Mazes and Monsters

This little gem came out as a TV movie in 1982 and stars Tom Hanks. The story is simple. A group of college kids get together to play their favorite fantasy role-playing game called Mazes and Monsters (not to be confused with Dungeons and Dragons, in fact I don't even know where you got the idea that they may be similar in any way). One of the friends decides to take the game to "the next level". Now, if you know anything about bad movies, taking something to the next level always ends in disaster. This one is no exception. They decide to play out their game in some nearby caverns. This is where Tom Hanks goes psycho. He starts seing monsters and believing they're real. He becomes convinced that he's his character, and eventually disappears to go on his own quest to find the Two Towers.

The friends, meanwhile, are wondering what happened to him. His girlfriend decides to starrt sleeping with another guy in their group of friends, and hte police start their investigation. Naturally, this newfangled Mazes and Monsters game is somehow responsible.

Eventually, the friends track down Tom Hanks to New York where he's already killed a guy who attacked him. This little scenario was just ridiculous. A couple muggers come along and start to threaten Tom. Tom, being a nutball, tries to use his magic on them, but it doesn't work. This is to be expected, of course, since magic isn't real. Anyway, one of the bad guys attacks him, and Tom pulls a knife. So, now we have an unarmed mugger vs. a nutball with a knife. You'd think the mugger would give up, right? Of course not. He ends up dead.

But I digress. Tom finds his destination, the Two Towers, and goes to the top to jump off, when suddenly and airplane flies into it! Ok, that doesn't happen. His friends save him, and they all go home. Everyone's ok except Tom. He's completely insane, all because of Mazes and Monsters.

What's this movie trying to say. Can you guess? Could it be... no.... Why would anyone even think of making a movie about the horrors present in role-playing games, especially back in 1982?

Ok, this movie really sucked. Let's all make fun of Tom Hanks now.