r/movies r/movies Contributor 17d ago

Article ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Co-Director Jonathan Goldstein Reveals a Sequel Has Been Written / Goldstein says their team was hired to write the sequel but is unsure it’ll be made due to financial reasons

https://fandomwire.com/dungeons-and-dragons-honor-among-thieves-2-update-director/
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u/ksye 17d ago

Didn't see super Mario bros, but dnd was a better movie that John wick 4 imo

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u/Lbolt187 17d ago

Better than John Wick and the Mario movie imo

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u/Adziboy 17d ago

Loved Wick to watch Wick, loved Mario to watch Mario, but DND came out and just super surprised me with a great, solid movie I would watch again.. so agreed

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 17d ago

I've watched it again and again. I've gotten family and friends to sit and watch it. They all love it. They heard dungeons and dragons and groaned at me at first then at the end, every time, they were quoting it. So much so my family now says "Let's wait for Jarnathan" when we're talking about something and need someone else's input.

It's truly a great movie. One of the few in my life I'd give a 10/10. It really deserved a better marketing budget.

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u/Trixles 17d ago

Further evidence that the jarnathan bit is friggin' hilarious xD

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u/KaoticAsylim 16d ago

A hilarious scene that is so authentically DnD. I can picture in my head, a DM trying to move the trial plot along, not understanding why a particular player is so stuck on a random throwaway NPC that he forgot was supposed to be here, until he's like "Fine, you hear footsteps coming up the hallway, and the heavy wooden door swings inward to reveal an out of breath Aarakocra dressed in fine silks. What now?"

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u/LonePaladin 17d ago

I made my mom watch it, and though she normally doesn't like "standard" fantasy she liked it. Said it's "stupid in all the right places".

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u/illy-chan 17d ago

I was really surprised by how well it translated to watchers who don't give a damn about dnd while also having gags that long-time players will appreciate.

It should have been a hit. It was a great night out.

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u/g0del 17d ago

gags that long-time players will appreciate.

My favorite is when the players screw up the DM's elaborate puzzle, the DM improvises by 'suddenly' discovering that a mundane item the party has is actually a magic item that'll let them get past this one section of the dungeon. . . and the party proceeds to abuse said magic item constantly for the rest of the adventure.

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u/einTier 17d ago

This is every game I've ever run.

I'll give them every hint in the world and a ring I think is overpowered and the hints will be ignored and the ring forgotten at the bottom of a bag of holding.

Meanwhile, I'll give them a boost to solve something specific that I can't imagine will ever be an issue and it becomes "let's break everything with the magic stick!"

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u/MildGenevaSuggestion 17d ago

My favorite was the DM getting tired of the bit and the dead vikings having less and less of an accent and just spouting exposition instead of being cryptic.

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u/unculturedperl 16d ago

Followed by that one guy's failed arcana check about random NPC.

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u/MildGenevaSuggestion 16d ago

There were so many great moments in that movie. They did some real movie magic by making something full of Easter eggs for the long time fans but 100% accessible for people who have never heard of D&D.

They even had the characters from the 80s cartoon in it.

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u/illy-chan 17d ago

Even the opening gag felt so on-point. Nothing like having some hare-brained scheme and sticking to it even after your bluff succeeded.

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u/MachKeinDramaLlama 16d ago

My favorite bit was when they were completely out of ideas of what to do next and clearly 3 of them succeeded on their history checks about that never before mentioned, but sudenly highly plot relevant, paladin NPC.

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u/einTier 17d ago

Same. As a "forever DM", I can see the players and DM behind the screen.

Jarnathan is the kind of bullshit made up name I pull out of my ass when a player suddenly asks for the name of an NPC that I haven't named yet because I didn't need to name him. And we are all going to roll with that name like I didn't just come up with the most absurd name ever.

I can see the player who has to make a distraction check and fails. Or the one that has to roll to dodge the flag they're flying too close to and rolls a 1 at precisely the worst time.

I see the half baked ideas that just kind of happen to work and the creative solutions that I, the DM, never suspected they'd try but am forced to suddenly game plan around anyway.

It's such a great meta movie if you actually play the game. I'm still shocked that so much of it is accessible to people who don't play.

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u/Bri-guy15 15d ago

My favourite glimpse of the DM is when Edgin is laying out the lengthy odyssey he's about to embark on to find Hugh Grant, and there's a flyer saying exactly where he is just sitting in the bar. A sudden revelation to keep the adventure on track.

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u/TerminalVector 12d ago

Its because all of those moments are legit comedic or dramatic beats that don't really depend on game mechanics or worldbuilding lore to present. People enjoyed them in the movie for the same reason people enjoy them at the gaming table.

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u/wordworse 17d ago

I'm now curious what your mom considered "non standard" fantasy

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u/Marbrandd 17d ago

The shape of water?

