User Reviews

I like the sense of humor in Dave Made a Maze--for the most part. Here and there it gets a little TOO silly, but most of the time, the nonsense works. It really looks like they took a LOT of time making the sets, and there are some really awesome designs in there. It keeps topping itself as it goes. I liked most of the performances too, especially Annie. Very quirky but fun.

I did not expect much from "Dave Made a Maze." It was obviously low budget with no known actors. But in spite of this, the creativity and humor won me over. The puppet scene alone was purely enjoyable and several times I literally laughed out loud. Lead actor Nick Thune was unfortunately the weak link, but the other actors did fine. But the movie overall was fun and unexpectedly inspired.

The gorgeous images deserve that you watch this film.

The dreadful dialogues might ruin the moment for you, however.

Now I'll just develop a bit, so you can skip if it's TLDR : I don't know if the same person conceived the visuals and wrote the text, but the former are wonderful while the latter is unbearable. The maze's sets, effects, even costumes are imaginative and fantastic. They keep the promises that made you curious about watching the film.

The dialogue, on the other hand, is written by a slacker. It's the kind of film where the line you hear the most is "Are you okay ?" surrounded by countless other platitudes and a distinct lack of real emotion. Drivel, simply put. Vapid, out of place, lazy, oafish, and much, much less. That's what makes the story. That's also what makes the viewing an ordeal. Thus I can't be sure about the actors : I have a bud of an opinion, but in their defense they had to work with trash.

Likely, you can't predict if you'll endure the talking, which way it will tip your balance. I'm feeling generous, thanks to the handcraft, and I think Jim Henson would have approved.

I really enjoyed the original concept and seemingly limitless imagination of this film. The maze is so large and vast, and a lot of careful planning, time and care went into developing it. It seems like each and every room the characters explored, something new and wonderful would occur. B-team cast does an overall good enough job for a story like this, and there are surprisingly few cringey moments among many great ones. A mature comedy for those young at heart.

This quirky film is amazingly creative but suffers from a lagging middle part and boring leads. Dave, who never finishes anything, has built a maze made out of cardboard in the middle of his apartment. But this maze is like The TARDIS - way bigger on the inside - and the truth is that Dave can't find his way out. Can't just rip it down, either, as it's a part of him now. His girlfriend and a host of friends and acquaintances enter the maze in an effort to retrieve Dave. Might have worked better if it was more fantastical, but it incorporates real-word consequences into the plot. Definitely imaginative, though.

The best thing about this movie is the sets. They are insane! But the movie itself is not that good and is not really a horror movie, it's more of a comedy. The main problem with it was the characters talking like hipsters all the time. I actually used to hang out with a group of friends who would have loved this... and I can already bet they've seen it five times already. AT LEAST!

But not a 2 or 3 like other reviewers are saying. The set design alone is worth a 5. If you are hipster watch it, if not, you may not like it.

I had been looking forward to "Dave Made a Maze" since seeing its trailer. It looked like a quirky modern version of Cube and Labyrinth, two of my favorite films.

It starts off decently enough. The plot and the maze itself are intriguing. I also liked some of its quirkiness and humor. Unfortunately, the film gradually unravels.

The story, characters, and dialogue are underdeveloped. Despite only being 80 minutes long, by the third act I was patiently waiting for the film to end. For me, the climax and conclusion didn't come together in a compelling way.

It is unfortunate, with a bit more development it could have been something of a cult classic or hidden gem.

Couldn't resist the Warren/Buffy reference.

I loved this film. Right from the opening scene it's clear that the rule book has been jettisoned, and we're in for a trip down the rabbit hole. Dave made a maze. It's bigger than it looks. He warned his friends and girlfriend not to go in after him.

Honestly this is a brilliant piece of creativity. The deadpan comedy is spot on (especially from the documentary crew), and it's visually stunning. There's so many great ideas crammed into each scene, and I could hardly take my eyes off it due to simply not knowing what was coming next. It's surreal, but the lead keeps it somehow anchored in normality.

This is a bizarre little world that is a pleasure to experience. A charming film that I'll definitely watch again.

A guy buildts a mace of papier-mâché. Some friends come to this scenario and want him to leave his mace, but he would not, he could not. The friends are curious to put him out of his mace and follow him inside, which leads to some adventures for the group of friends in the mace. None of them expected how big the mace looks from inside and so the story enhances.

We were stunned about the creativity of the makers, which demands strong capacity of imagination from the audience. It invites the audience to embark on it. Inside all looks bigger and a world of itself arises. How to help a friend out of a deadly mace without dying in it? We were completely tied to the screen by the effective work of the creatives of that movie. The whole idea is great. The cast fits very good, the script is ok - and the cam work looks appropriate. I recommend that movie, it's pretty good.

Was really intrigued by the premise, and while there were some charmingly low budget special effects that worked well with the sets and overall aesthetics, and a couple of funny moments, everything else was a bit annoying, for lack of a better word.

