Into the Grizzly Maze (2015)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

After seven years in prison Rowan (James Marsden) is requested to come back to his home town in Alaska to find his best friend Johnny Cadillac (Adam Beach) who guided some poachers into a forest region known as the "Grizzly Maze". With poachers killing cubs, bootleg cutters clearing the forest, and the salmon no longer running, Papa Grizzly (Bart the Bear) has become a hunter of men.Several people are in the woods hunting the bear while it is hunting him. Good role for Billy Bob Thornton. Some good up close grizzly attack scenes. The forest looks so pristine, I thought it was CG.Guide: F-bomb, no sex. Nudity (Kelly Curran)

Returning back to his homeland, a man find him and his estranged brother sent off into the wildnerness looking for some lost and stranded friends only to run into a savage killer bear stalking the area and must find a way to help them and the remaining survivors escape alive.This here was quite the decent and enjoyable killer bear effort. As is usually the case with these, once the bear is on-screen the film's is generally at it's best which is the case here with this one really generating some fantastic work here with the strong bear attack scenes in this one. This tends to go for more shorter burst attacks rather than long extended sequences so there's plenty of scenes of the bear going for the quick attack scenes here of the bear attacking the poachers in the remote cabin, the blazingly quick attack on the tree-cutters off the road where he makes for a nice two-shot attack appearing out nowhere to get them and the nice overall attack on the police squad set-up trying to find the others which provide this one with some rather enjoyable attacks. These are just as much fun in the second half where they're out in the wilderness being stalked by the bear which provides this with many more types of chilling, action-packed moments which are quite frequent throughout here with the whole part of the film basically turning into one long, extended sequence of them finding the bodies of the previous encounters and trying to maneuver through the dense, twisting underbrush in an attempt to not only find their way back but also to try to fight off the bear long enough to do so, and these hunting and stalking scenes are great fun. The bear charging after them and bringing them to try to escape makes for some fun moments, and when it gets to the point of having to hunt down the creature that final confrontation makes for a spectacle-packed sequence with their desire to get away and it's sheer relentlessness in continuing to come after them brings a ton of action here to the scenes. As these scenes are based mainly on the use of the real-life bear being involved there's even more to like here by giving the scenes with the creature some real weight behind it as it's featured here, and that comes into play here with the scenes of the gore and bloodshed as there's a more explicit take on the kills due to the use of the real bear. These here all make this one quite fun and enjoyable which is enough to hold out the film's few, minor flaws here. The biggest problem with this one is the fact that there's such a low body-count featured that it really doesn't allow for much sense of danger that the cast is in any real threat here with this one featuring far more survivors than any true body-count. This here probably could've done with either knocking one of them off or either thrown in one more that would help the body count even more. Likewise, there's little about the first half with his returning to the town not being all that interesting and really doesn't generate any kind of interest or sympathy from what's going on and it's just not that enjoyable. These here are what hold this one back somewhat.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and violence-against-animals.

Greetings from Lithuania."Into the Grizzly Maze" (2014) is a very predictable but at the same time entertaining flick if you don't hope for a great movie. It has surprisingly great cast who did a uniformly good job in this flick. This picture is rated R - it is bloody and has some visceral scenes. The plot is very simple and predictable, but this flick isn't about the plot - it is about a grizzly man killer, so as you guest it won't win any Oscars or other awards in here.Overall, if you will skip "Into the Grizzly Maze" you won't loose anything. But if you will see it, first of all lower your expectations and just enjoy the ride, because this flick delivers what is promises and nothing more. At running time 1 h 23 min it never drags and very well paced. Locations are truly beautiful, add a great cast and very simple but kinda griping story and you will have some nice time watching this flick.

Review: I really didn't have high expectations for this film because it seemed like one of those typical, cheap straight to DVD movies but it actually wasn't that bad. The director spent some time giving the individual characters a background, so it didn't seem like a bunch of people in the woods running away from a massive bear. Anyway, the films about a guy called Rowan (James Marsden) who returns to his town to look for his friend who is missing in the woods. On his first night there, he picks up a girl in a bar and he takes her back to his hotel but the girl turns out to be a prostitute so he turfs her out and she ends up getting in trouble with her pimp. After saving her from a beating, he ends up in a fight on the street with the pimp so the police are called out to stop the brawl. His brother Beckett (Thomas Jane) happens to be the town sheriff so he picks him up at the incident and he questions him to find out why he has come back after such a long time. After spending the night with his brother, dead bodies turn up in the woods so Beckett goes to investigate while Rowan starts his journey to find his missing friend. As Becketts wife is in the woods taking pictures, he decides to go and find her because it's been reported that there is a killer bear on the loose. Rowan ends up saving Becketts wife from the killer bear and they all end up trapped in the wilderness. The only path home is through the Grizzly Maze but they have to tackle the angry beast to get back to safe ground. There is some intensity through the movie which I found quite enjoyable. The acting was pretty good from the whole cast, which made there situation feel believable, especially as the director chose to use a real bear. There are other elements that kept the movie interesting, like the poachers who were killing bears for money and Billy Bob Thorntons character who was a top class hunter, so there is some depth to the storyline. The action scenes at the end were also well put together and very intense so I don't know why this movie didn't make it to the cinema. There are some decent actors in the film like Billy Bob Thornton, Thomas Jane and James Marsden who seems to be in loads of movies nowadays, so I'm surprised that it went straight to DVD. Anyway, I quite enjoyed the movie and the fact that the director chose to use a real bear made it a joy to watch. Watchable!Round-Up: James Marsden, 42, seems to be covering every genre in his career by starring in movies like the X-Men as Cyclops, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, 27 Dresses, The Box with Cameron Diaz, The Butler, 2 Guns with Denzel Washington, Anchorman 2 and Unfinished Business so he really has covered every spectrum of acting. He very rarely takes the lead in movies, but he definitely makes his presence known with his unique acting style and dashing smile, which is mentioned in Anchorman 2. Thomas Jane, 46, who plays his brother in this film, has struggled to make it as an A list actor but he has starred in some decent movies like Face Off, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Scott Pilgrim and Hustlers with the late Paul Walker but he's never played the lead in any of those movie. The one big disappointment of his career has to be the awful Punisher reboot which really didn't do his career any good. That was mainly due to the director who really failed to reboot the franchise but he hasn't been able to star in a big screen movie ever since. This movie was directed by David Hackl who also directed Saw V. He hasn't got that much experience behind the camera but I think that he done a decent job with this movie. He had some professional actors to work with, which included a bear and the storyline was well written so he must be happy with his achievements, especially as it's his only his second film.Budget: $10million Worldwide Gross: N/AI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/horror/thrillers about a group of people in the wilderness trying to escape from a killer bear. 5/10