Maze

I am disappointed, as an American, that I did not learn more about the Troubles from this movie. It's one of the reasons I watched it. Everything seemed to be skimmed over as if every viewer already had the knowledge needed. Wrong.

I tried to figure out how I would make this movie better and I can't - because I am not Northern Irish (Scottish). I do think this was a lost opportunity.

That's why the average score. None of the characters had depth, so we didn't really care about them. Maybe the Guard whose family was almost shot, but that's about it. Otherwise, can't tell you a thing about anyone else. How sad. How very sad for a missed opportunity to educate people to a VERY important period in Irish history.

Some may regard this movie as too slow-paced, but I thought it had enough suspense and tension to keep me engaged throughout.

The acting from the 3 leads Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, and Martin McCann was quite solid, and the film was ably written and directed by Stephen Burke.

In some ways, the movie reminded me of the 1963 classic "The Great Escape".

No pun intended - also I don't think a prison escape movie has been called maze before. It does make sense though. This is based on a real story and there are a few things that happen that sound quite out there - no pun intended here either.

Well acted and really interesting ideas - well I reckon that most were from reality - but that there was still some heightened element to it. I did not study the real case, so I can't say if or what differences there are.

An escape thriller with quite a lot of suspense. Hopefully you can see it that way too.

Maze is a movie based on the biggest prison escape in Europe. A prison escape of 38 IRA members, a movie on how they planned and executed it. Even though the entire movie is in prison you really never have a dull moment. I doubt that there was not more tension between the Loyalists and the IRA members, like they portray it in this movie, but all in all it was not really about the hate towards eachother but more about the planning of the escape out of this maximum security prison. The cast was good, all the actors did what they were supposed to do. Maze is an entertaining movie that could have used a bit more violence and suspense to make it a better movie, but it's certainly worth watching.

No explosions or cartoonish special effects so I won't be surprised if it doesn't play well in the US. Factual learning experience, only wish they would have spent more time explaining the situation at that point in history for the younger crowd.