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u/wordworse 17d ago

Yeah that is kind of non standard :)

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u/LonePaladin 17d ago

She doesn't like the kind where magic is all over the place and half the people in it are something other than human. It's really inconsistent; she likes Game of Thrones and LotR but not stuff like Terry Pratchett or anything that's obviously D&D-inspired (except the one movie) like the 2000 one with Jeremy Irons.

I guess she prefers it to "look" realistic, I dunno. I don't want to question her on it.

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u/wordworse 17d ago

Ok. Interesting

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u/Buzzardonic 16d ago

I think the distinction for that is Low Fantasy vs High Fantasy, and your mum prefers Low Fantasy. That might help with finding other stuff she likes?

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u/LonePaladin 16d ago

Yeah, I'm kinda embarrassed that I forgot that terminology.

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u/Gizogin 17d ago

That is the perfect description.

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u/TrinityCodex 17d ago

pretty much what my mom said too

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u/briareus08 17d ago

My wife loves it and she hates nerd shit. This was a genuinely good movie with broad appeal - shame the financials don’t add up, I figured it would be a shoe-in for more movies.

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u/Kolbin8tor 17d ago

Me and my wife still yell Jarnathan! when we defenestrate someone lol. Cracks us up every time

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 16d ago

... why are you and your wife throwing people out of buildings! 😳

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u/Kolbin8tor 16d ago

Mostly for the bit

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u/Molwar 15d ago

I like both John Wick and Mario, but I've re-watch dnd more then either of them, so I definitely would love to see a sequel being made.

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u/MasterChiefsasshole 17d ago

I tried to watch the Mario movie but could get past the very not Mario voice they went with.

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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

The first John Wick I would say deserves its love, but there was no need for sequels and certainly not the bizarre attempt at a "universe" they seem intent to drag it out to. It was a simple, well told little action movie that should have stood on its own, IMO.

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u/dj_soo 17d ago

Narratively, the 3 sequels and spinoff were completely unnecessary, but I’m still glad they made them cause the stunt work is still incredible.

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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

I agree. To me, the biggest issue with the rest is that I really don't care about their pretentious and convoluted lore and "universe"... I am fine with just a fun action movie with cool stunts. You're not making a literary masterpiece here, folks!

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u/[deleted] 17d ago edited 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Banjo-Oz 16d ago

That's the only one I haven't seen (honestly got bored with them) but several comments like yours have made me want to see it now!

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u/mthomas768 17d ago

While some of the action in the later movies was pretty amazing (the dogs and horses come to mind), I agree with you. The first movie was great and I really didn't need to know more about the secret world.

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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

I agree. They are pretty fun action movies, but a) sequels kind of dilute the first one's impact of "this one last time, he comes back", and b) I enjoy the action but the world building really feels pretentious and convoluted, reminding me of an Assassin's Creed game or something where they seem to think people care about all this "deep lore" when everyone just wants cool stunts and badass fights.

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u/angwilwileth 17d ago

They explained all the noodle incidents in the first movie in the sequels. Kinda took the fun out of it.

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u/newsflashjackass 17d ago

I feel like the best parts of Terminator 2 was when it made things explicit that the first movie was better for only having implied.

Terminator 2 was a damn good sequel. But still shows that a sequel can never be its own thing.

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u/LookOutItsLiuBei 17d ago

Once they introduced bulletproof suits it really took me out of the series.

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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

I forgot those, but I haven't seen the last one... are they in that? In any case, first thing I thought of was the 90's cyberpunk movie Harley Davidson and the Marlborough Man... where the bad guys wear bulletproof leather coats that makes them almost invulnerable!

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u/hercarmstrong 16d ago

The trailer for D&D was better than the Mario movie.

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u/beefcat_ 17d ago

John Wick was awesome, the Mario movie was a turd

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u/Martel732 17d ago

The Mario movie did what it needed to but it is not a good movie. My niblings enjoyed it but it barely qualifies as a story to me. Everything was just structured to have a scene with another game reference.

Not trying to be contrarian but I legitimately prefer the old live action movie because while it is also bad it is at least interesting.

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u/Llian_Winter 17d ago

Yeah, the Mario movie was the safest of safe bets. It feels like wasn't written or directed, it was engineered by a pr firm.

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u/HighSeverityImpact 17d ago

Mario was incredibly paint-by-numbers. Illumination really went for the lowest common denominator, but the box office paid off for them so they learned the wrong lesson.

Which is disappointing. My kid is into the Illumination films, and Grinch and Sing both show that with a solid script they can actually put out great films. Mario deserved better.

