kegn

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

review



[Gilliam's design work of the Woodsman, from his Dreams website]

Got around to seeing the Brothers Grimm from beginning to end. I'll always think Gilliam is cool no matter what and he's a big influence to me. But he has a habit of repeating himself. Frenzied comic energy is not always the best way. He likes the crazies. Let's see, there's Robin Williams in the Fisher King, Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys, a bunch of people in Baron Munchausen. The pattern's starting to bug me. Maybe I'm getting old and having a hard time following overlapping dialogue from buffoonish characters. Terry, you need to review Time Bandits again. Some of those bandits were rock dumb and didn't say anything and everyone of them was perfect.

I still enjoyed parts of this movie. Heath Ledger was great, the man had oodles of talent. Matt Damon [MATT DAMON!] was decent too, and there are scenes that are downright creepy and look awesome but Gilliam kept going off on comedic bits that didn't really work and seem to bury the heart of the story. But when it did focus on the main stuff, it was pretty neat.

posted by kegn_15 at 1:15 PM

2 Comments:

  • I definitely thought it was a minor effor for Terry Gilliam but I still liked it. I just didn't love it like I do Time Bandits and 12 Monkeys.

    I think you're right about the pattern but I think of it in terms of composers; you can recognize the stylistic elements that are that artist's hallmarks but still see enough progression as to not think he's just riffing on his own, past work.

    Then there's James Horner.

    Are you listening Jimmy?

    Maybe even he had to see himself for what he was, since I don't think he's done much for a while.

    Of course now someone'll just show me up and name a half dozen recent Horner scores I suppose.

    Sorry for the rant.

    Gilliam...yeah...love him...even the Brothers Grimm!

    And for my money I was more impressed with Maaaaaaaat Daaaaaaamon!

    By Blogger TheOneTrueGuy, at 4:07 AM  

  • You make a good point re: "composers".

    Yeah, Gilliam is not a hack composer like Randy Newman. I wish NASA would shoot him and his Oscars straight to to Pluto and then maybe Pluto can be classified as a planet again.

    Ol' Matty was great but watching an ex-Heath made me think he would have given Johnny Depp a run for his money in the "best eccentric character actor " dept.

    By Blogger kegn_15, at 7:26 AM  

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