Even on the topic of humour that worked for me, there was a weirdly unexpected Raging Bull reference that got me, but when it's reincorporated at the end, it just felt forced. You never get a feel for the characters and even how they really know each other, so any humour that comes from their interactions always feels strange and contextless.

The characters just aren't interesting or very likeable, and the acting was pretty weak. The acting is just so "indie movie", if that makes sense- like they're trying but not quite getting there. It's this strange almost self-awareness but not quite that makes things insufferable in parts, and it's not just the acting that has that problem.

The music also screams "cheap indie film soundtrack" in a way that's hard to put into words, but I just felt it, and found it also a bit annoying.

I don't know- it feels mean picking on this to some extent, especially because there are a couple of things here and there that work, but it never establishes its characters very well and never settles on a tone or mood, or any kind of consistent "feel." It's not self aware enough, it's not funny enough, it's not well-acted enough... but the premise is interesting and many of the technical aspects have charm.

I know indies don't often get remade, but this one deserves a remake. Get Dan Harmon on it, I dunno- this just felt like one of those fantastical Abed-central Community episode stretched to feature length and not good.

If you are the sort that loves CGI and big budget productions, you will hate this movie. If you are thrilled to see something original, fun, and an artistic set from your dreams, you will love it. The characters in the movie are all 30-ish hipsters, or I should say extreme characterizations of that type. This is a fantasy, so don't look for it to make sense. It is just entertaining, and the art department created enough eye candy to carry the whole thing. Anything this original compared to the big studio's offers deserves a high rating from those of us who appreciate it for what is, just escapist fun.

Believe it or not you will like this movie. Everyone always saying that there are no new ideas out there. Well, Dave Made a Maze definitely is a different idea. From the start you will wonder "what the heck is this thing going to be like?" Then as soon as they enter the maze you are on board. The acting is actually not that bad and the story is crazy. There are a couple familiar faces in here and I find myself a fan of the leading actress. She really sold the constant amazement of the maze. There are several things that happen that shock and amuse you as much as it does the characters. I can easily recommend this weird movie to just about anyone.

This comedy-drama starts with a neat idea: Dave, a 30-year-old slacker (Nick Thune), builds a whimsical cardboard fort in his apartment. Inside the fort, however, lies a seemingly endless labyrinth which traps him, his girlfriend, and numerous other acquaintances. There are plenty of inventive visuals on display, but writer/director Bill Watterson - no relation to the "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoonist - and cowriter Steven Sears don't know where to take them.

The film's MVPs are production designers Trisha Gum and John Sumner and art director Jeff White. What they and their team have accomplished, with what was surely a minuscule budget, is spectacular. Room after cardboard room, the sets amaze and delight. But Watterson's staging is uninspired and Jon Boal's cinematography looks cheap. Mostly, however, the script is to blame: the kernel of a good story is lost, like its characters, in a cardboard maze of unfunny gags and the occasional bit of psychobabble. (There's some symbolic blarney about how the maze represents Dave's creative inertia or something.) James Urbaniak, the poor man's Kyle MacLachlan, is always a welcome presence, though his meddling documentarian character grows tiresome. (Blame the script, not the actor.) Adam Busch is likewise game, but the weak material drags him down. The rest of the cast is unremarkable.

I genuinely dislike criticizing a film that was clearly a labor of love for its creators, but Dave Made a Maze was so frustrating that I had to come here to lament its wasted potential. Bravo to the art department, though.

In his seminal book Making Movies, Sidney Lumet states that "all good work requires self-revelation." Taking this to heart, the makers of Dave Made a Maze have created what amounts to a contemplative amuse-bouche. In a word it is delightful – a DYI homage to magical realism that is sure to impress the nominally curious and the casually astute. Furthermore it approaches its absurdist tale with the proper irreverence, at least to a point. It's fun, a lot of fun. Yet much like any hor d'oeuvre it's not a full meal.

The movie starts with much of the same flourishes expected of a Luis Bunuel film. Annie (Kumbhani), the long suffering girlfriend of a "tortured artist," comes home to find Dave (Thune) has built a labyrinth out of cardboard in their apartment. Dave has apparently gotten lost in his own creation, thus after a gaggle of friends come over to inspect his work in progress, they enter the maze and find themselves at the mercy of impossibly expansive corridors, elaborate booby-traps, and cutesy creatures made of paper.

To say that Dave Made a Maze is a pastiche of a pastiche wouldn't even begin to explain the film's wild imagination. Hidden underneath Alice in Wonderland-like decor are clever references and callbacks of everything from Greek mythology to 80's fantasy adventure films to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to even obscure Hal Hartley movies. Director Bill Watterson takes this jumble of influences and hot glues it all together with a keen eye, which is always furthering the central theme. He even goes so far as to create elaborate visual metaphors in everything from playing cards and geek culture t-shirts to capture the trappings and growing frustrations of the millennial set.

