Review of Mazes and Monsters (1982) by Zach T — 22 Aug 2008

Believe it or not, there was a time when people believed that Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games could cause serious mental illness when played too much and that hardcore gamers could completely lose their grip on reality; thus, this made-for-TV propaganda piece was born, which, over 25 years later, looks about as convincing and timely as "Reefer Madness".

I'm no expert on role-playing games at all, but it's obvious the filmmakers knew even less about it than I do and hardcore gamers have always a field day picking out the inaccuracies; it throws all credibility to the winds about fifteen minutes in when our hero meets an attractive girl at a party and bonds with her within thirty seconds because she also happens to be a hardcore gamer! A very young Tom Hanks does the best he can with the material, but even he can't avoid drawing unintentional laughter during his more emotional, melodramatic scenes; the ludicrous ending - where he has lost all grip on reality but his friends just shrug it off and decide to play another game with him - has to be seen to be believed!