“I didn’t know anything about Dungeons & Dragons,” Chris Pine admitted during a chat with Total Film Magazine. “I went into it pretty tabula rasa and was really enamored by this very specific tone. Tentpoles fit into being either snarky or meta or self-aware or earnest, and this landed in the earnest, heartfelt camp. There’s certainly some self-awareness, but nothing that gets in the way of old-fashioned, populist filmmaking.”
In a world where meta and snark have completely taken over the blockbuster movie circuit (mostly in the form of superhero movies), Pine’s words are a comfort. But they’re also a surprise. Self-aware and snarky are probably the first two words I would’ve guessed to describe the plot of “Honor Among Thieves,” because that’s certainly the vibe that the trailer displays. If the film leads more towards heartfelt and earnest storytelling, with some meta-jokes here and there, then my interest is even more piqued than before.
That kind of open-hearted excitement certainly seems to be the vibe of this movie’s cast and crew. The upcoming issue of Total Film also featured a conversation with Michelle Rodriguez, who spoke excitedly about working on the film and particularly working with Pine, who she described with the same overjoyed tone of someone praising a golden retriever:
“This guy really loves acting! You give the guy words and he just goes nuts. He loves words! He loves enunciating words. He loves pronouncing words in different ways. He’s a hoot.”
