Review: 'Beau Is Afraid' is an unholy mess of a movie, a slog of neuroses and an example of giving a director too much slack

Writer-director Ari Aster, the man who spooked us with “Hereditary” and freaked us out with “Midsommar,” gets a chance to indulge his filmmaking impulses and psychological navel-gazing with “Beau Is Afraid” — and, oh my golly, what a mess it is.

Seriously, this is the weirdest and most disgusting thing its star, Joaquin Phoenix, has ever done — and I’m not forgetting about “I’m Still Here,” that godawful fake documentary he made with Casey Affleck that included his obnoxiously deadpan performance on Letterman.

Phoenix plays Beau Wassermann, a jittery, balding man who has a lot to be afraid of — with an apocalypse in progress on the street outside his apartment, and where running across the street to the bodega includes the risk of getting stabbed by a naked crazy man. But what Beau is even more afraid of, as he sometimes tells his therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is disappointing his mother (Patti LuPone), who’s expecting Beau to catch a plane and come visit her.

After he misses his plane — a result of losing his apartment keys, and every freaky person in the neighborhood getting in — he calls Mom again, and a UPS driver answers the phone and tells Beau that his mom has died, her head crushed by a falling chandelier. 

Beau then gets hit by a delivery van, and wakes up in a different kind of hell: The suspiciously perfect suburban home of Grace (Amy Ryan) and Roger (Nathan Lane). Grace was driving the delivery van, and Roger is a surgeon who dressed Beau’s wounds. They’ve put him up in the room of their teen daughter, Toni (Kylie Rogers), who’s not thrilled with taking the couch and letting a strange man in her bed. 

When Beau’s healthy enough to use the phone, he calls his mom’s lawyer (Richard Kind), who hectors Beau by telling him all the funeral plans for his mother are on hold until he gets there.

What follows is a harrowing and confusing journey through the woods, and through Beau’s memories — primarily focusing on a cruise young Beau (Armen Nahapetian) took with Mom (played as a younger woman by Zoe Lister-Jones), when Beau found his first love, Elaine (played at different ages by Julie Antonelli and Parker Posey). There’s also a sequence where Beau stumbles on a theater troupe, and sees an epic saga of his life play out in animation, directed by Chilean animators Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña. This animated section is the only genuinely emotional passage in this bloated, self-indulgent film.

Aster isn’t the first filmmaker to take his neuroses out for a walk for the audience’s viewing pleasure. But, my heavens, he really makes a meal out of it, wallowing in every perceived fault or shortcoming of Beau’s life — without giving the audience any hint of a redeeming quality that would make us care about this mumbling, indecisive, pathetic little worm. Even when we approach some sort of resolution — in predictable Freudian fashion, it all traces back to his mother — we don’t get catharsis, just more self-loathing.

I know of critics, even friends of mine, who liked this movie, who found the beautiful flowers growing out of the giant pile of manure. I have to say I tried, as someone who loved “Hereditary” and liked “Midsommar,” to meet “Beau Is Afraid” at least halfway, to catch the strange vibe Aster was creating and try to connect with it. But in a movie where the main character is a punching bag and every other character is lacing up their boxing gloves, there’s no human component with which I could relate. I choose to think that’s Aster’s failing, not mine.

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‘Beau Is Afraid’

★

Opens Friday, April 21, in theaters. Rated R for strong violent content, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language. Running time: 179 minutes.

Review: 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant,' under its bombast, is a thoughtful story of two men who become brothers in arms

It’s always intriguing when a popcorn-movie kind of director, like Guy Ritchie (“King Arthur,” the Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes” movies), tries to make something serious — as he does, with some success, in the harrowing war drama “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.”

(Yes, the director’s name is part of the title — as the local studio rep strongly reminded us before the screening started. Since I do not wish to receive angry emails from MGM, I’m going with it.)

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Master Sergeant John Kinley, leading a squad of soldiers in Afghanistan in 2018, some 16 years into the 20-year war the United States fought there in an ultimately doomed attempt to root out the Taliban. (I’m not going to get into finger-pointing about this, except to say those 20 years covered more than 11 years with a Republican in the White House, and more than 8 years with a Democratic president — so there’s plenty of blame to go around.)

