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| Rated: R |
1995 |
Color |
129 minutes |
| Starring:
Joseph Melito, Bruce Willis, Jon
Seda, Michael Chance, Vernon Campbell, H. Michael Walls, Bob Adrian, Simon Jones, Carol Florence, Bill Raymond, Ernest
Abuba, Irma St. Paule, Madeleine Stowe, Joey Perillo |
| Directed
by: Terry Gilliam |
| Written
by: David Webb Peoples, Janet Peoples |
| Based
on: Chris Marker's
Film La Jetee |
| Music:
Paul Buckmaster, Bernard Herrmann, Charles Olins, Astor Piazzolla |
| Movie
Co.: Atlas Entertainment, Classico, Universal Pictures |
| Movie
Stills: Photos |
Links |
Awards |
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Critique
Section
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HugeReviews.com's
Official Rating System:
Pathetic
Wimpy
Solid Super
HUGE
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| HugeReviews.com's
Reviews |
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2
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Soundtrack
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DVD:
La Jetee
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HugeReviews.com
Reviews:
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Getting
Down to Monkey Business
by Michael Flanagan
Super
If you count the number of
monkeys in Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys,
you’ll come up with less than twelve. The initial reason for this fact makes just about as much
sense as the movie does at the halfway point.
The intellect and originality behind 12
Monkeys gives it the edge that makes it a truly
artfully crafted sci-fi film. |
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The film consists of enough
twists and turns to make dizzy man vomit, but in a
good way. Trying
to figure out the various plot elements behind Monkeys
is like trying to figure out the ending to The
Sixth Sense if you didn’t know it had a twist.
That way, the film’s surprises are surprises,
and all completely enjoyable.
Bruce Willis gives his usual
deadpan great performance.
Madeleine Stowe is beautiful in mind, body, and
screen presence as the state psychiatrist that may or
may not be very good at her job.
Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt does some of
his most outstanding work as an insane
rebel, and the performance serves to
remind us how great an actor he can
be…when he’s playing a crazy person |
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The movie business is full of
post-apocalyptic films that answer the question,
“what happens when the world ends.”
Some answer well, such as Terminator 2
(based on the same French film as 12 Monkeys, La
Jetee). Some
answer remotely with a poor excuse for an apocalypse,
such as Battlefield Earth. 12 Monkeys goes beyond the realm of answering
fictional questions and answers both questions we
haven’t asked yet, and answers that aren’t even
questions. As
it should be. Thank
you, Mr. Gilliam.
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Brilliance
in Conception and Execution...A Hollywood Rarity: 12 Monkeys
by Christian De Matteo
HUGE
Would that we had a rating higher than HUGE, I
would assign this film that with a plus.
Director Terry Gilliam’s 12
Monkeys provided for me the exact theater
experience that made me the major film fan I am
today. I
remember so clearly sitting in the theater as the
last image of the film faded out and realizing my
mouth was wide open…and still not closing it.
Never had I been more awed by a film’s
incredible brilliance and perfection.
I felt as though I’d been slammed in the
gut and wasn’t sure I would recover in time to
continue my date.
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| Ever since childhood when my father had me watch Monty
Python and the Holy Grail and Time
Bandits, I have been a fan of Gilliam’s
wonderful and quirky storytelling and film style. So many people have the title “an absolute original”
given to them, but few truly deserve it as much as
Gilliam. Even when he tackled the drug culture with his version of
Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas, subject matter I
usually am not interested in, was I wowed.
But 12 Monkeys…Lord,
12 Monkeys. Perhaps the very pinnacle of Gilliam’s work to this day,
the film stands as one of the most brilliant takes
on a post-apocalyptic society as well as science
fictions most audacious and subtle time-travel
tales. Who
else could make dealing in time-travel where that
astounding feat is of little import to the ultimate
plot? 12
Monkeys wraps sci-fi, noir, mystery, suspense
and drama all up into one tight and extraordinarily
rewarding package.
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Quintessential Gilliam themes pervade the film, deep
with commentary on individuality, societal
constraints and hypocrisy, humanity and its
self-destructive nature.
The beauty of Gilliam, however, is that his
feelings on humanity are not as damning as, for
example, Stanley Kubrick, but instead tempered with
a some sense of hope and a good sense of
humor…that last bit being essential to our
survival.
Also, quintessentially Gilliam is his amazing ability
to bring forth the very, very best in actors.
As Robin Williams performance in The
Fisher King was perhaps his best performance
ever, 12 Monkeys gave Bruce Willis (the Die Hard series, The Sixth
Sense) his first major opportunity to show-off
how much more he could do than just wisecracks.
Willis’ James Cole, in fact, does not make
one wisecrack through the movie.
Willis give a deep, heavy performance as a
man finding himself while on a mission to save
humanity backwards as the marionette of a rag tag
group of future scientists, determined to return
humanity to the surface of the Earth.
Along side Willis is Brad Pitt in what I feel is
undeniably his greatest performance ever, as a
hyper, psychotic animal rights obsessed son of
scientist Christopher Plummer, also excellent.
Gilliam allows Pitt a perfectly eccentric
performance, yet never allows him to enter the
ridiculous…at least any more than the film will
allow. It
was not until this film (and yes, this was after Legends
of the Fall) that I began truly respect the
breadth of Pitt’s acting ability.
This film is the reason Pitt was even
considered for his next great acting job, Tyler
Durden in Fight
Club.
With Madeline Stowe giving a striking show as
Willis’ reluctant psychologist and accomplice, the
film both entertains and amazes, until finally
leaving you shocked and truly astounded.
I rate 12
Monkeys way up as one of the greatest films ever
made.
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| Awards
& Nominations: IMdb |
Full
Cast & Credits: IMdb |
| Links:
Official Site, |
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