Dungeons & Dragons

Way back in the Dark Ages (OK, the early 1980s) there began a little fad called Dungeons and Dragons. The basic premise of said fad was to move little people around a board in the vein of later role playing video games. Oh and they play it in ET, which obviously gives it cultural cred.

Then in the later Dark Ages (or the not so early 1980s) there was a cartoon where six kids get transported into a magical world via a fair ground ride. There they get turned into a ranger, a thief, an acrobat, a magician, a cavalier and a barbarian and with the help of an ickle unicorn and a short bald bloke who appears randomly, they navigate a mysterious world and fight nasty foe type people.

Fast forward to the present and the Dungeons and Dragons phenomenon has finally reached Hollywood, ready to be turned into lunchboxes, badges and a MacDonalds meal.

The story is simple: A bad guy (in this case Profion played by Jeremy Irons) wants to overthrow the happy and peaceful land of Izmer and generally create chaos. To do so, he has to get rid of Izmer's empress Savina (played by American Beauty's Thora Birch) using a variety of magical weapons. Help is at hand for the plucky empress though, in the form of Ridley (that bloke from The New Adventures of Superman) and Snails (Scary Movie's Marlon Wayans) who aren't exactly enthusiastic heroes.

They are sent on a quest to find the Rod of Savrille that will call the Red Dragons, who in turn will help them beat Profion and save the world. Of course this is never going to be an easy task, and the heroic duo have to investigate secret grottoes and abandoned castles and face evil henchmen, naturally.

Being based on a fantasy game you can expect lots of weird creatures and magic. If you're an avid devotee of the game or watched the cartoon as a kid then this is a must see to reminisce of older times. If, however, you had a life during the eighties (but then who did?) then come and see it anyway because it's bound to be a laugh.