Kinley needs a new interpreter for the squad, someone who can speak the local language and communicate with the Afghanis the squad will encounter. The one he gets is Ahmed, played by the Iraqi-born Danish actor Dar Salim. Ahmed isn’t like most interpreters, Kinley soon discovers, in that he’s tough and is willing to take the initiative to get information from the locals. Kinley later learns that Ahmed is motivated by the death of his son, at the hands of the Taliban. Ahmed also has a wife, Basira (Fariba Shekhan), who’s about to have a baby — and he aims to protect her from the Taliban, who are targeting Afghanis who are cooperating with the Americans.

The script — by Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies and Ritchie — makes a sharp turn when Kinley’s unit is ambushed by Taliban fighters. Kinley and Ahmed are the only survivors, and the two must travel by foot overland, off the roads, to get back to base. During part of this journey, Kinley is injured, and Ahmed must risk his life to protect him and get him to safety.

The second half of the film focuses on a harsh reality of the Afghanistan war: The United States promised interpreters that they would get visas to America, to keep them from getting killed by the Taliban, and those visas often didn’t arrive as promised.

It’s interesting that there’s no “based on a true story” tag at the beginning of “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.” Instead, the story is an amalgam of many similar stories — symbolized by the numerous photos of U.S. servicemen with their Afghani interpreters shown over the closing credits. Ritchie thus allows himself to cherry-pick the details that make the most dramatic sense, including an ending that’s weirdly rah-rah about a war we arguably lost. (Again, no finger-pointing, but one shouldn’t blame the troops for the errors of their commanders.)

What gives “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” its solid footing is the twinned performances by Gyllanhaal and Salim. The movie lets Kinley and Ahmed’s relationship build, first with each wary of the other, and gradually building on mutual respect, admiration and ultimately an unbreakable bond of friendship. There’s also a strong sense of gratitude and a debt to be paid, as Kinley must go back and rescue the man to whom he owes his life — and both actors feel the weight of that debt, and show us the depth of that friendship.

——

‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’

★★★

Opens Friday, April 21, in theaters. Rated R for violence, language throughout and brief drug content. Running time: 123 minutes.

Review: 'Renfield,' about Dracula's bug-eating familiar, is a good idea that doesn't get any space to breathe

There’s a good idea for a movie in “Renfield,” a blood-dripping comedic take on Count Dracula’s bug-eating assistant — but that idea gets swarmed, like bugs around a piece of meat, by so many bad movie impulses.

Our titular anti-hero, Robert Montague Renfield (played by Nicholas Hoult), relates his origin story early one: A 19th-century real estate lawyer, he tried to pitch a Romanian count on a land deal — only to find himself turned into the count’s minion. The upside is that he shares a bit of Dracula’s powers, which kick in when he eats an insect. The downside is that he must retrieve victims for Dracula (played by Nicolas Cage) and hide the boss somewhere dark and gross when he inevitably gets nearly destroyed by heroic humans deploying sunlight, holy water and protection spells.

That’s where we meet Renfield today, helping a charred and grotesque Dracula reconstitute himself in an abandoned New Orleans hospital. While Dracula is on the mend, Renfield is spending his time sitting in a support group for people in toxic relationships. Renfield wouldn’t describe himself that way, though he’s starting to have reservations about his decades of leading people to their deaths. He uses the group meetings to find people whose lives would improve if their toxic partners came down with a sudden case of being sucked dry. 

When the toxic partner in question turns out to be a lowlife drug dealer, Renfield finds himself in the middle of a tediously routine gangland war. The lowlife drug dealer owes money to New Orleans’ most intimidating crime family, the Lobos — who get put out when their thugs turn up dead. First, the obnoxious son, Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz), goes looking for Renfield, followed by the real boss, Teddy’s mother Bella (Shohreh Aghdashloo). 

