into nostalgia and the mind this was. And we're 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.520 not gonna lie to you. It's not good, but it 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:27.600 is a good time. 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.679 Yeah, I want to Some of you may have follow 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.120 up questions too. You might ask, well, how about some 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.440 of those films that the listeners suggested for the two 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.959 hundred we I think we'll get back to some of 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.120 those suggestions in later episodes, but I don't know. For 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.240 my part, I begin to just feel like, oh man, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.120 it's so much pressure to figure out, like what is 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.600 like the weird movie to do for two hundred, and 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:49.760 falling back on the idea of like two hundred two 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.520 thousand just felt a little It felt a little easier 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.720 when it came to the decision making process. And another 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.600 question you might be wondering, perhaps cowering a little bit 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.680 in fear, are we going to do the next twenty 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.480 five episodes of Weird House Cinema related to the subsequent years. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.239 I'm gonna say definitely not. I don't think we could 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.280 keep that up. I mean, we'll see what happens next week, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.160 but it's definitely not going to be the next twenty 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:16.000 five episodes. 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.000 Well next week we could do two thousand and one 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:19.800 of Space Odyssey and keep going. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.519 Yeah, oh that's true. Yeah, though I don't know. 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.280 I think that's more in our category of a reference 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.080 text rather than subject text. 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.359 But we did do a core episode of stuff to 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.720 blow your mind on two thousand and one of Space Odyssey, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.280 so there is some Space Odyssey in the vault. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.800 Now, obviously we're gonna have a lot to say about 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.120 Dungeons and Dragons as a movie, but I think we 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.280 also need to appreciate right here at the top that, 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.520 of course it is an adaptation of the tabletop gaming 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.359 system Dungeons and Dragons. So Rob, maybe we got to 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.680 start just by talking about that, like you're a little 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.720 bit of the short, short version of your personal history 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:56.320 with D and D, because I know we could both 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:57.800 go into a lot of detail here. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.200 So yeah, first of all, just a remind Dungeons and Dragons, 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.000 which dates back to the mid nineteen seventies, is a 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.600 role playing game. It is I often try to explain 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.799 it to people who aren't that familiar with it as 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.639 kind of a communal storytelling game where you have a 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.120 dungeon master running the game, you have players playing characters 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.400 within that game. The dungeon master is running things and 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.480 is the final say on the rules, but the players 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.320 are also contributing creatively to it. They are not being 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.880 told a story. Everyone is collaborating on the story together, 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.640 and it's just a tremendous amount of fun. If you've 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.920 never played Dungeons and Dragons before, or some similar role 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.800 playing game, I highly recommend it. It is a great social, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.880 creative hobby and pastime that is also connected to any 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.520 number of additional solo hobbies and past times. It's something 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.840 that has brought a lot of joy into my life. 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.440 Collaborative storytelling is a good way to put it for 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.640 people who aren't familiar. Imagine that essentially, the engine master 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.200 creates the setting in scenario, and you create a character 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.600 within that setting in scenario. You say what your character 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.480 in particular does in reaction to that setting and scenario 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.360 created by the dungeon master. They tell you what happens 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.160 in return, and you go back and forth. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.279 Yeah, yeah, so my don't I don't remember exactly when 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.320 I first started getting into it. I definitely had watched 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.719 the old nineteen eighty three cartoon at one point, but 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:27.720 that didn't like really pull me in all the way. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.960 It wasn't until I was in Boy Scouts and I 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:35.360 observed some of the older Scouts playing Dungeons and Dragons. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.920 The Dungeon Master kid was using his father's like pre 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:44.839 Satanic panic, like full demon monster supplements, and it was 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:46.200 just it looked like a lot of fun. So I 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.760 started getting into it, and I by the you know, 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.960 by the mid nineties, I was all into Forgotten Realms, 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.040 Raven loved Kara Tour, Dark Sun, Spell Jammer, all these 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.680 different worlds and subsettings within Dungeons and Dragons. I probably 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.520 read more than I played, but it was still a blast. 