The Brothers Grimm
Eliminating Evil Since 1812
Brothers Jake (Heath Ledger) and Will Grimm (Matt Damon) travel from village to village collecting folklore and pretending to get rid of enchanted creatures. However, their bluff is called when they are forced to investigate a haunted forest.
Member Reviews
Ohhh... Terry... - Berlinger
It was alright, but not fantastic. This Gilliam guy just shoots his movies with a shotgun. It's just all over the place.
He seems to me to be an apprentice of Guillermo Del Toro with his out there imagination, but missing the key ability to pull things together.Highs and lows. - KeithTalent
I'm a big Gilliam fan and have been wanting to see this film ever since it came out. Unfortunately it is pretty disappointing overall. I liked what Gilliam was going for here (a twist on all classic fairy tales, using two con-man brothers to guide us through) and it looks great, aside from some pretty dodgy CGI, as his films always do, but it did not grab as much as I was hoping. Heath Ledger is pretty good and Peter Stormare is hilarious as the over the top villain (Gilliam always seems to have at least one of these guys in his films) but I did not feel attached to the Brothers and their relationship, which I think you need to be in order for this film to work. I did not hate it and it had some fun, enjoyable moments, but it was just sort of ho-hum overall.Grimmer would have been great - Sandman2
This movie must have looked foolproof on paper. Terry Gilliam, ceaselessly inventive mind behind Brazil and Twelve Monkeys; reliable stars in Heath Ledger and Matt Damon; the exotic beauty of Monica Bellucci; eye-popping special effects. The film is visually rich in the way of Gilliam's work, and the script is full of interesting details and anachronistic wit. But something doesn't quite add up. The central conceit, that the Brothers are only posing as exorcist/witch-hunters in order to bilk credulous villagers with staged (and relatively speaking, high-tech) battles with the forces of darkness, and that the Brothers soon get their comeuppance in facing a forest which really is haunted, feels a little too contrived. The Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest used a similar premise better. Ledger and Damon are charming, but something of the charisma of each doesn't quite come through. Sometimes it feels like they're both sidekicks in search of a hero character. It doesn't help that each is cast against type, to the point that it feels like they switched characters on the last day of rehearsal just for laughs. And both have about the same minor degree of chemistry with Lena Headey, a slightly odd choice for the hoydenish leading lady. But when the story moves away from the comic premise of Napoleonic-era faux-Ghostbusters and into fairytale territory in earnest, the pace picks up, and the Brothers' relationship becomes the real point of the story. I liked the idea that all of the Grimms' Fairy Tales have their genesis in the story that the brothers lived through.(Maybe there really is only one Story, after all.) The movie has a dreamlike aspect that grows increasingly strange and menacing, and the climax is suitably archetypal and odd. That's one of the film's strengths. More of that tone would have been better. The movie's not what it might have been, but it is an interesting experiment.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Ohhh... Terry... - Berlinger
It was alright, but not fantastic. This Gilliam guy just shoots his movies with a shotgun. It's just all over the place.
He seems to me to be an apprentice of Guillermo Del Toro with his out there imagination, but missing the key ability to pull things ...Highs and lows. - KeithTalent
I'm a big Gilliam fan and have been wanting to see this film ever since it came out. Unfortunately it is pretty disappointing overall. I liked what Gilliam was going for here (a twist on all classic fairy tales, using two con-man brothers to guide us through) ...Grimmer would have been great - Sandman2
This movie must have looked foolproof on paper. Terry Gilliam, ceaselessly inventive mind behind Brazil and Twelve Monkeys; reliable stars in Heath Ledger and Matt Damon; the exotic beauty of Monica Bellucci; eye-popping special effects. The film is visually ...