Jabberwocky
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Movie Reviews of Jabberwocky
Movie Review: Classic Gilliam
Summary: 5 Stars
Jabberwocky is the prototype for all future Gilliam films. Its muted anti-bureaucratic themes transcend centuries.Movie Review: Not Monty Python. NOT FOR CHILDREN or the faint of heart. Truely a cult classic!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a movie that I seen in high school (Mideval History) and my teacher of that class insisted that it was about as accurate a portrayal of Medieval Life available out of all of the movies involving Medieval life and oddly I had to agree. This movie is definately British humor and the Brits like things dry like Gin and their jokes. Also there is a different view toward nudity in the European cultures so partial nudity in movies is acceptable where here in the good old USA sexuality of any kind is taboo and a very hypocritical view is taken toward nudity. If you are naked in a movie you are offending peoples' cultural sensativities and to them I say GET A LIFE! You came into this world naked, you bath naked, and you sure as heck are not going to care when you are dead and when you take off all our cloths, guess what! So with this aside there is also some extreme violence as well (people are being eaten by the Jabberwocky as well as animals and the Jabberwocky is pretty pissed off). This movie should have been in all honesty rated R. With cultural difference aside the movie is well made and well played out. There is the moments of side plots that go nowhere but it breaks up things a little so it is more of a snapshot of medieval life that is pretty damn accurate. People didn't bath then and true to Python humor the only person not covered in SHI* is the king (in the words of Palin during an interview about the Holy Grail). Many of the scenes are of filthy people in dirty hamlets being plagued by the Jabberwocky eating livestock and pesants. This is not your run of the mill pretty boy slaying the big bad dragon like 'Dragonslayer' where people look well groomed except the pesants who don't look like they really have hard lives with a really cool looking dragon. Jabberwocky makes the pesants LOOK like pesants. Filthy, covered in rags, and definately a punishment to the senses. You can almost smell the rank odor of the unwashed masses. The dragon Jabberwocky is a real nightmare. If they had the CGI of today it would have really creeped people out. It looks more like it is undead like a zombie dragon and it comes out mad as hell and out to kill. For what they lacked in CGI they made up for with raw special effects magic. There is nothing pretty about this movie. It is gritty and realistic.
Within the plot is a toung and cheek stab at chivalry, love, and honor. The hero loves a fat angry potatoe grubbing woman who does not care for him at all. The people he is out to save could care less and the nobles are ignorant, egotistical, and narcissistic. True to British form some of the humor is hidden in the subtlties and requires a little thinking. It helps to have a more worldly view rather than a basic education to understand this movie fully. It takes a lot to understand British humor sometimes. It also takes watching it twice to catch some of the side humor or satire involved. There is a scene where the hero is asleep at the foot of a castle that was closed over night. The hero is awakened to what he thinks is rain. He figures out what happened when he looks up to see a guard putting everything away after relieving himself over the side of the castle wall. This is one of the many satirical remarks made by this movie. The hero getting pissed on says a lot in itself. No other movie treats the hero like dirt.
The story does follow a typical progeression of events as the hero decides to hunt the Jabbgerwocky and when he finally catches up to it the fight is not all it is expected to be. If you are expecting a thriller of a movie this is not it. It is a more cereberal piece that makes statements that parrallels modern life. It is very entertaining in the traditional sense but the point will be lost on many younger viewers much like the movie Brasil (Terry Gillian) which was a movie ahead of it's time. I am a long time fan of Monty Python and although this is not a Monty Python movie there are people associated with the Python players in this movie and it does parallel the way Montey Python movies like the Life of Brian and The Holy Grail are presented. If you hate Montey Python stay away from this movie. It will bore the heck out of you. If you are a Python fan you will love it. If you are into foreign cinema then you will enjoy this movie as well.