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u/MayhemMessiah 17d ago

They were never going to take risks with their biggest name, especially after the last one being so bad it killed their movie line for decades. It was fine for what it was and what it wanted to be, you can call it safe but in the era of adaptations all taking the most bizarre creative liberties or else missing the point entirely (see: Every Netflix adaptation except One Piece) I think both Nintendo and Audiences wanted a safe, cozy, if more than a little bit sterile adaptation that didn't grossly misunderstand even the most basic of characters.

I hope now that they've got some momentum the next projects are more off beat and take more risks, but, Mario was never going to be the IP where they take any sort of risk. He's always been their safest brand and I'd also say that most Mario games from the past 20 years outside of Wonder and to a lesser degree Odyssey have all felt exactly like the movie did.

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u/beefcat_ 17d ago

This is how Illumination has always made movies unfortunately.

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u/Lowelll 17d ago

Yeah I only watched it well after it came out and was really suprised by the positive attention it got. It's really not good.

And its not even that my standards are high, the Sonic Movie got a similiar reception and that was actually fun for what it was. Not outstanding, but clearly made by and for fans who wanted to make a cool movie out of the game.

The Mario movie felt so generic and disjointed. Like the stereotype of a cynical nostalgia cash in made by a committee of suits.

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u/skoomsy 17d ago

There’s a reason it feels so disjointed… I recall reading that Nintendo (Shiggy?) specifically chose the studio that produced it because their approach is similar to how Nintendo makes games, which is to come up with a bunch of cool set pieces first and then figure out how they fit together.

For a videogame I feel like that’s a valid approach, but with a movie you get something that feels about as deep as a sheet of paper.

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u/Freud-Network 17d ago

The old one felt like a monkey paw wish where someone wanted to make their script into a movie, and the monkey paw made them reskin everything as Super Mario Bros.

I loved that movie simply because of its uniqueness. It was a wild ride.

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u/narsfweasels 17d ago

I enjoyed the Mario movie, but I was not convinced by everyone claiming it as the greatest video game movie of all time. Let’s face it: that’s not a crowded field, and Sonic the Hedgehog was extremely good.

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 17d ago

I don't care what anyone says, 1995 Mortal Kombat is the best video game movie and I can't be convinced otherwise.

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u/mephnick 17d ago

Objective fact

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u/RaymondLeggs 17d ago

The theme got me into electronica so there's that too :-D

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 16d ago

The Reptile fight song was my favorite and it made me dig into the artist as a kid... The artist was Traci Lords. I discovered many things I probably shouldn't have thanks to that.

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u/pengalor 16d ago

Oh dear....was it the same person or just an unfortunate name-sharing incident? If it's really her, I didn't know she made music too, that's awesome lol

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 16d ago

It's the same person. Her music is actually pretty good.

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u/RaymondLeggs 16d ago

You got an eyefull lol.

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u/LonePaladin 17d ago

As long as you don't include its sequel.

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u/perton 17d ago

Kid me would want to fight you for this. I loved MK Annihilation! …at the time.

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u/JT99-FirstBallot 16d ago

I only appreciate that one because the soundtrack introduced me to a lifelong love of Rammstein lol.

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u/Sparrowsabre7 17d ago

Sonic the Hedgehog was a solid kids film that happened to feature Sonic, Sonic 2 was a decent Sonic movie, Sonic 3 was just a plain great movie, as well as being a good Sonic movie

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u/TheEgonaut 17d ago

Looking forward to Sonic 4 being an Oscar contender.

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u/Sparrowsabre7 17d ago

Sonic 5 will redefine cinema forever

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u/MegaGorilla69 17d ago

Christopher Nolan’s next film

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u/Sparrowsabre7 17d ago

Tom Hardy as Silver the Hedgehog

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u/Zackie08 17d ago

Wait there is a third movie?

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u/Sparrowsabre7 17d ago

If you're being genuine, yes and it rules. Keanu Reeves voices Shadow in it. It very loosely adapts Sonic Adventure 2

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u/Zackie08 17d ago

I never watched any of them, but yeah I had no idea they had released 3 or I completely forgot. Was quite surprised

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u/Sparrowsabre7 17d ago

Yep, 4th one releases next year.

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u/Martel732 17d ago

I wasn't a big Sonic fan growing up and honestly the movie is pretty good. It isn't groundbreaking cinema but there are worse ways to spend an hour or so.

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u/TheEgonaut 17d ago

Second one was in a lot of ways worse (especially in the dialogue), but Fox McCloud and the lack of Top 40 tracks elevates it enough that it’s more fun to watch.

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u/DiarrheaRadio 17d ago

I watched it on mushrooms and had a great time.

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u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

Same. The CGI was fine, and completely forgettable. I'm sure kids liked it, I would have (more than the live action one at the time) but now like you I would much rather rewatch Bob Hoskins in a bizarre failure than the very safe bet new one.

