The Brothers Grimm
Year: 2005
Director: Terry Gilliam
Written by: Ehren Kruger
Threat: Witch
Weapon of Choice: Trees
IMDb page: 
The Brothers GrimmYear: 2005 Director: Terry Gilliam Written by: Ehren Kruger Threat: Witch Weapon of Choice: Trees IMDb page: |
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Rish's Reviews
I remember when this movie was about to come out, there was buzz that Terry Gilliam
had finally "sold out." The concept of selling out means different things to different
people, but in this case, I think they were saying that he'd stifled all his bizarre, artistic,
and uniquely creative tendencies to make a studio blockbuster. I don't know if that's
the case or not, but I'd hope by selling out he'd finally have made a profitable film.
This one was not it.
So, the Brothers Grimm (Matt Damon and Heath Ledger), before penning the fairy tales
that would make them famous, roamed the countryside defending towns and villages
from the forces of evil. Little does the general populace know, however, that they are
frauds, setting up their own "monsters" to defeat in front of witnesses. All is well until
they are charged with defeating a real supernatural foe, one that's menacing young
girls in the German countryside.
The Brothers Grimm had a great concept, but wow, not carried out well at all.
The film wasn't a disaster, but it certainly was no classic either. In fact, if I had to be
honest, I'd not only say it was Terry Gilliam's worst film, but falls much closer to disaster
than classic.
Oh, there are glimpses of brilliance here and there, made all the worse by the fragmented,
muddy, incoherent junk in between. On the positive side, there were many, many cute
references to fairy tales, from Cinderella to Rumplestiltskin, from the Three Pigs to the
Gingerbread Man. There were also some very imaginative forms of magic, interesting
visual stuff we've not seen before. But that's to be expected from Terry Gilliam.
I don't know where it went wrong, really, though it seems this was a very troubled
production. Even the special effects, which seem so cheap and easy nowadays, due to
CGI, were often mediocre at best. It felt badly edited, and was sometimes hard to follow
because of it. There were many, many accents to deal with, from German to Italian to
English to French, and that made it all the worse. The characters are pretty much all
unlikable, except Heath Ledger's Jake Grimm (who probably should have been played
by Damon, with Ledger playing the Lothario brother). It's all so muddled, almost from
beginning to end, and I don't know if it's the script's fault, the budget's fault, the editor's
fault (my guess), or Gilliam's fault. I don't know, they say it's hard to mix Comedy with
Horror, so how much harder it must be to mix Comedy with Period Drama with Horror
with Action with Fantasy?
There is, however, Monica Bellucci in this film. And that, my friends, carries a lot of
weight with it.
Still ain't gonna recommend it, though.
Posted: April 12, 2006
Total Skulls: 16
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup |  |
|
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | |
|
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | |
|
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | |
|
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | |
|
| No one believes only witness | |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | |
|
| Flashback sequence | |
|
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | |
|
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | |
|
| Geek/Nerd survives | |
|
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | |
|
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | |
|
| What the hell? | |