The Strong Brothers’ newest short, “Dungeon Master,†is a fun little flick that ultimately suffers from an ending that leaves you wanting more.
Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, but with a run-time of only 12 minutes, you may end up feeling unsatisfied.
For those of you that spent your Friday nights with an order of fried chicken, dozens of funky looking dice and some wacky friends, “Dungeon Master†will immediately resonate. Everything from the language to the experience of watching the film lends itself to the magical scenarios in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. At the same time, the weirdness and peculiarities the game provides, such as an environment for the weird and society-scorn to partake in make-believe adventures, is also prevalent.
That duality is essentially where the plot turns and happenings occur, taking the film from a campy and fun adventure to something a bit different. That change in the film is a short-lived experience and the exact time when those watching will want more. The few special effects seen, such as dead Orcs and one, very much alive, are pretty cool and well executed. The only problem is, once this transition takes place, you end up expecting so much and it’s not delivered.
The end result of it all however is one that proves that the Strong brothers can definitely handle a work significantly longer than this. This film ends up as a big tease, but one you won’t forget.
For that aspect alone, it would be safe to say that it is a success.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
The Strong Brothers’ newest short, “Dungeon Master,†is a fun little flick that ultimately suffers from an ending that leaves you wanting more.
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