The Brothers Grimm
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.90 You Save: $6.09 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.74 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Brothers Grimm
Movie Review: Fairy Tales Brought to Life
Summary: 4 Stars
THE BROTHERS GRIMM is a thrilling adventure from the mind of Terry Gilliam set against the backdrop of a fairy tale with two protagonists pulled from real life. The story stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as Will and Jacob Grimm, the two scholars of history who traveled throughout Germany gathering the old fairy tales and legends that had been passed down through the generations through storytelling and collected them together in one collection. Except, the Will and Jacob Grimm in THE BROTHERS GRIMM only resemble the real Brothers Grimm in name only. In this story, THE BROTHERS GRIMM are a pair of sibling con artists, traveling from town to town fighting and apparently defeating one supernatural being after another, from ghosts to witches and trolls. When they fight a creature it appears quite remarkable, but that's only because of all the gadgets and stage techniques the duo uses. The ghouls and goblins are only their stage hands covered in makeup and assisted by lighting, pulleys, springs, and wires. It makes for a great show and with at least one villager present to witness the event, it brings in a lot of money. The Germans love the Brothers Grimm.
However, Germany is under the control of the French and the French aren't as disposed to superstitions, myths, and legends as the locals. When ten young girls in the village of Marbaden disappear the locals become so frightened that the French fear a revolt. General Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce) has the brothers arrested and places them under the care of the famed torture artist Cavaldi (Peter Stormare). Delatombe threatens to give the brothers over to Cavaldi unless they are able to find the missing girls in Marbaden. Upon their arrival, they hire a local woman, Angelika (Lena Headey) to guide them through the forest. She does and the brothers begin to realize that maybe there is some truth to fairy tales after all as they come face to face with a man who can transform into a wolf, an evil gingerbread man, and a wicked ageless queen.
Though THE BROTHERS GRIMM is a complete work of fiction, in the hands of Terry Gilliam it becomes a masterpiece of fantasy. As every good storyteller knows, fairy tales have heroes and villains and end happily. However, fairy tales are also very dark. They are supposed to be that way because they help us (and especially children) understand a world that is often very cruel and full of pain and suffering. THE BROTHER GRIMM is a grand fairy tale and in the telling it weaves together elements of many of the real Brothers Grimm's most famous tales: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Gingerbread Man, Rapunzel, etc.
I like Terry Gilliam as a director, but his films have been somewhat hit and miss the past few years. THE BROTHERS GRIMM is one that falls into the hit column. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The movie was engaging and captivating. I especially liked how Damon and Ledger played the opposite type of roles they normally play. I also like discovering the allusions to the various Grimm fairy tales scattered throughout the movie.
Recommended for fans of Gilliam, people who enjoy fantasy movies, and families who don't mind watching a fairy tale film told the way a fairy tale should be told.
The DVD includes a director's commentary with Gilliam, which is worth the time to listen through if you have it. There are a few deleted scenes, including the most expensive scene in the whole film: Will and Jake and Angelika fighting a giant tree. There are a couple of behind the scenes featurettes, "Bringing Fairy Tale to Life" and "The Visual Magic of THE BROTHERS GRIMM".
Movie Review: This Movie Had It All.
Summary: 4 Stars
In a lot of ways, this film was like 'A Beautiful Mind' where he lived out his spy fantasies. The Brothers lived through all of the scary fairytales they enscribed into book form. Some describe it as just a story to scare children, but it was much more. There was a lot of witchcraft with the symbols involved.
Once upon a time, in 1796, the Grimms not only wrote those scary tales, they lived through and researched them. Many were pranks which turned dangerous, and others were full-fledged nightmares. The peg-legged man was like the wood figurine I have had for a long time.
Matt Damon was fabulous as Will, the good-looking Grimm and looked the part exactly. The owl moving its head around is like the false one here near Krutch Park. Eat your heart out, Arthur Friend. The frisky brown mare was like those they use at the Civil War re-enactments here in Tennessee. They lived all that stuff they wrote -- it was not a figment of their imaginations.
In the tower in the middle of an enchanted forest in Germany, they found the Book of Spells where the ancient Queen awaited the last (twelfth) girl's death to make her young and beautiful again. As the revived Queen, she was exactly like Poe's Ligeia.
The French General's statesman looked like our Admiral Farragut. Unemotional Mark Hairr of KAT fame, was at the formal dinner as they authenticated the enchantment. The lively music for the executions as entertainment was like James Cameron's. The ferocious wolf with the blue eyes which turned into a werewolf was Angelina's father, the suitor of the old Queen. He seduced the young girls to a point where they were entranced by a horse who entraps them in a net and swallows them. Sasha is saved from having to end up in the twelfth crypt which encircles the tower (looked like a lighthouse) in the German woods.