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.600 But then around the turn of the millennium, when this 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.600 film comes out, I went to college and for idiotically 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.839 didn't do any non video game D and D stuff 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.480 for more than a decade. So today's movie drops at 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.520 a time in which I was weirdly disinterested and out 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.599 of touch with all things D and D. I think 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.880 my main memory of the trailer was that, oh, it 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.320 looks like it has Jeremy Irons in it, but at 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.120 the same time I was at least slightly disappointed that 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.920 he appeared to not have a wizard beard or wizard hair. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.400 That's true, you know. I was trying to We'll talk 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:39.880 more about this as we go on, but I was 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.400 trying to class all the characters in the movie. I 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.560 was saying, Okay, what D and D class are you? 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:46.719 Because when you play the game, you pick a character 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.919 class that tells you, like what kind of skills and 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.080 powers you have. You could be a barbarian or a fighter, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.200 or a cleric or a wizard. And I was like, man, 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.640 Jeremy Irons doesn't feel like a wizard because he doesn't 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.200 look like a wizard. He looks it looks like a warlock. 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:02.480 Maybe what do you think. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.400 Yeah, yeah, maybe more of a warlock. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.799 Look, I mean they never mentioned a packed patron or anything. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.880 But yeah, And I don't know one I don't know 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.039 one hundred percent why it bugged me at the time, 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.280 because I'm not really bugged by it now. But I 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.159 think a big part of it was and I was 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.080 having to like piece together where things fell in the timeline. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.160 I think part of it was that by April of 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.960 two thousand. Today's movie came out in like December of 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.679 two thousand. By April of two thousand, we already had 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.960 a trailer featurette for Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.160 which would come out December two thousand and one, so 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.920 we already had a visual taste of what was possible 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.360 with live action high fantasy, and even from the trailers, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.320 it was obvious that two thousands Dungeons and Dragons was 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.080 quite obviously missing the mark God. 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.400 That contrast is crazy to imagine that this was almost 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.880 like overlapping in time and that we're gonna try not 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.799 to just like be mean or rag on the movie 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.920 the whole time. But yeah, the comparison is so funny. 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.840 It's like imagining that trailers for The Matrix were already 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.200 out when lawnmower Man was in theaters. 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.400 You know, Yeah, I mean, it's it's really not fair 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.720 because we're again we're talking about Lord of the Rings here, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.280 one of and arguably the most important texts in modern 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.960 fantasy literature. It served as one of the one of 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.880 the primary inspirations for Dungeons and Dragons in general, and furthermore, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.720 Peter Jackson's adaptations. No matter what your quipples might be 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:35.120 about the finished product, they were jaw dropping cinematic spectacles 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.680 that pushed the technological envelope, that energized fans and generated mainstream, 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.360 popular and critical success. So it's unfair to compare this 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.280 smaller picture that had I think, when all was said 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.720 and done, like half the budget. So but not that 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.960 small of a budget. You know, it is never going 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.560 to live up to what Fellowship of the Ring was 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:56.400 able to achieve. 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.080 You know, something I was just thinking about recently with 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.040 the Peter's Jackson Lord of the Rings movies is I 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.080 don't know if they often get enough credit for how 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.560 good of a job they did simply from a writing 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.000 point of view adapting the material. We can have our 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.520 complaints about, like oh, I wish Tom Bombadill had been 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.559 in there. You know, I don't like that they didn't 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.200 include this, or that they made this moment like, you know, 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.800 there were changes introduced, and a lot of times purists 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.560 can be upset by that. But I think they really 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.400 did a kind of impossible task of cramming as much 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.359 of the spirit of the story into film into reasonable 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.720 I mean long but still reasonable film. Run times as possible. 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:43.800 It really, I think, is a marvelous achievement of adaptation writing. Yeah. 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:48.520 Absolutely, Again, it's just unfair to compare virtually anything, especially 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.160 this film, to Fellowship of the Rings and the subsequent 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.000 Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films. They just succeeded 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:56.320 in so many ways. 