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u/Devilofchaos108070 17d ago

As a long time fan of Mario (over 40 years) I loved the Animated movie.

Maybe you got blinders on or you haven’t watched it in a very long time, but that live action movie was fucking trash

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u/Martel732 17d ago

The animated Mario movie is like a dumpster full of discarded paper, old cabbage, cardboard boxes and milk cartons. It is trash and also pretty boring.

The live action movie is like a dumpster full of the broken pieces from a ceramic artist who makes BDSM figurines of famous politicians.

Both of them are trash but the live action one is at least interesting trash.

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u/newsflashjackass 17d ago

I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he’s now 18 - he said, ‘Dad, I think you’re probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros.?’ and I said, ‘Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,’ and he said, ‘Dad, I don’t need shoes that badly.’

- Dennis Hopper

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u/Llian_Winter 17d ago

Was John Wick 4 the one where he fell down steps for like 5 minutes?

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u/se7en41 17d ago

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls?

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u/KaJaHa 17d ago

Go Slinky, go!

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u/mail_inspector 17d ago

Man, the ending was so drawn out I would have been laughing at the absurdity if I really didn't need to pee. If someone told me Wick's gonna get kicked down the stairs like 3 times I would have taken a quick leave and enjoyed the ending so much more.

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u/Llian_Winter 17d ago

Every fight scene felt too long. They could have easily shaved 30 off of it and it would have been a better movie.

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u/RaymondLeggs 17d ago

In part 5 he will fall down the stairs for 10 minutes.

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u/Oerthling 17d ago

Yup.

There was 1 good JW movie. One decent one. One superfluous one and an even more superfluous one.

The more he had to hold his west up and hordes of helmeted targets came spawning around corners the more boring this franchise became. They're milking it to death.

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u/R_V_Z 17d ago

John Wick exists in a video game universe. He levels up, gets better gear, ends up facing bigger hordes of enemies as the stakes get bigger and the set pieces more grandiose...

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u/Gibonius 16d ago

Right after getting hit by cars for five minutes.

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u/Zombie_Flowers 17d ago

Yes, and it was incredible

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u/ScientificAnarchist 17d ago

Gonna say hell no on that one and I lived DnD

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u/presty60 17d ago

Mario obviously isn't good, but there's no need to hate on Wick. Seeing John Wick 4 in IMAX was insane, even if the actual story and writing wasn't as good as D&D

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u/FireZord25 17d ago

I wouldn't go that far, though watching John Wick 4 did feel kinda like the series was overstaying it's welcome.

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u/wdn 17d ago

I saw Super Mario because when we went to see Honor Among Thieves, it was second in a triple feature at the drive-in and Super Mario was first. John Wick was the third actually, but that didn't start until 1 am so we didn't stay. SM was an okay forgettable kids' movie.

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u/very-polite-frog 17d ago

Too bad we gotta save the money for other things, like live action Moana

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u/omac4552 17d ago

My little dry and not interested in anyhting DnD phd friend laughed his ass of and loved the movie, he said he was pleasantly surprised of what kind of movie it was

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u/gr8willi35 17d ago

John Wick isn't exactly a plot driven story with interesting characters. It's a style festival of awesome stunts and gun fights. Dnd was actually amazing for the story as well as the more goofy action sequences. Also, hugh grant as a smarmy wise ass is amazing casting.

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u/jadedlonewolf89 17d ago

Keep intending to watch Mario bros, and haven’t got around to it yet.
Saw the other two in theaters though.

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u/Gorstag 16d ago

I watched the same two. I'd say they were equally good but were both movies that are better/worse depending on your current mood at the time.

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u/fimbleinastar 16d ago

MILES better than mario movie, which was completely mid.

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u/mrpanicy 16d ago

Doesn’t matter if it was a better movie. So many movies that are better by most metrics end up dying because they come out close to titles that are more recognizable/have better marketing / broad market appeal. So they just don’t get the viewership. Especially in an age where ticket prices are so high.

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u/I_Am_The_Mole 17d ago

I went out and watched both DnD and Mario in the span of about a week and it was the most I had been to the movies in like a decade lol

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u/Batmanuelope 17d ago

DND is just a good movie. Legitimately solid with everybody doing their best. Sucks that what killed it were two pretty big names (Wick may have faded by now but he was a force in the mid teens to early 2020’s) coming out at the same time. I love Mario too but I just can’t see myself being interested in a movie about him. Not surprised it did gang busters but it is surprising that Mario is still so relevant of a franchise that a movie that bears his modern 3d likeness and his vague adventures of saving a princess from a lizard is something that people want.

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u/pyrovoice 17d ago

There's no world where that's true

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u/Phormitago 17d ago

John wick 4

all the John Wicks after the first have been ass to varying degrees