Brothers Grimm [Blu-ray]

I'm not one to create reviews that are a reply to other reviews, but I'm feeling sorry for the poor guy who hasn't seen this film and would like to know whether to bother. The answer is yes, don't bother with these 1 and 2 star reviews, because frankly I don't understand where they're coming from. They must've seen a completely different movie to me.

Now before I go on, let us remember that this is The Brothers Grimm, a tale that encompasses as many fairy tale references as it can. Fairy tale is the key here. If you're sat there watching it and you think "but that doesn't make sense", well neither do moving trees, feeling a pea under a pile of mattresses, or a walking, talking ginger-bread man.

Quick summary; Two brothers, one of logical thinking, one of fantasy thinking, con villages out of money by pretending to vanquish witches and monsters. After one successful con, they are dragged to the authoritative figure of the French invasion who sends them after the people responsible for the disappearance of young girls in a secluded village. It isn't long before the brothers find that this is a real curse.
To be honest, that's pretty much it, so what people are finding so messy and confusing I have no idea.

Acting is pretty decent. I've certainly seen a lot worse. Okay, so their accents may not be 100% perfect, but this is a light-hearted fantasy, why should they be? The special effects are pretty decent too. The characterisation was good, I really felt for the two brothers, especially Jacob. Script was almost faultless. Agreed, it could've been better, but that doesn't mean it has any faults.

A recurring theme - this film is not perfect by any means. The ending is awfully cliché, but it's a fairy tale, why shouldn't it be? The Queen appeared really late in the film so she barely got any screen time, which is a shame. The French characters were also pretty annoying, I just wanted them to die so they could leave the brothers to it.

Give this film a try, watch it with an open mind. This obviously isn't for everyone, but from where I'm sat, 95% of these negative reviews are complete rubbish. Remember, it's a fairy tale.

This is an imaginative take on the characters of the collectors and tale-tellers; indeed this take would probably be libellous if the brothers were still alive, for Matt Damon and Heath Ledger portray them as frauds, making money off the back of the supernatural fears of the peasantry in Napoleonic Europe. Terry Gilliam, the director, in one of the extras states that his film "has nothing to do with the real Brothers Grimm ... Instead of thanking them, we are using them."

It's a fantastical comedy, or a comical fantasy, but with dark overtones featuring toad-licking, wolves, ravens, and assorted creepy-crawlies. It does have a happy ending, though, which was disconcerting for Gilliam since he doesn't usually do happy endings. Indeed, it was a surprise to learn that he was asked to direct this film rather than he coming up with the idea for it himself, given that the subject-matter is classic Gilliam territory.

Filmed in the Czech Republic, there are numerous references to tales of Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, the Gingerbread Man and Rapunzel. But the core of the story involves ..., well that would be giving the game away. It sometimes feels like a poor cousin of `Lord of the Rings'. The script, written by Ehren Kruger, is perhaps unnecessarily complicated and overly contrived. The film itself suffers from some poor ADR (especially Peter Stormare and even Jonathan Pryce), and I'm not sure that the cockney accent of our two heroes works either; as Gilliam says, we have here an American and an Australian playing Germans with English accents. He doesn't mention also the Swede playing an Italian and a Welshman playing a Frenchman.

There is a good commentary supplied by Terry Gilliam. Here we learn that originally Matt Damon and Heath Ledger were to play their opposite roles; that there was "certain pressure from certain sources" (the Weinsteins?) to prevent the heroes from shrieking like girls; and that the amazingly vast forest was constructed in a studio - but that the most expensive scene was cut because the forest's supernatural qualities were deemed too explicit.

The extras also include deleted scenes. It seems to me that these should have been kept in to provide further background and characterisation, two aspects poorly served in the film as it presently stands, where the action predominates to push the story forward. Another extra is a sixteen-minute film called `Bringing the Fairytale to Life' where we see, for example, the clever use made of mirrors in the tower scenes

I am a big fan of Gilliam and have all but one of his films on DVD in my collection (guess which one I refuse to buy), so I have to ask myself if I would have purchased this DVD if it had not been a Gilliam film. Difficult to say: I give it four stars (for Amazon = `I like it'), but not five (`I love it'), so I have no qualms about it taking up space on the shelf. But, yes, it is so rich in imaginative invention that, despite some hiccups in the film, I will enjoy watching it again and again, for Gilliam has created a fairy tale anew.

Enter into a Grim and Macabre Adventure that is truly a Tale of the Unexpected. Well, we all know about the brothers Grimm, tellers of fairytales. We will never forget "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Sleeping Beauty". This film, is set in a sinister, enchanted forest and is a dark tale, full of twists and turns, gnarled trees and strange occurrences.

It's different and I liked it and it was hard to predict where it was going! Which was good. It features the abduction of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood among others, a Woodsman turned Werewolf, a Sleeping Once was Beauty and a distracted, disturbed damsel with "issues". There is a gruesome take on the Gingerbread man that is completely unexpected and creepy!! The film has elements of the Princess Bride, Shrek, Snow White and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but is a modern film, set in mediaeval times with humour interjected throughout.

The forest, which is definitely alive, centres around a high tower where, what used to be, a beautiful raven haired princess is determined to regain her youth and life force through manipulative means. A mixture of Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, with the Mirror revealing both reality and illusion. It weaves elements of Grimm's fairytales into one and is a dark, enchanted tapestry.

The Wolf was very well done, suitably supernatural and not the type of creature you'd want to run into in a forest, but this film is definitely not on a league with A Company of Wolves. It was horror in a shrek rather than a hammer way! Definitely room for improvements, but enjoyable. If you like the myth and legend of fairy tales, the supernatural, horror, fantasy and comedy, you should enjoy this. Very different and Definitely entertaining.