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.440 But while we're on the subject of the differences between 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.480 Fellowship with the Ring and Dungeons and Dragons as movies 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.920 from around the same time, one big difference is that, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.439 of course, Fellowship of the Ring is an adaptation of 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.280 a book. It's an adaptation of something that is already 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.600 a fixed narrative, which is like a you know, it's 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.480 a more familiar way of making a movie from existing 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.360 source material. The Dungeons and Dragons movie had a very 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.880 different kind of writing assignment, which is that it was 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.320 to adapt a game system or sort of a world. 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.679 There is no fixed narrative of Dungeons Dungeons and Dragons. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.240 I think there are some like you know, pre written 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.120 campaigns that exist out there. Rob you can probably shed 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.880 more light on that, and there may be some like common, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.000 commonly accepted sort of history things in the Dungeons and 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.760 Dragons world, But there's no fixed narrative like there is 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.120 in a book. Players make up their own stories. So 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.760 what your job is if you're adapting this into a 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.480 movie is you have to kind of make up a 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:06.120 story that packs in a lot of details about what 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:10.959 it's like to play the game and captures feelings of 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.199 common experiences that players have when they're playing with their friends. 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.880 Does that make sense, Yeah, yeah, try it. You have 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.160 to attempt to try and nail the vibe of the 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.240 D and D world and the vibe of playing D 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.600 and D at the same time, which, to be clear, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.679 are often in stark opposition to each other. You may 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.080 have like a really like very serious and even dark 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:37.040 set of events happening within the story of the game, 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.839 but yet a gaming session of Dungeons and Dragons might 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.440 be just full of goof off moments and laughter and 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.160 so forth, and yet they can still work together at 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.000 the table in a way that might be more of 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.720 a struggle thematically with a motion picture. I would argue 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.640 that twenty twenty three's Dungeons and Dragons Honor among Thieves, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.760 the most recent Dungeons and Dragons film, did more of 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:04.520 a commendable job of pulling this off and watching today's movie, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.679 it'd be easier to momentarily put that aside if they 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.160 didn't actually say honor among thieves multiple times in the dialogue. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.200 But they didn't know that was gonna sub title of 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:16.079 the later movie. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.040 They didn't know, but it's impossible to avoid. But but no, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.839 you're right, it's like they're they're adapting a vibe. They're 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:28.679 adapting ip a world or multiple worlds and various creatures 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.640 within that world, but they're not leaning on like a 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.080 core text. But to be clear, even by nineteen ninety 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.640 and certainly by the year two thousand, there were plenty 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.480 of Dungeons and Dragons novelizations out there. I mean, they're 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.480 like a million Dragon Lance novels, So there was some 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.880 material out there that could have leaned on, though you know, 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:49.200 I don't I don't know, I haven't read most of 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:54.000 those books. Not everything is you know, reasonable for adaptation 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.040 and so forth, But you know, there were, there were, 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.480 and are plenty of Dungeons and Dragons stories one could 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.280 could go to for things like this. 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.800 But one thing that makes those stories different is they're 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.959 almost like they're reading a story that someone has created 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.480 within the framework of the D and D world, but 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.400 they're not cannon for all players of D. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.400 And D, right, right, Like any given person's favorite moment 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.439 from Dungeons and Dragons is going to be a little 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.600 different from everyone else's moment if you're just talking about 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.760 the tabletop experience. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.360 Yeah, So, as you said, this is something that the 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.959 more recent D and D movie did a lot of. 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:36.640 You could tell there were a lot of in jokes 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.480 in the movie. And I still think the more recent 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.560 movie works pretty well. I mean, I don't know, I 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.600 have played D and D, but I can imagine it 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.000 still works pretty well as a film even if you've 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:47.880 never played it. But there are just a lot of 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.320 little treats in there for players because it will have 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.080 the characters in the movie getting into a situation that 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.160 players commonly find themselves in. And it's funny, too funny 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.240 to recognize, like, oh, I can't speak with dead and 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.000 I still have this many questions I can ask and 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.520 we've already got the information we need, you know, and 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:09.960 that sort of thing over and over. