Edgin Davis (Chris Pine) spent years working for a secret order of peacekeepers called the Harpers, until his wife was murdered by a Red Wizard. Together with his barbarian friend Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), he does his best to raise his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) with a team of thieves consisting of an amateur sorcerer named Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), a rogue and con man named Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant) and a certain Sofina (Daisy Head), who is secretly a Red Wizard of Thay. Raiding a Harper stronghold, he tries to steal a resurrection tablet that might bring back his wife, but he and Holga are captured as Forge, Sofina, and Simon escape.
Two years later, they escape too and learn that Forge is now the Lord of Everwinter after the mysterious incapacitation of the previous lord. Forge has been taking care of Kira and turned her against her father. They learn that Red Wizard Sofina arranged for their capture. Forge tries to have Edgin and Holga executed, but they escape and decide to rob Forge’s vault during the imminent HighSun Games. Forge had reinstituted the deadly gladiatorial battles. They convince Simon to help and he suggests recruiting a Tiefling Druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis).
Doric shapeshifts and discovers that the vault has magical defences which baffle Simon, and he suggests a magic relic called the Helm of Disjunction might help, so they go to an ancient graveyard to ask Holga’s dead ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead long enough to ask five questions and after some bungling on the part of the thieves, the corpses say they gave the helm to Xenk Yander (Regé-Jean Page), a Paladin who fled lest the Red Wizards turn him into an undead soldier like the rest of his people.
Xenk guides them through the Underdark to retrieve the helm with a teleportation staff but they are attacked by the Red Wizard assassins. Xenk fights them off and helps the thieves escape a powerful chubby dragon. They use the teleportation staff to get inside the vault but are captured and forced to participate in the Games. They manage to escape.
Doric learns that Forge has loaded the treasure on a boat and is bugging off soon, so they steal the boat and rescue Kira. But it seems that Sofina plans to transform the huge crowd at the Games into an undead army. They transport the treasure across the city to draw the people out of the stadium. Outraged, Sofina attacks, but Simon nullifies her time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use an invisibility pendant from her childhood to nullify Sofina’s magic. Holga has been killed, but they use the tablet to bring her back to life. She has become like a mother to the girl and Edgin decides she is more important than his long-dead wife. The old Lord is restored and Forge is sent to prison.
This is called a fantasy heist action comedy and was directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who wrote the screenplay with Chris McKay and Gilio, based on the Dungeons and Dragons game. It has no connection whatsoever to the TV-movie trilogy of 2000, which was pretty awful and ended up going directly to video. There was a lawsuit which Warner Brothers won against Hasbro and Universal. Honor Among Thieves is critically acclaimed and is making a lot of money. It was supposedly inspired by The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones. Only steal from the best.
The film was scored by Lorne Balfe and a song “Wings of Time” by Tame Impala was released. It has received 91% critics approval on Rotten Tomatoes and compared to Guardians of the Galaxy in tone. Bradley Cooper has a cameo as Holga’s halfling ex-husband Marlamin. I’m pretty sure you have to be a serious Dungeons and Dragons player to get the references, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering anybody. The team of characters is likable, particularly Chris Pine, Hugh Grant has the patent on charming rogue, the talking dead are pretty funny, the battles are fast and furious, and the magical creatures are generally impressive.