Yet while Bill Watterson and Art Director Jeff White are clearly the stylists here, everyone including the nonplus actors, wind up feeling like nothing more than set decorations. Aiding in the rescue effort is the impossibly droll Harry (Urbaniak) and his skeleton crew of documentary filmmakers. They along with Dave's best friend Gordon (Busch) naturally provide the largest belly laughs and the most urbane quips. But the script also provides them with the largest shield of constant eye-rolling detachment. A detachment that extends to the entire cast in fact, since everyone is walking around the magical maze like they're characters from Mission Hill (1999-2002). But in Harry's case he's got a literal camera crew guaranteeing he'll be drowning in bathos before he'll be getting killed by a smoke-breathing cardboard Minotaur.

Since no one approaches anything with any sense of peril, audiences are forced to downshift to viewing the film as a nifty little parable with – and I can't state this enough – truly imaginative filigree. Of course those looking to challenge themselves intellectually will once again be disappointed as the said parable is about as obvious as a Jesus metaphor in a Superman movie. Though in Dave Made a Maze's defense, the structure of myths and legends, for which this movie takes a lot of its story elements, do have the same sense of clarity. Additionally since we're seeing things largely from Annie's point-of-view, the film subtly adds a new dimension to the process, however slight. One can't help but wonder if there was just one more tweak, one more re-write, Dave Made a Maze could have been a subversive assault on the trope of the sulking, self-involved, misunderstood artist.

But because we're set in the well established mold of self-revelation, and because we're surrounded by insufferable characters who are always above-it-all, Dave Made a Maze ends up being just as slight and disposable as a brown paper bag. Watch it if for no other reason than to get on the ground floor of a uniquely talented director's career. Otherwise I say skip it.

While the story isn't that great, the inside of the maze is awesome. This is definitely one to see.

It was certainly a bold choice to commit to such a dumb concept.

The comedy is light, not really aspiring for gut laughs, mainly playing off dead pan reactions to an absurd situation.

The cast comes through with a pretty likeable group of characters. They're all relatable, well intentioned slackers and the film almost has some things to say about that nagging urge to feel like you've accomplished something with your life.

Of course it's really all about people trapped in a life sized cardboard maze, which is exactly as silly as it sounds. It's undeniably unique and you've really got to admire the ambition it took to pull this all together on what was likely a shoestring budget. You can almost imagine the set designers chuckling to themselves as they spent hours making paper walls.

It's all endearing in it's simplicity, hardly an Oscar bid on any level, but hard to hate on.

I'm sorry to say it, but this movie is boring. It was a cool idea though.

This isn't a horror film. But there are elements that make it seem like a Saw film if the Muppets directed one. Seems like a metaphor on the pointlessness of life and trying to find meaning with a bunch of geeks in a cardboard labyrinth, including a minotaur, looking how to find purpose. But very fun! Light fare with just an ounce of a larger meaning that the characters are able to enhance in their acting.

Definitely a nutty film, but with some great laughs. The set design done all with cardboard is sheer genius!

Maybe a statement on those stuck in a rut, at home who can never finish anything, feel lost and always rely on others to be fulfilled? But really who cares about the message, if you live in a state where you can watch it in a haze then do that and enjoy.

Wow. I'm confused. What was that? Horror? Comedy? Adventure? It was rubbish!!

But wait, I watched it all the way through and was glued to it. Yep, it has no well known actors, along with first time directors and story tellers, and that showed somewhat in the 'occasional' lack of professionalism.

However, It was the most original movie I've seen in years. I had no clue what was coming next and had no idea what was happening. But then I didn't need to, didn't want to and kept wanting to watch. Isn't that exactly what a movie should be?

Well with a watch. It's good to be different.

This movie is filled with hipsters: people who spend way, way too much time, thought, and energy on their appearance just to convey the right level of "ironic," or "edgy," or whatever they're hoping will impress people around them. The "best friend" character of the movie wears an annoyingly superior expression for most of the film: the kind that the filmmakers are hoping their key demographic (hipsters) will know and relate to: it's an "I'm so intelligent I don't need to work" kind of expression. ("Also, give me back my food stamps.")

Even from the film's synopsis: "Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation."

"...An artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career," eh? Another hint as to the demographic this film targets.

"Maze" is not clever or funny. It is pretentious. Dave, the film's protagonist (notice how I don't say "hero;" that'd be too dynamic) is shouting at us within the first two minutes of the movie. So, loud is funny? Or, "I'm a genius and I'm really going through a lot right now so everyone give me some space?" That makes me think of that United pilot who arrived late to her flight, out of uniform, and began ranting about her divorce. (This is not a compliment.)

Where the movie deserves praise is its design: lovely, lovely papercraft. There are paper puppets and cardboard cutouts galore, which, combined with stop motion animation, bolsters the innate charm of papercraft. (Also, props to the maze featuring a minotaur.)

But whatever charm the papercraft gives "Maze" is squashed by the pretentious protags, just by them opening their mouths. No one is funny, no one tells funny jokes, everyone reacting to everything with the same reaction ("Oh. Well. Uh, okay—") is tedious (obviously), and the ego of these aging hipsters is both insufferable and sad. Hey, I love surrealistic SF and fantasy, but The Science of Sleep and Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind this is not.

Even close.