It was done after the Lewis Carol poem and yes the Jabberwock has teeth that knash and claws that slash! This is no tame movie for as low brow as the humor is. I gave it a four stars because it is a good movie but not a great one. Five stars is reserved for movies like Riddic Chronicles or Kung Fu Hustle (WHICH GETS SIX STARS BY ME! HOT HOT HOT MOVIE!) but definately not a movie to be underestimated. Just because the point or content of the movie is lost to many of those posting reviews one should not be dissuaded from viewing Jabberwockie. It does not suck like the movie Pecker (Which could suck the seeds from a cucumber from one end! It was an hour and a half of my life wasted) or Being John Malcovitch which sucks harder than a tornado in Kansas (I wanted to kick the hell out of the characters and take their lunch money! Especially the main character who discovers the secret door. Total drivel unfit for the silver screen and worst than a waste of my time and thankfully I wasted no money putting up with it!!) This definately is no Prince Valliant movie. I say watch it if you want to see something different. Don't if all you want is blood and gore action.
To all of thee I bid thee NIE! NIE! NIE!NIE!NIE!NIE!
And where is my SHRUBBERY?
Movie Review: Balderwocky not without merit
Summary: 4 Stars
While I wouldn't say this is a GREAT movie, it is still good at least. It's production value alone assures it 3 stars. The sets and the acting are all very, very good. It has that vintage Python look and tone. It's story stays true to itself as well, so I can't really fault the script either. This movie is about a guy who just can't raise his dreams any higher than that of a common barrel-maker (a 'cooper'), while fate has a drastically different plan.
It's true, variations of this theme have been done before, though probably not with quite so much understated silliness. I was SO glad there were subtitles on the version I saw (the British PAL release) as British accents and the Dark Ages being what they were, it's often hard to hear and catch the jokes as they fly out in perfect deadpan from moment to moment.
Faults? The movie is occasionally slow (though no slower than Shakespeare and you wouldn't give him a low review!). While the movie has an amusing tone, it seldom brings you to full fledged laughter. It's a bunch of silly nonsense and it's absurd, but at the same time, it's clever for the story it tells, with the bunch of seriously grotty characters who inhabit it, and it's clever for the way it ends. That's what I meant by it staying true to itself - I don't want to go into specifics to avoid spoilers. It's certainly a decent little movie that one could actually learn something from if one put some thought into it. It's not up to par with the best of Python, and it's nowhere near as entertaining as Baron Munchausen, but I liked it better than Eric the Viking, for what that's worth. And if the poem of the Jabberwocky that you studied in 10th grade high school lit didn't come alive for you then, well, it comes to life for you here! A narrator breaks periodically into segments of the poem as the movie goes along. Hey, this may be higher-brow entertainment than you'd suspect.
Movie Review: A great, if eccentric, debut
Summary: 4 Stars
The presence of three of the Monty Python team might suggest a certain kinnd of film - this isn't it. It might seem like an extension of 'the holy grail', but is a lot less less sketchy, and not so silly. The plot is a basic inversion of the 'hero slays the dragon' myths, where the hero is a distracted cooper's apprentice who has no greater ambition than winning the love of the local fish-merchants repulsive daughter. that he unwittingly finds himself in the filthy and disintegrating castle of the ineffectual King Bruno the Questionable is just the beginning of his unwitting and unplanned adventures... that ends with him confronting the terrifying eponymous creature..quite a dark film, with a humour to match. With silly bits too.
recommended to every fan of the films of Terry Gilliam.
Movie Review: GREAT FILM
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm looking foward to this coming out on DVD, I only have it on video when I recorded it from the television years ago.I heard about it when I started really getting into Python a few years ago, when I was looking at what other projects Palin and Gilliam had been involved in. It can take a couple of watches, as the story can seem a bit weird first time round, but it is a very funny film, and Palin's performence along with other actors like Warren Mitchell and John Le Mesurier are all superb. This one is certainly for fans of Python, but of course this is just a quick review of the film - the next question is how the DVD itself will be, and if there will be any extras included. Even if there isn't this is worth buying.