The French Revolution was in full swing (Merci) and the boomerang axe which was enchanted, as well, was a good touch. I liked the monkey jumping around on the mantle as they played "Lullaby and Good Night." The ravens eating the bread crumbs of Gretel was cleverly done. The old man with the long beard and lantern looked like Tommy. The white horse was fab. The German march music as we see the beautiful landscape and countryside was stirring.
The woods were heavily populated with all kinds of fowl, snakes, toad (with his white frog's legs). One thing I didn't like was when the trapper skinned and deblooded the skinny animal which could have been an alley cat. Jacob did some good acting at the grass-covered spring house in the dark forest of superstition. The strange catapalts were overcomplicated. They used a divining fork, which they considered as sophisticated technology.
Will contemplates life without Jacob as he struggles to reach the peak of the tower. They find treasure in the tower room as in the Egyptian tombs. The General's "dummy" assistant was a good actor. Viva Revolution! Mark Savage.
Will tells Jacob, "We can give it a happy ending." The eclipse was the time when the Queen was rejuvenated. The ending was overdone a bit. They'd used cannons to set the woods on fire, and the old Queen's magic put out the fires. They used a French flag to defend themselves against the General's sword. Too bad it wasn't the fighting Confederate flag.
Farewell to your tales, they will not be remembered. Wrong! You know the end of the story. It was most entertaining and the special effects were nice. We had quite a diverse audience at the showing I attended.
Movie Review: once upon a time...
Summary: 4 Stars
there were two brothers called wilhelm and jacob. wilhelm, the elder, was a dashing schemer, while jacob, the younger, was a thoughtful student of folklore and magic (you can tell he was an intellectual, because he wore glasses). the two travelled from town to town, conning superstitious and backwards people out of their money. one day, they were captured by a ruthless french general who, after having his captain, caravaldi, torture them for a bit, sent them to a little village called marbaden where strange and supernatural things were afoot...
this is the premise for terry gilliam's latest film. though the movie boasts an obviously higher budget and features a very different cast than his earlier works, the director's fantastic and creepy sensibilities remain intact. the film is every bit as gruesome, romantic, and bizarre as one of the brothers grimm's fairy tales, and many elements of these stories are scattered throughout the film, suggesting that the brothers were inspired to write their morbid tales by real events during their lives. the cinematography and art direction are unique and cohesive, clearly realizing the vision of the director. comparisons to tim burton's "sleepy hollow" are certainly warranted, as the film has a similar macabre, "painterly" feel.
however, the cast leaves something to be desired. ledger and damon, while competent in their roles, fall far short of brilliance ( i admit, i put off seeing this film for a long time when i learned that matt damon had a starring part. surprisingly, he turns in a pretty good performance, clearly due to gilliam's strong direction). even jonathan pryce's portrayal of the general seems to be a reprisal of his earlier role as the right hon. horatio jackson, a villain from "baron munchausen," a film terry gilliam co-wrote. like jackson, the general speaks with a ridiculous, over-the-top accent, calling the brothers the "grams," and is obsessed with order and the triumph of reality over fantasy.
the film also features some very convenient plot devices- one might go so far as to say they are deus ex machina. for instance, the character of caravaldi, depicted at first as a twisted torturer and also a pathetic coward, transforms almost magically near the end of the film into a helpful ally for the brothers grimm. the revival of wilhelm grimm after he has been stabbed twice in the heart is also a bit of a stretch, although in this case the necessity for the fairy tale to have a happy ending is understood and a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required.
despite these shortcomings, this is an exciting, macabre, and very beautiful movie that can be enjoyed by adults and older children (young kids would probably be a little scared by the film's dark imagery). the film also has a morbid sense of humour taken straight out of the brothers grimm, as when a white kitten is accidentally shredded and sprayed around the room by a horrible torture device. any avid reader of folklore who is familiar with the true work of the brothers grimm, rather than the sugar-coated modern versions of their tales, will be entertained by this interpretation, as will anyone who likes a good story and a bit of a scare.
...and they all lived happily ever after...
