Mazes and Monsters

Goofy early Tom Hanks vehicle with a surprisingly sad ending.

Hey, I watched this once, it plays out as a sort of propaganda against role-playing. The kind of stupid reactions when D&D hit like people arguing that children couldn't handle these kind of escapist entertainments and would get lost in it and kill themselves - really stupid on every level. Tom Hanks has come very far.

The premise is insipid, the plot melodramatic, the writers knew as much about mental health as they did D&D - others have gone over it all in detail. I want to talk about the awful cinematography - scenes of a flashlight floating in darkness, with many moments of pure black screen. Even outside the caves, night scenes are nigh-unwatchable, it's hard to tell the brunettes apart, and a zoom on a patch of dirt left me guessing if the drama was that there was *something* there or *nothing* there.

Weird, misguided anti-D&D propaganda with horrible visuals, production values, and performances. It's honestly kind of amazing Tom Hanks' career survived this.

I found this movie to be pretty hilarious. The movie takes itself way too seriously and tries to make "mazes and monsters" out to be a serious threat, obviously referencing Dungeons and Dragons. Unintentionally hilarious, I say; especially if you know a thing or two about D&D.

This movie is dumb. "The most frightening monsters are the ones that exist in our minds" my ASS.

This movie plays off the fear in the late 70's and early 80's that all of America's children were going to be engrossed in devil games which would lead them to a life of drugs and fantasy that they would never return from. This movie is based on a book that was penned at the time and turned into this TV Movie, I'm sure a wake-up-call to concerned parents at the time. The acting was alright. This is Hanks' first starring role as an actor and Makepeace returns from his Meatballs work.

I thought it would be a "magic is real" movie, then found the friendship almost interesting. Then it takes a turn, and becomes some sort of BS preachy anti-DnD propaganda that smashes through even the suspension of disbelief.

Cheeseball movie playing off the irrational fears of RPG'ers.

This made-for-TV movie with an after school message about the evils of "Dungeons and Dragons" staring a young Tom Hanks makes for a pretty funny bad movie. Pack your sword and spells and join the holy man Pardieu (Tom Hanks) on his slow descent into the maze of madness.

Tom Hanks, some WTC interior footage, five minutes of a DND variant that has no dice rolling, college kids should be doing normal things like drinking and sex, caves make you crazy. Low quality video transfer, second screen a must.

Like JooJoo says in his review, this is some kind of weird "there were some things that boys and girls were not meant to know" warning against letting your kids play D&D. A silly premise given a dull execution

Funny and "frightening" (when think about the state of mind of the creators) at the same time :)

This film thrives on the ridicules paranoia over Dungeons and Dragons of the early 1980's. The script is bad. The actors try their best but can't over come the weak materiel. Overall this film is bad.

28.500

"It's a far-out game." "It's just imagination!" "IS IT?" This is probably the closest we'll ever get to a Secret History movie, and that's for the best for everyone.

good lord.