Mazes and Monsters

As a role-player myself I'm in the minority because I actually quite like this movie. Most gamers seem to dislike it as it negatively portrays the hobby, but I say look past that and watch what can be an entertaining drama. Sure it gets a little long winded once the main character goes a little nuts, but stick with it and you haven't wasted your viewing time. The acting is a little ropey but then thats what I expect from a TV movie, and everyone (even Tom Hanks) has to start somewhere. I have never seen the original book, but I'd certainly like to read it and see how it measures up.

A full-on smear campaign about the evils of Dungeons and Dragons, from the height of the parental outcry against the game. Funny and sad in the same context as Reefer Madness, it's akin to a long after-school special in the blunt, inelegant way it hammers away at its only point. An extremely young Tom Hanks, freshly released from his run on Bosom Buddies, cut his teeth on more serious material in this leading role. As the poor sap who nosedives into deep mental illness as a direct result of the game, his part is madly corny and he clearly had some growing pains to work through before becoming the dramatic juggernaut we'd all come to know a decade later. Badly produced, terribly acted, smug and boring and predictable to the final reveal, it's a living stereotype, the very essence of a bad made-for-TV movie.

I disagree that this was just a smear campaign against fantasy role playing as so many others have said. I felt it was more a story about general psychosis and loss of a loved one. It wasn't really hinted that the "game" was at fault, as the majority of players didn't suffer any ill fate. It was a drama/tragedy genre movie just with a d&d plot. This movie wouldn't tell parents to not let their kids play games as it really doesn't try to push that agenda much or make that direct connection. Nobody said anything like "the game is to blame for this" - even the news caster in the very beginning had no idea about what was going on just happened to hear the name of the game. I guess you could say the early 80's era does mean it was 100% just trying to make it anti-d&d but in actuality the movie really doesn't push it much.

So, with that out of the way, a review... Not great. A decent watch for what it is (if you're into gaming) however really nothing spectacular. There is more focus on character drama with very little about gaming. Of course Tom Hanks is an immediate pull to watch... so yea, it is what it is.

Laughable early attempt to "show the danger" that playing D&D leads one to lose all contact with reality, this film (from the book) was an obvious attempt to cash-in on the popularity of the most durable RPG ever.

Never rising above the low-level of a "Made-for" that this is, it's the sort of movie which Lance Kerwin, at the peak of his teen stardom, would have turned-down flat.

Utterly ridiculous.

Mazes and Monsters was the made-for-TV special at the head of the anti-Dungeons-And-Dragons movement, spearheaded by Patricia Pulling who blamed the game for her son's suicide the same year. I know people whose parents confiscated and threw out/burned all their gear as a result of this film, which suggests such games cause loving, sensitive kids to go insane and suicidal.

For a made-for-TV, it's pretty well done, despite the fact that its premise is rather, well, inflamatory. It's wholly designed to make parents fear their kid's imagination. Still fun to watch and laugh at. Although it launched Tom Hank's movie career, I've heard he won't acknowledge having made it.