The crime family seems to have every cop in New Orleans on the take — except one, Rebecca (played by Awkwafina), who’s determined to take down the Lobos, who killed her dad, also an honest cop. When the Lobos try to put a hit out on Rebecca, it’s Renfield, fueled by bugs, who saves her life and becomes an inadvertent hero. Being heroic feels nice, for a change, and Renfield starts wondering if he can break free of the co-dependency and toxicity of working for Dracula.

The script — by Ryan Ridley (a writer for “Rick and Morty”) and Robert Kirkman (creator of “The Walking Dead” universe) — is in a tug-of-war over what’s the funniest and most interesting story. One is about Renfield’s journey of self-discovery, a light parody of support groups and psychologist-speak. The other is tongue-in-cheek mayhem, where we’re supposed to laugh at the ridiculousness of the carnage. The movie toggles between those two settings for 90 minutes, and neither develops the way they should.

The drawing cards for “Renfield” are the lead actors. Hoult (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “X-Men: First Class”) is perfectly deadpan as the long-suffering familiar, finally coming into his own. And Cage, who can chew scenery like no human on earth, finally gets to deliver the biting (pun intended) performance he’s dreamed of since “Vampire’s Kiss” in 1988. It’s a pity, really, that Cage’s chance came in a movie that’s so … bloodless.

——

‘Renfield’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for blood violence, some gore, language throughout and some drug use. Running time: 93 minutes.

Review: 'Tori and Lokita' is a harrowing drama about young refugees trying to survive an immigration nightmare

The directing brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have such a knack for zeroing in on people in the working class and underground economy of their home town of Liege, Belgium, that one almost takes it for granted — until they make another movie, like the heartbreaking “Tori and Lokita,” and find a whole new way to dive in to a compelling story.

Lokita (Joely Mbundu), a teen refugee from Benin, is concerned that she won’t get a visa to stay permanently in Belgium, like his 10-year-old brother, Tori (Pablo Schils), has. The immigration examiners ask Lokita about how she reunited with her brother at the refugee camp, and the holes and contradictions in her account have the examiners suspicious and doesn’t get her papers.

Getting her papers could open up Lokita’s world. It would mean she and Tori wouldn’t have to deliver marijuana to the clients of a shady dealer, Betim (Alban Ukaj), or take the 50 euros extra Betim offers if she’ll comply when he unzips his pants. Lokita and Tori need the money to send back to their mother, back in Benin, who berates Lokita for not sending 100 euros a month as was arranged. Lokita also is trying to dodge Firmin (Marc Zinga), the smuggler who got her and Tori to Belgium, and who still wants a cut of what Lokita earns.

With all these forces working against Lokita, she feels she’s left with one option: A job Betim has arranged, working 3 months in isolation tending the plants in his weed-growing operation. If she completes the three months, Betim will get her a reliable set of forged papers. But for various reasons, finishing that shift is a tough assignment.

The Dardennes get invitations to the Cannes Film Festival the way other people collect parking tickets — with Palme D’Or victories for “Rosetta” (1999) and “The Child” (2005), and “Tori and Lokita” got a special 75th anniversary prize last year. They do it by taking a social issue — in this case, the plight of refugees struggling to fit into Belgian society — and focus in on how one or two characters are affected by that issue.

“Tori and Lokita” may sound like a serious-minded message movie, but it plays like a thriller — with Lokita facing progressively more dire conditions to collect enough euros to satisfy Betim, Firmin and her mother, all at once. When Tori finds Lokita at the secret marijuana growing site, her calculations for how to survive this ordeal get immeasurably harder.

The other thing the Dardennes do is discover excellent young talent, and Mbundu and Schils are astonishingly good in their first movie roles. Their grim determination to stick together, and their hints that they have endured worse, are what propel “Tori and Lokita” to become a shattering portrayal of two children who have had to grow up way too fast.

——

‘Tori & Lokita’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 14, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for violence, language, sexual content and drug use. Running time: 89 minutes; in French with subtitles.

Review: 'Air' is a smart, inspirational telling of how Nike wooed a player and changed the world.

It’s easy to go into “Air” with the low expectation that it’s a two-hour informercial for Nike — and while the famous swoosh is seen often, the movie uses its corporate connections to tell a lively, and ultimately important, story of how a shoe changed the world.