Movie Review: Brothers Grimm is a light-hearted ghost story
Summary: 4 Stars
The Brothers Grimm is a suspenseful light-hearted ghost story in the cinematic tradition of such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Sleepy Hollow. The brothers, played by Heath Ledger and Matt Damon, couldn't be more enchanting in their roles in this fairy tale movie. Jacob, played by spectacle toting Heath Ledger, is the lovable underdog, an impractical poet who wears his gold heart on his sleeve. Wilhelm of course, couldn't be more different as the devilishly dashing woman-chasing lead and older brother.
The film is set in French occupied Germany and is quite amusing for history buffs. There, Jacob and Wilhelm have a run in with the French army. They've roamed from town to town making up fairy tales, but not only in the story sense! Jacob largely follows Wilhelm around documenting the folk tales of the various villages they weave their `magic' around. When they are captured, the scenes involving the French general (Jonathan Pryce) are classically macabre in every sense- I don't want to spoil any surprises so you'll have to see the movie to find out why. Caravaldi, a captain in that army, played by Peter Stormare, becomes a permanant pest and an unexpected side-kick. The character is completely absurd with an Italian accent, hilarious yet creepy.
With Caravaldi, the brothers find themselves embroiled in a real mystery when all the girls in the village disappear. The townsfolk are strange but the boys eventually warm up to the female lead, Angelika (Lena Headey) who leads them through the forest and tells them of the folk tales of her youth. There's a little bit of that fairy tale magic mixed in with some European folklore which makes the movie interesting from an anthropological perspective... it makes you wonder what our folktales say of our history. The movie makes us imagine that these fairy or folk tales were real events, documented faithfully by the trusting Jacob. And there in the forest the brothers discover the truth behind the girls' disappearance, the connection with Angelika's missing father, and a wolf that has terrorized the forest.
The Brothers Grimm is spooky and maybe a little scary/disturbing for young children but don't see the movie expecting a thriller- after all the movie is based on Grimm's fairytales. It's a lot of fun trying to guess which fairy tale is being alluded to in the various scenes as the Brothers seek to rid village of their haunting. And it is interesting how the movie weaves each story into another. There are great questions as to what is real and what is not... is it supernatural, a trick, magic?
Magic there is, and chemistry too for sure in this entertaining movie. Lovers of fairy tales and ghost stories alike will find themselves falling in love with The Brothers Grimm! Hopefully, the DVD or movie will be out for Halloween.
Movie Review: Gilliam at Half Strength is better than no Gilliam at all...
Summary: 4 Stars
The past few years have been tough for Terry Gilliam. Amidst several false starts, including, most famously, the aborted attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (as documented in Lost in La Mancha), the veteran filmmaker was desperate to make a movie and took a director-for-hire gig with Miramax (akin, in some circles, to making a pact with the Devil). During the course of making The Brothers Grimm, Gilliam clashed with studio honcho Harvey Weinstein over several issues: the director's regular cinematographer was fired by the studio and during the editing process an incensed Gilliam, tired of it all, left the production and went off to make another movie (Tideland). After some time had passed and the dust settled, he returned and was allowed to supervise his cut of the movie which was released in theatres and now on DVD.
After seven years since his last movie, Gilliam fans were just happy to see another movie by the director. The Brothers Grimm is a return to the grungy, medieval worlds depicted in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jaberwocky.
The Brothers Grimm also continues Gilliam's fascination with protagonists who are fantasts who make things up in order to escape from reality or, in the case of Jake and Will, responsibility. Those familiar with Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow will notice the similarities in plot: a village is terrorized by supernatural evil and it is up to a foppish protagonist to succeed where others have failed and prove themselves. The Brothers Grimm certainly is not a bad film, just not one of Gilliam's best, but it is still nice to see him in action. After all, Gilliam at half-strength is better than no Gilliam at all.
There is an audio commentary by Terry Gilliam who is his customarily candid self in this uncharacteristically muted track from the usually animated filmmaker. He admits that when initially given Ehren Kruger's script he didn't like it but needed work and decided to do it anyway. Even though Gilliam doesn't name names, he points out what parts or the film he met with resistance from the studio.
There are 12 deleted scenes with optional commentary from Gilliam. It is footage that he admires but that made the movie too long. Surprisingly, the most expensive scene in the movie, involving a giant tree attacking our heroes, was cut because they felt it was too spectacular and made everything that came afterward anti-climatic.
"Bringing the Fairy Tale to Life" is a standard making of featurette with a much more upbeat Gilliam than the one on the commentary track. Of course, none of the conflicts with the studio are discussed.
Finally, "The Visual Magic of The Brothers Grimm" takes a look at the CGI effects used to enhance the movie. Gilliam wanted to use models but some of things, like animated trees had to be rendered digitally.