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.960 Yeah, And also I think the other thing that the 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.480 more recent film did well is that it had it 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:20.120 did have canonical figures that one could leave the film 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:21.640 and say, hey, I want to know about about that 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:23.880 Lich guy. I want to know more about these Red Wizards, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.719 and there is material out there you can read about them. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.160 They are part of a setting. This movie doesn't really, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.360 I think, do much of that. You might say, oh, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.800 that's a neat beholder I just saw float by. I'd 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.280 like to know more about those guys. Well, there's plenty more. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.800 But it doesn't really do much with the beholders. Doesn't 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.680 You briefly see one as a purple blob that flies 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.640 off screen and then I'm like, Oh, we're gonna come 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:48.840 back for a beholder fight. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.959 Nope, Nope, nope. They're basically screen savers. 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:55.319 But anyway, as I was saying, the more recent D 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.720 and D movie does a lot of that, I think 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.400 this older movie does a little bit of that. There's 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:05.080 a little bit of nodding towards kind of common player experiences, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.560 but a lot less. It feels more like they were 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.840 just trying to create a story roughly within the D 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:12.840 and D universe. 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.679 Yeah, now I should say some nice things about this film, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.760 I think, yeah, yeah, I think it has some excellent locations, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.040 including the sedl Ossuary in the Czech Republic. Also, I 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.600 think that the Czech Republic State Opera House is used 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.120 as a location at one point, and multiple other Czech 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.600 locations that look really cool, and they make good use 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:35.360 of them. 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.920 Gorgeous interior locations in fact, that are a quite ludicrous 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.200 contrast to like it'll cut from there to a like 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.520 CGI dungeon. It is just you could not imagine something 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.080 more like uglier and more dingy looking. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.000 Yes, the CGI is all horrendous, but I should also 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.560 point out there are some nice practical sets as well. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.440 There's that the Eye Room and the labyrinth. The Evil 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.800 Layer is really nice. So there's also like anything that's 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.640 not CGI in this film has at least a reasonable 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:10.040 shot at looking okay. 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.360 There there is at one point, it's toward the end 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.640 of the movie. I wish it had come earlier, a 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.360 quite lovely hand painted backdrop for like a like a 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.080 mad effect when they go to when they go to 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.440 like the Thomas Kincaid Lothlaurian you know, yeah, yeah, but 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:28.760 it's it's like very pretty yeah yeah. 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.880 So, I mean, the practical stuff works pretty well for 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.880 the most part, and then of course we have the performances. 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.800 There are some definite duds in there, but who there 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.480 are some there are some really fun performances to be 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.160 hold on top of everything. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.800 Yeah, we'll have to talk about that. And speaking of 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.520 continuing themes from last week, a list actors getting in 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.520 a B movie and just giving it everything they've got 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.400 or maybe more than they've got actually, So, Rob, what's 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:57.640 your elevator pitch? First? 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.600 D The main thing I came up with complete a 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.239 D and D movie before Y two K. Wh Yeah, 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.120 it comes out after Y two K, but you know 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.440 they're filming it in nineteen ninety nine, and and also 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.760 it comes at it's the end of a long journey 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.520 to make a Dungeons and Dragons motion picture. And I'll 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.240 get into some of those details when we talk about 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:19.760 the director. 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:21.880 I think they had to roll a twelve or above 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:23.920 to achieve that goal, and they rolled a twelve. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.360 Yeah, yeah, at one point I think they rolled one 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.440 and then they realized they did have inspiration and they 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.080 were able to take that back nice. All right, let's 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.120 listen to a little bit of the Trayler audio here, 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.600 and hopefully you'll get to hear Jeremy Irons a little 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:37.440 bit in there as well. 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:45.040 Yeah, in a faraway world. 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.680 All people deserve to be free and equal. 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.160 The child is not fit to govern an empire. 