Gilliam has taken on a conventional Hollywood sci-fi thriller with big stars and turned it into his own rough beast.
Comment
07/23/07
12 Monkeys (1995)
87 %
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Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 41
Rotten:6
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Consensus: The plot's a bit of a jumble, but excellent performances and mind-blowing plot twists make 12 Monkeys a kooky, effective experience.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: In this intriguing science fiction film from director Terry Gilliam, penal colony prisoner James Cole must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five billion people in 1997. Cole's trip into the past... [More]
Starring: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer
Director: Terry Gilliam
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Reviews for 12 Monkeys
Gilliam gives the material a lunatic poetry of his own, but remains impervious to the requirements of narrative pacing.
06/24/06
12 Monkeys seems to go down smoothly without compromising anything or dumbing itself down.
05/26/06
Dark and somber like Blade Runner, this sci-fi is a spectacular mess, a convoluted film with too many ideas for its own good, blending (among other things) the virus thriller with the post-apocalyptic genre.
08/12/05
..less an essay on the nature of madness than a crazy person’s poem. It is wild and beautiful and deeply disturbing all at once.
05/09/05
A messy mélange of action, adventure, sci-fi, romance, horror, and comedy.
12/05/04
A clever, complex, and poignant success is as astonishing as it is satisfying.
07/30/03
There's always overripe method to his madness, but in the new 12 Monkeys Mr. Gilliam's methods are uncommonly wrenching and strong.
05/20/03
Top Critic Distinctly lacking in sentiment. Give me cataclysm, but at least act like you care.
05/14/03
Disorientating, but good performances all round. Will have you thinking for days afterwards.
04/23/03
It often seems as though Gilliam is the least prolific of fantastic directors working today (with the possible exception of Alejandro Jodorowsky), but once again, it was worth the wait.
03/10/03
Terry Gilliam's most mature film to date demands rigorous analysis from the viewer. Add to this the director's grotesquely comic hallmarks, and the resulting film is a complex and rewarding fantasy.
11/04/02
The more I see this film, the more I'm impressed by it. I love movies that are rich and complex, filled with different layers of reading.
09/10/02
The acting is good, and the visuals are sharp. But at two hours long, they should have just settled for six monkeys.
04/17/02
Bruce Willis, in an eruptive performance of startling emotional intensity, stars as Cole, a prisoner tagged for an experiment that may get him killed.
05/12/01
Top CriticLatest News for 12 Monkeys
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