What makes it different from others?

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Two estranged brothers reunite at their childhood home in the Alaskan wild. They set out on a two-day hike and are stalked by an unrelenting grizzly bear. Into the Grizzly Maze was for sure a huge suprise for me, James Marsden, Piper Perabo, Thomas Jane, Scott Glenn and Billy Bob Thornton were excellent in their roles especially Perabo who she had to express her emotions instead of just saying them. The Bear action was really bloody and terrific and it's amazing that just in 94 minutes we get a film so well done and so well made in general that was quite the suprise in general considering the budget. If you loved movies like 'The Edge' you're going to love this film alot. (10/10)

INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE is an action horror movie with an A-list cast and B-movie feel. It's about a bunch of characters who end up in the woods with a rampaging grizzly bear hunting for them, and the entire plot consists of waiting to find out who lives and who dies as a result. The film seems to be a throwback to the exploitation pictures of old, like GRIZZLY, but it fails to entertain due to the fact that it simply isn't thrilling.Instead this film consists of clichéd characters and situations and over-obvious direction. Familiar stars show up and spout dialogue and either hunt or are hunted by the grizzly. James Marsden and Thomas Jane have both had successful careers but seem weak and insipid here, and Billy Bob Thornton's kooky character is underutilised in what amounts to little more than an extended cameo. Scott Glen has even less to do other than hang around looking haggard. The main recommendation is that the bear attack sequences are convincing, reliant on trick photography rather than the usual CGI creations or man-in-a-suit monstrosities.

No movie with Scott Glenn in the cast can be completely bad, but in the case of "Into the Grizzly Maze", there is not much more than Glenn to say what's positive about this viewing experience. Sure, for the most part the movie looks good, with expert cinematography and some very scenic locations (though the CGI effects look really amateurish.) And the last fifteen minutes or so are reasonably tense and exciting (though when the threat is finally eradicated, the movie ends really abruptly, as if the production had run out of money.) But the moments that lead to those last fifteen minutes are not particularly engaging. The story is really slow in unfolding. To make matters worse, even when the threat of the movie is (eventually) established, there is no real feeling that the characters are in deep peril until near the end. One reason for this is that even though the production got a real bear (the legendary Bart the bear), his sporadic appearances are for the most part so poorly directed that we can't get a sense that the characters are facing a wild and out of control animal. If the movie had been rewritten to make Scott Glenn the threat, maybe we would have had something here.

This movie attempted to be a bit different, they opted to make a realistic horror. A sleepy town is terrorised by a savage Grizzly bear. It's kind of like a Bear version of Jaws.It's carnage in the forest, body parts start appearing, the powers that be realise quickly that the miscreant is a bear, not just any bear, it's a smart and clever unique bear! I'd almost go so far as to say a criminal mastermind and king of subterfuge. A small team consisting of two estranged brothers, A Sheriff, his deputy. The most interesting character being Michelle, a girl out photographing in the woods and happens to be deaf.The best thing about the film has to be the visuals, they were never going to fail with the shots of the landscapes, seriously beautiful, almost awe inspiring. Some of the effects are good, some of them are a bit amateur. The shots of the bear not attacking are great, they are glorious animals who couldn't enjoy those (Salmon I guess.) It's some of the attack scenes that look a wee bit dodgy, as viewers I guess we expect so much.There are lots of tense moments, you are waiting for the Bear to appear and you never know when, but some of the scenes with long drawn out dialogues seem to go on forever.Interesting finale, the Bear decides not to rip his victims apart in seconds, but to make a meal out of it.The acting is mixed I'd have to say, James Marsden is a cut above, he us pretty good, the film was a surprising choice I guess, but good on him for doing something not mainstream. Billy Bob Thornton does a good job at making his character rather nauseating, but he's as much screen time as he perhaps should have been. Some of the lesser parts aren't great, some of the Sheriff's team seem like they've wandered into the film.It's a bit of furry fun. 6/10