The Brothers Grimm

Miramax studios presents

Starring: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Monica Bellucci

Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Rating: ****

Plot: Two brothers Will and Jake Grimm are traveling con-artists, who fake encounters with fairy tale legends and make villagers pay them for slaying the evil creatures. Problem for them is they run into a town with a real witch and they find themselves slightly confused on what to do. It also doesn't help when the French Military wants you dead. Anyway Gilliam antics and Monica Bellucci ensue.

Acting: Matt Damon has shown us one thing these past few years, he makes better choices than Ben Affleck. Damon is on a role recently with the Bourne spy flicks. Here he shows a huge talent towards comedy. If you don't believe me go see this for yourself. The only problem for Damon is the script gives his character no real time to figure itself out. He hates his brother because when they were little his brother sold a cow for magic beans instead of getting money, the result was the sister dying, I think. Damon's Grimm brother is funny and complicated and I believe never fully develops, but he still does a great job. Heath Ledger who we all remember from what I personally believe is one of the worst films ever, A Knights Tale, since that movie he really never has been able to have a huge role. He had a great performance in Monster Ball but beyond that not much. He completely falls into the character seriously looking like he had a great time playing this man who loves fairy tales a tad too much. I really eat it all up and enjoyed what Ledger did with the character. Monica Bellucci has probably about ten minutes of screen time at best, but her amazing beauty seriously steals those scenes away.

Directing/Writing: Terry Gilliam is amazing, I've loved everything from Time Bandits to Brazil and 12 Monkeys, I even liked Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Lately though he has had a run of bad luck with movies, going over budget, storms you name it and a Gilliam picture has had it, even the plague I believe. He's visually style is easily visible the problem is it feels as if Gilliam was bored by this movie and gave up in places. Also the studio didn't have full faith and lack of a huge budget made many of the CG shots look seriously shitty. The flaws of this movie are obvious, way too many ideas in one plot so it feels very long and pointless during the second act. Plus the bad computer graphics in early scenes in the movie. They get much better one scene where a horse goes crazy and it also involves spiders. Also a mud monster and the Witch/Queen CG scenes towards the end are very good. The movies high points are small comedic moments and the actors trying so hard to keep this weak script floating. The major problem with the movie is the second act which is long and almost pointless. What is sad is the last ten minutes or so of the movie is very exciting and well done. So it is hard to review a movie like this, I really liked it but it was messy in a lot of scenes. Which I guess is expected in a Gilliam film.

Overall: I had a great time watching, laughed and enjoyed all the visuals. Not the best movie the summer has offered but for sure a real nice way to end it. Plus if you like Monica Bellucci then you shouldn't even be reading this just go and see it. So the movie could have been more but oh well, I had fun and really that's all that matters.