“Air” is also a reminder that Ben Affleck — when he’s not busy with his second career as paparazzi target and meme generator — is really good at directing movies, as if “Argo” winning the Oscar for Best Picture wasn’t enough of a clue.

This “based on a true story” movie starts in 1984 in Beaverton, Oregon, the headquarters of Nike, which at the time had a reputation for track shoes but wasn’t the leader in athletic wear. The movie that informs us that Nike is third in the market, with Converse leading the way and Adidas a solid second place.

Nike basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro — played by Affleck’s frequent tag-team partner, Matt Damon — knows Nike’s biggest weakness: It doesn’t have a great basketball shoe, or the money to lure the top players to sign endorsement contracts. Vaccaro knows that Converse has the prestige, having Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in their stable, and Adidas has the cool factor, with Run-DMC rapping about the brand. As the company’s marketing boss, Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), tells Vaccaro, Nike has an endorsement budget of $250,000 to lure three mid-level NBA draft picks. (Utah Jazz legend John Stockton is mentioned, in a running joke about how nobody knows where Gonzaga is.)

Vaccaro, who’s got a gambling issue, wants to bet the whole $250,000 on a single player: North Carolina phenom Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, Vaccaro can’t even get in the room with Jordan, blocked by his agent, David Falk (Chris Messina, who’s the funniest and most foul-mouthed performer in the movie). When Falk tells Vaccaro that Jordan is favoring Adidas and doesn’t even want to meet with Nike, Vaccaro takes a big risk by going around Falk to talk directly to Jordan’s mother, Deloris (Viola Davis). Deloris is irritated at first, but ultimately intrigued by Vaccaro’s pitch. Nike is suddenly back in play.

Now it’s up to Vaccaro to sell his boss, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight (played by Affleck), on the idea — with help from the well-connected exec Howard White (Chris Tucker). And Vaccaro has to enlist Nike’s top shoe designer, the mad genius Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), to create the best basketball shoe ever made. (Maher, the movie’s stealth MVP, was in Affleck’s “Gone Baby Gone,” and made his movie debut in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma,” in which Damon and Affleck played fallen angels.)

Working off a smart script by first-time screenwriter Alex Convery, Affleck paints an indelible picture of a company at a crossroads — established enough to have Knight answer to a board of directors, but scrappy enough to roll the dice on Vaccaro’s hunch. Some of the movie’s best moments come from that conflict, as Vaccaro argues with Knight about why bucking industry protocols is worth it to land a once-in-a-lifetime player. Seeing Damon and Affleck lean into those roles makes the bickering even more fun.

At first, Davis’s Deloris Jordan plays as inconsequential to the main drama, an obstacle for Vaccaro and Knight to overcome. But, of course, Davis doesn’t let that mistaken impression last — particularly in a late-in-the-game phone call, delivered with a tigress purr by Davis, that displays Deloris’ negotiating savvy and recognition of her son’s unique talent.

“Air” winds up being as much of an inspirational sports drama as anything where a ragtag team has to score in the closing seconds. Even in the corporate world, the movie tells us, it’s important to be like Mike and take that shot.

——

‘Air’

★★★1/2

Opens Wednesday, April 5, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language throughout. Running time: 112 minutes.

Review: 'Paint' is a satire of public TV egomania, deftly underplayed by Owen Wilson's hippie painting instructor

The satire in writer-director Brit McAdams’ comedy “Paint” is as whisper-soft as a babbling brook and as dry as the needles on a pine tree — but it has its charms for those who latch onto its odd groove.

At the PBS station in Burlington, Vermont, the unrivaled star is Carl Nargle (Owen Wilson), the quietly confident, pipe-smoking artist who hosts the daily how-to show “Paint With Carl Nargle.” Carl guides viewers through his painting process, every day creating a gorgeous landscape, usually of Vermont’s tallest peak, Mount Mansfield.

Carl has some surface resemblances to the late Bob Ross — similar halos of permed hair, the same easygoing way of portraying landscapes — but on a personal level, Carl is something else entirely. It’s quickly established that Carl has, in sequence, seduced and abandoned all of the PBS station’s women employees over the years. Maybe it’s his zen-like calm, or his painting prowess, or the custom-made sofa-bed in his ‘70s-style van, nicknamed Van-tastic. 

