List Price: $9.99You Pay Only: $5.99 You Save: $4.00 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: PEACE ARCH HOME ENTERTAINMENT
EAN: 0692865248330
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full length, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Trinity Entertainment
Manufacturer: Trinity Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Trinity Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 25, 2005
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sales Rank: 26649
Studio: Trinity Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1982
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Synopsis: Bound together by a desire to play 'Mazes and Monsters', Robbie and his four college classmates decide to move the board game into the local legendary cavern. When Robbie starts having real life visions, the line between reality and fantasy fuse into a harrowing adventure.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Bad acting and a bit cheesy but I still love it
I remember watching this on tv as a kid and never got a chance to see the ending. Funny, I don't remember the acting being SO bad but it is an interesting movie, especially considering all the different role-playing games that are out there now.
Rating:  - Propaganda, but boog propaganda.
This movie is about a group of collage friends that play a fantasy game similar to Dungeons and Dragons called Mazes and Monsters. One of the players looses track of what is real and what is the game and disappears on a quest to look for his lost brother. This quest nearly lead to his death his friends saving him in the nick of time.
The movie itself is not great, but it is passable. It is over done, like with one of the group of friends always wearing some strange hat and so on. The acting is a bit stilted here and there. But all in all the movie is not bad and is good enough to entertain for one and a half hour. And the topic of fantasy vs reality had been really interesting, if the movie had not been pure propaganda.
The movie is basically a see what can happen if kids play role playing game scare. I talked to somone that works at a local game shop, and he told me of a lady that had come into the store, seen the strange dice many RPG games used, screamed about evil and fled. Movies like these is what basically have been a big part in forming those ideas. Instead of a creative, entertaining hobby, pepole see something mysterious and dangerous that make pepole go insane, or worship the devil or commit suicide.
If you can look past the propaganda factor this movie is ok entertainment, do not expect to be swept of your feet by it's brilliance or remember the movie very long, but expect to be entertained for one and a half hour.
Rating:  - Games Without Borders
"Mazes and Monsters" was part of the Reagan-era moral panic over the Dungeons and Dragons game. It was an '80s afterschool special,a made-for-TV movie about the dangers of gaming. It was back when fundamentalists considered it occultic, diabolical, and dangerous. This movie was made in response to the infamous Dallas Egbert case at the University of Michigan. While it turned out Egbert was dealing with drug abuse, perfectionist parents, and his closeted homosexuality, D&D was blamed. The late creator of D&D, Gary Gygax, was besieged with hate mail when "Mazes" was released.
"Mazes" begins as a typical,slice-of-life drama. Kate Finch is dealing with her divorcing parents. Daniel has a perfectionist, materialistic father. Jay-Jay, with his wild assortment of hats,plays it out of the closet-he dresses as Noel Coward for Halloween-his mother is a diva (Jay-Jay is a prototype for the hat-wearing,flamboyant Ryan in Disney's High School Musical) Finally,there's Robbie (Tom Hanks),who's got an alcoholic,Nancy Reagan-like mother. The four come together with their Mazes&Monsters game. The first half hour of the movie plays it straight (except for Jay-Jay) However,when Robbie slays a "Gorvil" (think of one of those green monsters from the OLD Star Trek),he descends into madness. Robbie's cheesy visions take the movie into campy territory. He takes on the persona of Pardu,a holy man. He tells his girlfriend Kate that they have to "love each other without making love" (indeed,the wizened sage in ... Read More
Rating: - Interesting if not enchanting
This review contains some spoilers.
I've grown to become a Tom Hanks fan over the years. This movie is one of his forgotten early films.
The premise of the film is that a group of young role-playing gamers become a bit *too* involved with a game called "Mazes and Monsters," a blatant reference to Dungeons and Dragons.
Tom Hanks plays the boy that falls hard for the role-playing game and comes out psychotic and suicidal. (One of the climatic scenes eerily takes place on the observation deck of the Twin Towers in New York city.)
The entire cast does a good job with their roles (hence the three stars), but ultimately the movie fails to deliver.
The most glaring problem is that the premise is not credible.
The film was clearly done in response to (actually as a way to exploit) the poor Michigan man that ended up as a suicide victim a year or so before the film was shot. At the time, the media and some religious groups tried to put role-playing as the central reason for the suicide. Good investigative work by folks like Mike Stackpole and organizations like the Game Manufacturers of America have gone a long way towards dispelling these kinds of wild ascertions, and today the film just seems like something akin to "Reefer Madness."
Robin Williams, Al Gore, Mike Myers, and even the royal British princes have all described their experiences with role-playing games. It is hard to push the suspension of disbelief ... Read More
Rating:  - Everyone starts somewhere.
Most actors have to pay their dues. For instance, John Wayne toiled for nearly ten years churning out scores of z-rate, kiddie matinee westerns before he finally got his big break with "Stagecoach." Thus, it was for Tom Hanks who toiled through appearances on "Happy Days," the cheesy sitcom "Bosom Buddies," and ridiculous made for TV movies such as "Mazes and Monsters" before he started landing roles that would make him a fixture in American cinema.
As others have already surmised, probably the ONLY reason this schlockly film is available on DVD is because Tom Hanks is in it. Yet at the time it was made Chris Makepeace, who plays "Jay-Jay", was a bigger name than Tom Hanks due to his roles "Meatballs" and "My Bodyguard" and thus initially is portrayed as the leading character- a child prodigy who has entered college at a young age and has habit of wearing a different hat everyday. However, as the story proceeds, Tom Hanks' character's storyline emerges as the dominant one. (Maybe the director and writers suddenly realized that Tom Hanks was immensely more talented than Chris Makepeace.) Yet for all Hanks' talent, he cannot overcome the ludicrious storyline and the cheesy writing.
As others have noted, this film is based on the alleged subversiveness of the role playing game "Dungeons & Dragons" which was making newsstories in the early 80's. It portrays how playing such games, here named "Mazes & Monsters," can lead to unfortunate consequences for those who are ... Read More
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