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.040 The forces of darkness. 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.800 You can control dragons for the dragon arm in my command. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.120 I can crush the empress. This has gotta be some 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:04.080 twisted magic experiment. Seriously wrong. Have threatened to conquer a kingdom? 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.400 What can I do to stop porfire? If you could 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.280 obtained a rod of Chevrial, you could control read dragons. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.520 I just we lay low that the whole thing blow. 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:14.359 Come back, rob everybody. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.439 There's one small problem problem. I kind of committed us 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:28.040 to find it. Trust me. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:55.240 When you say that, now it's your time to die. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:58.440 Dungeons and Dragons. 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.080 You want to do? You? 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:08.760 All right? Now? Dragons against us? All right? If you 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.680 want to watch Dungeons and Dragons for yourself, you can 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.679 find this one in multiple formats, including some free streaming services. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.000 That's where I watched this film. You can find it 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.160 on your your Plex and your two b's if those 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:24.240 are options for you. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:24.760 Uh. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:26.879 There also there also have been different DVD and Blu 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.080 Ray releases, including Dungeons and Dragons two movie collection on 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.160 Blu Ray. That's if you want to be clear, you're 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.960 not getting the more recent Dungeons and Dragons adaptation in there, 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.840 you're getting one of the crappy sequels to this film, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:41.440 So bye with caution. 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.640 Did any actors from this movie come back in that one? 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.240 Bruce Payne, just Bruce Payne. He came back at least 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.119 for the initial sequel. I don't know who if anyone 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.560 came back for part three. I don't know if anyone's 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:55.280 seen Part three. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.240 All right, let's talk about the connections. 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:07.639 All right. We're going to start at the top with 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:14.200 director producer Courtney Solomon born nineteen seventy. So to be clear, 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.520 there had been previous attempts to officially capitalize on D 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.679 and D's popularity as a film going back to the 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:25.959 early eighties, but nothing came together until around nineteen ninety. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.080 That is when then nineteen year old Courtney Solomon with 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.840 basically only a passion for Dungeons and Dragons, some family 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.760 background I think on his on mother's side in Canadian 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.160 TV production, and also we should we should, we should 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.000 realize there's probably a natural twenty charisma role in here. 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.280 Because he managed to convince TSR, the parent company of 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.440 dn DA at the time, to give him a shot 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:50.640 at producing the thing. 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:52.960 Had he made a movie at this point. 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:56.160 No, he had not, as far as I can tell, No, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.240 nothing like that had occurred. So yeah, we may rag 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.960 on this film a little bit in this episode, but man, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.480 that was roughly my age when this movie came out, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.840 and looking back at myself, I was barely capable of 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.360 any level of adulting, you know. Solomon, however, at nineteen 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.400 and in subsequent years, won over TSR and then traveled 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:21.280 around the world seeking financial backers and scored one in 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:26.239 Hong Kong business magnate Alan Zamon. And so by the 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.359 mid nineties, the plan, with Solomon as producer was to 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.000 do this up as one hundred million dollar production with 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:34.080 a big director. 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.680 One hundred million dollars in the in the nineties. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.399 Yeah like that. I mean, you know, you're talking about 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.359 Fellowship of the Ring range in terms of your budget. 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.840 But of course that's you know, years later. So yeah, 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.800 they were talking about having the likes of Francis Ford 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.320 Coppola or James Cameron produced. I think Stan Winston was 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:57.119 also attached at one point, but as often occurs in Hollywood, 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:58.520 plans changed. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.160 Coming hot off of pump Head, I shall make the 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:02.240 D and D movie. 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.440 Wow, imagine what the effects would have looked like though there. 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.200 You would have gotten a good beholder in that one. 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:12.960 I want to see that Francis Ford Coppola version. Would 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:14.440 it have had al Pacino in it? 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.800 Oh? Yeah, Oh that would have been a different That 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.359 would have been a different evil Mage villain, wouldn't it. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.240 Oh, my lord, imagine wizard, Yes, evil wizard al Pacino. 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:26.760 He's like like he is in heat, you know with the. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.600