What keeps Maze humming is Hackl's firm sense of narrative tension. He knows character and dialogue are icing in films like this, so it's taut pacing, editing, and sound design that are crucial. (The actors are all fine, playing everything straight, sans irony.) The final showdown is ludicrous and thrilling -- as it should be.

David Hackl often shoots his bear in fashions that accent its lumbering, powerful grace, even during its death rattle.

Rarely do you sense that any key performer was ever in the vicinity of a real animal.

Into the Grizzly Maze is bad where it counts, and tedious throughout.