Carl’s current muse is Jenna (Lucy Freyer), the station’s shy young intern. But before Jenna, it was the jaded co-worker Beverly (Lusia Strus), and before Beverly it was Wendy (Wendi McClendon-Covey), the station’s receptionist. But he still carries a torch for his first love, Katherine (Michaela Watkins), the station’s assistant general manager — who has stayed at the station for 22 years, because she carries the same torch for Carl.

Things change at the station when Tony (Stephen Root), the general manager, asks Carl to host two hours of his painting show — to improve the station’s ratings — and Carl refuses, on the grounds that two paintings a day might dilute his creativity. So Tony hires a young painter, Ambrosia (Ciara Renée, aka Hawkgirl from the Arrowverse), to take the second hour.

Ambrosia shakes up the station, first by choosing strange topics to paint that aren’t Mount Mansfield. She also is resistant to Carl’s romantic charms, as her eye lands on Katherine.

McAdams, a TV comedy director making his feature debut, plays everything in the hushed tones of a small-town public broadcasting show — think of the old Molly Shannon/Ana Gasteyer “Delicious Dish” sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” At one point, Carl stands silent facing Tony, and Tony finally says, “Are you yelling at me?” It’s a weird vibe for a broad comedy, but mostly it works as it generates laughter in the face of the characters’ awkwardness.

Without Wilson in the center, though, “Paint” wouldn’t work. Wilson engages in some self-parody of his laid-back, surfer cool demeanor, before digging into Carl’s thwarted dreams of reconnecting with Katherine and convincing the haughty Dr. Bradford Lenihan (Michael Pemberton) to allow one of his paintings in the Burlington Museum of Art. Wilson’s soft desperation lines up well with the mock PBS vibe McAdams is creating, and gives “Paint” an extra layer of humor.

——

‘Paint

★★★

Opens Friday, April 7, in theaters. Rated PG-13 for sexual/suggestive material, drug use and smoking. Running time: 96 minutes.

Review: 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' can't, or won't, give Nintendo's trademark plumber a distinctive personality

Is it possible that, 30 years later, we — and by “we,” I mean the vast moviegoing and video game-playing public — owe John Leguizamo and the late Bob Hoskins an apology?

Hoskins and Leguizamo took so much criticism, from 1993 until now, for their participation in “Super Mario Bros.,” a weirdly dark live-action comedy based on the Nintendo franchise. But watching the latest attempt to put the Italian plumber brothers on the big screen, in Illumination’s animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” it seems the fault lies elsewhere — like the source material.

Don’t get me wrong. I played the arcade games — “Donkey Kong” in high school, and “Mario Bros.” in college — and have spent time playing “Mario Kart” with my family (I’m reliably the worst racer among us). And I’ve watched my sons play so many of the games (“Super Mario Bros. 3,” “Super Mario World,” “Super Mario 64,” “Super Mario Sunshine,” “New Super Mario Bros.,” “New Super Mario Bros. Wii,” the two “Super Mario Galaxy” games, the six “Paper Mario” games, “Super Mario 3D Land,” “New Super Mario Bros. U,” “Super Mario 3D World,” “Super Mario RPG,” “Super Mario Maker,” “Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker” and “Super Mario Odyssey”). So I understand, admire and have, at times, loved the gargantuan franchise that Nintendo has developed over the last four decades.

But transferring the high-jumping game play of Mario and Luigi, and inserting a bunch of game references in the place where a plot might go, is not enough to carry a movie — even with a legion of Mario fans willing to cut the filmmakers a break.

The thin script, by Matthew Fogel (who wrote Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru”), centers on Mario and Luigi, a pair of Brooklyn plumbers struggling to get their business off the ground. While trying to fix a broken water line, the brothers discover a secret portal — a green pipe, of course — and are sucked into another dimension. 

Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day) ends up in the Dark Lands, where the monstrous turtle king, Bowser (voiced by Jack Black), reigns through fear and dripping lava. Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, where the loyal Toad (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) introduces him to the kingdom’s leader, Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy).

(A word about Pratt, who raised the ire of Nintendo fans when his casting was announced. He’s an OK choice to portray Mario, a bland voice for a bland hero. Only in a self-parodying opening, thankfully, do Pratt and Day put on phony Italian accents. Charles Martinet, the longtime voice of Mario and Luigi in the games, shows up to voice the plumbers’ dad, so diehard fans get a taste of the classic interpretation.)

Bowser has stolen a Super Star and aims to use it to woo Peach into marriage — a proposal Peach would refuse. Peach instead asks Mario to help enlist the aid of Cranky Kong (voiced by Fred Armisen), the leader of the ape army. To do so, Mario must battle Cranky’s son, the necktie-wearing, barrel-throwing Donkey Kong (voiced by Seth Rogen).

The movie’s directors, Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, are responsible for developing Cartoon Network’s “Teen Titans Go!,” so they know how to get laughs out of well-established franchise characters. Here, they stage unsubtle references to the games — like an early run through Brooklyn that resembles the side-scrolling of the early “Super Mario Bros.” — for the grown-up franchise fans, while splashing colors onto the scenery to keep the younger audiences’ attention. But the only thing that’s really funny is a running gag with an imprisoned Luma who talks in depressing, existential terms.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is caught in a no-win situation, limited by the demands of Nintendo not to mess with the company’s main character — its version of Mickey Mouse — by giving it any emotional contours. In the games, we are Mario, and that prevents the filmmakers from giving him a personality of his own.

——

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’

★1/2

Opens Wednesday, April 5, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for action and mild violence. Running time: 92 minutes.

Review: 'Dungeons & Dragons' movie reboot gives off the right kind of wacky energy

The folks behind the fantasy action comedy “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” made one exceedingly smart decision early on: They hired a couple of comedy guys to direct the movie. It’s a decision that pays handsome dividends throughout this fun, engaging movie.

Those directors are Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who previously collaborated on the bitingly funny “Game Night.” In turning the Hasbro-owned role-playing game into a movie — and not mucking it up, as happened famously with the 2000 movie with Jeremy Irons — Goldstein and Daley, with co-writer Michael Gilio, realize that to make this work, they can’t take much of it seriously.

That’s why the emphasis is on the comical pairing of two veteran thieves: The garrulous, lute-playing Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and the hard-bitten Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), who lead a group of thieves on a series of capers — until they get caught in a trap, and are sent to the kingdom’s prison. Edgin is also a bard, so talking their way out of prison is part of the game.

Back in the kingdom, Edgin and Holga discover that one of their criminal cohort, the conman Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), is now set himself up as a lord. What’s more, he’s become the guardian of Elgin’s daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), and turned her against her dad. Oh, and there’s the extra bit where Forge has made an alliance with Sofina (Daisy Head), without knowing that she’s a Red Wizard, using her magic to her own nasty ends.

To rescue Kira, thwart Forge and stop Sofina from destroying the world, Elgin and Holga need a team. They find Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), a sorcerer with a self-confidence problem; Doric (Sophia Lillis), a druid who can change into animals; and Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page), a paladin who’s fighting prowess is matched only by his chivalrous seriousness.

Even if you’ve never rolled a 20-sided die in your life, there’s plenty to connect with in this movie — mostly because the cast is so sharp. Pine is a dashing hero, and even better when he’s playing a somewhat jaded one. Rodriguez shows a comic side not employed much in the “Fast & Furious” franchise (there’s a bit with a secret cameo that’s hilarious). And Grant plays the cad better than anybody.

Goldstein and Daley keep the jokes and the action running in tandem, and add just enough emotional weight — like Edgin’s concern for his daughter — to make it all not seem too frivolous. They also pull enough from the game that D&D players will have a ball collecting all the Easter eggs. 

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” manages the neat trick of taking a property that has been hard to transfer to movies and finding the humor and heart in it. I’m actually looking forward to the franchise possibilities.

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‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 31, at theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for fantasy action/violence and some language. Running time: 134 minutes.