My Top 10 Classic D&D Movies

[steeldragons]

My choices are based on the formula of a hero or group of heroes embarking on a quest of some sort. The Goonies is probably the best D&D movie on my list using that criteria - the fantasy element is strictly secondary to a movie being a D&D movie.

That "criteria" is the plot of every story ever told...some might say the source of storytelling and creation of myth as a whole. Star Wars, Rocky, Good Will Hunting, and every action movie ever made all fall into that "criteria." I appreciate the "wider perspective", I guess you are going for. But that is so broad as to be meaningless.

I think you need to narrow your parameters a bit. Saying fantasy [as a genre] is/could be "secondary" to a D&D movie I find...baffling.

Edit: All that said. Great list and great movies throughout this thread. My "personal faves" list would likely look something like this, give or take a few:
10. Legend
9. Dragonslayer
8. The Dark Crystal
7. Ladyhawke
6. Princess Bride
5. The Rankin/Bass "Hobbit" & "Return of the King" animated movies.
4. The Rankin/Bass "The Last Unicorn" animated movie -for the magic[al]
3. Holy Grail -for the funny
2. Clash of the Titans (original.) -for the quest/monsters/gods' involvement [c'mon, Maggie Smith. nuf sed], overall "high stakes" of it all
1. The Conan movies -for the "putting a group of individuals together and getting it done."

and honorable mention "non-70's/80's" to The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson) trilogy. Fellowship moreso than the others, but all three.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

That "criteria" is the plot of every story ever told...some might say the source of storytelling and creation of myth as a whole. Star Wars, Rocky, Good Will Hunting, and every action movie ever made all fall into that "criteria." I appreciate the "wider perspective", I guess you are going for. But that is so broad as to be meaningless.

I think you need to narrow your parameters a bit. Saying fantasy [as a genre] is/could be "secondary" to a D&D movie I find...baffling.

Different tastes and all that. I take inspiration for adventures and campaigns from a lot of places.

For example - Die Hard. Its a great big dungeon crawl for the most part.

 

[mflayermonk]

So is this pre-D&D creation or post-D&D creation?
Someone mentioned Fire and Ice, which is very close to Conan being a Frazetta movie.

There is also Flesh+Blood with Rutger Haeur, which has no magic, but does feel very D&D-ish.
Witchfinder General.
As others have mentioned, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Treasure Planet movies have a strong D&D feel.

 

[Gecko85]

Haven't ready through the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned The Black Cauldron? It was a so-so Disney adaptation of a really great (and very "D&D") series of books.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088814/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

[Celebrim]

I believe Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising is the best D&D movie ever made.

As far as D&D movies go, Hawk the Slayer is clearly a D&D movie, but I wouldn't count it as a good movie and it won't make any of my top 10 lists. I understand that there are some actual D&D movies that are even more forgettable, but I've never seen them. Red Sonya and Conan the Destroyer could both be D&D movies, but again, neither is good.

Actually good D&D movies in no particular order:

Pirates of the Caribbean: There are clear PC's here that have PC plot protection and abilities. There are pirate zombies. There is a magical quest to get the foozle and cursed treasure. There are wandering encounters. The ending makes no sense whatsoever unless you say, "Well, of course, they are PC's and it's one of those DM's that never actually has the NPC's kill the murderhobos."

Ladyhawke: A cursed Paladin and a Thief team up to kill an evil cleric and break the curse. The Paladin has the 'throw anything' feat.

Conan the Barbarian: A barbarian, a fighter, a multi-classed thief-archer, and a low level shaman that joined the group late team up and act like typical murder hobos. Along the way they manage - with a lot of DM plot force - to kill an evil cleric and thwart a diabolical plot.

The Goonies: Aside from the fact that their is a conceit that the adventurers are a bunch of kids in the modern world, this could easily be a D&D module, complete with crazy traps.

Dragonslayer: Clearly a second edition module. The PC goes on a long journey only to witness an epic battle between NPCs that he has almost no ability to influence.

 

[WayneLigon]

In these kinds of things, I've usually taken to staying away from the obvious top 1, 2 or 3 movies because everyone will simply mention them and nobody learns about anything new So I don't mention the Jackson films, for instance.

I'd certainly put Willow in there.

To me, the requirement for a good D&D movie, as opposed to 'just' a great fantasy movie, is that it deals with a party of adventurers. That lets out a lot of the otherwise wonderful Chinese and Japanese movies, which are mainly solo or duo gigs. But that also lets out The Eagle, which I think of as a fantastic example of a D&D film: penetration into unknown lands, where there might be monsters and there are certainly hostile things, to retrieve something.

It's hard not to think of the current Vikings series, which is D&D at it's simplest: A group of guys goes out traveling and killing for gold and glory. Mostly gold.

 

[Corwwyn]

Great movies, but I wouldn't count any of them as "D&D movies".

Isn't it sad that no one is willing to admit there's been 3 actual D&D movies and an animated Dragonlance POS?

And don't forget that thing titled Eragon ([sarcasm]what genius[/sarcasm]), with it's no doubt upcoming sequels, Fragon and Gragon.

 

[Stormonu]

And don't forget that thing titled Eragon ([sarcasm]what genius[/sarcasm]), with it's no doubt upcoming sequels, Fragon and Gragon.

Eragon wasn't that bad of a movie - it's certainly better than the D&D movie and several of these "cult" classics (being a fan of 9/10s of them BTW). Unfortunately for it, it came out on the heels of the Lord of the Rings, and got panned in comparison (in some places, rightly so).

I'm amazed how different the movie is from the books. An adaptation that followed the book a bit more closely *might* have done slightly better.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'm surprised no one mentioned The Fall (2006). It's the 1920s, and a crippled stuntman tells a little girl a fairy tale of a French swordsman, African archer, Indian warrior, Italian explosives expert, a mystic druid, and Doctor Charles Darwin (and his monkey Wallace) team up to fight the evil Governor Odious and his minions through 20 different countries. The diverse characters (all with tragic backstories) fit an RPG make-up with the first three acting as warriors, the explosive expert as a mage, the mystic as a druid or shaman, and the good doctor as the healer. I would be surprised if it wasn't heavily influenced by tabletop gaming.

 

[Dan Helmick]

My top 10 favorite D&D movies:

10. Red Sonja. Okay, it wasn't a great movie, but I saw it a billion times as a kid, and I recall wearing out a VHS tape of this "gem" while sick in bed with pneumonia. I might not have watched it quite so many times, but it was a self-winder. Ahh, technology.
9. Cave Dwellers (MST3k version.) This flick always makes me feel better about the more disastrous games I took part in during my sordid youth. And it's just plain funny. How much Keeffe is in this movie? Miles O'Keeffe!
8. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Old-school Oriental Adventures goodness. And of course, for me, echoes of Feng Shui.
7. Magic Cop. This is more of a d20 Modern movie, but I do count d20 Modern as part of D&D, personally, so why not?
6. Excalibur. Weird and wild. A film I both hate and love, in equal measure.
5. Big Trouble in Little China. See number 7.
4. Swordsman II. Man, if you leave the bad effects to one side, that whole film is one long, sick, weird, creative as hell series of roleplaying encounters.
3. Conan the Barbarian. Well, duh.
2. Willow. I don't care if it's not supposed to be a retelling of Star Wars in fantasy togs, that's what it is to me. And Madmartigan is one of my favorite swordsmen of all time.
1. Brotherhood of the Wolf. YOU WILL BELIEVE IN RANGERS.

Honorable mentions: LotR: The Two Towers, Bunraku, Beastmaster, Masters of the Universe.