| This Is No Game DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Release Date: 17/02/01 Certificate: PG Official Website Director: Courtney Solomon Producers: Corey Solomon, Tom Hammel, Allan Zemen, Courtney Solomon, John Benitz, Kia Jam & Nelson Leong Screenplay: Mark Leahy, Carroll Cartwright, Courtney Solomon Tipper Lilieu |
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| The magical land of Izmer is deeply divided. The country's youth, with their American accents, are in a desperate struggle to over-act more outrageously than the British hams who make-up the nation's elderly. The land is also divided into the magic-wielding aristocracy, and the commoners. Babelicious Empress Savina (Thora Birch) wants equality, but the evil Mage Profion (Jeremy Irons) does not. Into this arena steps Han Solo-wannabe Ridley (Justin Whalin). He's a cheeky, roguish thief, whose speech, body language and in fact entire idiom is based on Solo. |
| Until he enters Richard O'Brian's maze (honestly) to get the Eye Of The Dragon; then he's being Indiana Jones. He teams up with his hugely annoying and camp side-kick, Snails (Marlon Wayans), a beautiful |
| female apprentice mage called Marina (Zoe McKellan) and a pointless dwarf who doesn't even get a name, let alone anything to do. Despite their furious over-acting, they cannot hope to compete with the older generation though. Jeremy Irons bellows and snarls his way through his scenes, but the most over-the-top performance has to be Bruce Payne as Profion's henchman, Damodar. He oozes camp menace as he makes the most every line and sneers in his blue lipstick. His theme tune is almost exactly the same as Darth Vader's for the first three bars. It's a testament to how over-the-top the whole thing |
| is that Tom Baker actually seems to be underplaying his scene. The cast are clearly having a great time of it though, and there are some unintentionally funny moments; the best probably being Irons' roaring his plea to his fellow mages, "Is Not Now The The Time To ACT!?!" It's a very fun and funny movie, which entertains one way or another right up until the final scene, which I suppose should have expected, but is still disappointing. 5/10 |
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