The Brothers Grimm |  | Director: Terry Gilliam
Actors: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Mackenzie Crook, Peter Stormare, Jonathan Pryce
Studio: Miramax
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
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Rating:  273 reviews
Sales Rank: 11387
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D49406D
UPC: 786936692174
EAN: 0786936692174
ASIN: B000BKVQTS
Theatrical Release Date: August 26, 2005
Release Date: December 20, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
FOLKLORE COLLECTORS & CON ARTISTS, JAKE & WILL GRIMM, TRAVEL FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE PRETENDING TO PROTECT TOWNSFOLK FROM ENCHANTED CREATURES & PERFORMING EXORCISMS. THEY ARE PUT TO THE TEST WHEN THEY ENCOUNTER A REAL MAGICAL CURSE IN A HAUNTED FOREST WITH REAL MAGICAL BEINGS, REQUIRING GENUINE COURAGE.
Amazon.com
Fairy tales come vividly to life in The Brothers Grimm, a long-delayed fantasy/horror comedy that greatly benefits from the ingenuity of director Terry Gilliam. In lesser hands, the ambitious screenplay by prolific horror specialist Ehren Kruger (who wrote the American versions of The Ring and The Ring 2) might have turned into an erratic monster mash like Van Helsing. But Gilliam's maverick sensibility makes the film more closely comparable to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, with the added benefit of impressive CGI effects and lavish (though cost-efficient) production design, making the most of a challenging $75 million budget. Kruger's clever conceit is to turn "folklore collectors" Wilhem and Jacob Grimm (Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, respectively) into 19th-century con artists who perform bogus exorcisms of "evil enchantments" while traveling from village to village in French-occupied Germany. The two soon find themselves ensnared in a genuinely supernatural crisis involving the curse of the Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci) and such fantastical marvels as the Big Bad Wolf, the Gingerbread Man, and a host of other truly enchanted (and not altogether friendly) flora and fauna. It's kind of a mess, switching from over-the-top humor (mostly from Peter Stormare as a manic villain) to serious fantasy involving the beautiful Angelika (Lena Headey), who proves to be the Grimm Brothers' most reliable ally. And like many of Gilliam's films, Grimm suffered from production delays (during which Gilliam filmed Tideland), distributor fallout, and several changes in its theatrical release date, but none of these issues prevent the film from being a welcomed addition to Gilliam's remarkable list of credits. --Jeff Shannon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 273
 Delightful! January 17, 2010
Hasmita CHANDER (India)
This was a delightful surprise of a film. Filled with fairy tale characters coming to life, it's a dark yet funny story that's deftly handled. I loved the climax, the story and movie definitely delivered!
Fabulous last half-hour...but tough to get that far January 1, 2010
K. Swanson (Austin, TX United States)
There's a real payoff in every way during the denouement of this Gilliam phantasmagoria, but sitting through the previous 90 minutes is not always easy.
The main issue is the script and/or the editing, which produces a confusing opening act that is rarely clear and oft confusing. At points I was uncertain precisely what had happened, to whom, and why. Yet it was all so gorgeously rendered, and Damon so often wryly humorous, that I stuck it out.
Glad I did, for the last half hour is truly masterful, and almost seems to be lifted from another movie---a movie where everything moves forward logically, the effects support the plot, and the characters' actions make sense. It made me sad, because if the rest of the film was this good it would have been a true a classic. Alas.
My respect for Gilliam remains undiminished; his main fault here seems to me to have been not doctoring the early part of the script to make more sense and move more quickly. There are various liitle inside jokes/lines about not having enough money, which further research reveals must have been Gilliam's pokes at the studio for giving him "only" 75 million dollars to make this. Since when is 75 mil a pittance? One of the extra features has Gilliam mentioning that he wanted to avoid CGI and use real-action, but when he saw the rushes of the walking trees, for example, they looked horrible. And thus he used CGI. Sounds like Terry is at fault for not budgeting himself properly and blowing too much on pipe dreams.
So perhaps that's where all the money went. In any case, the costumes and sets are mostly stellar, and the film looks like a million bucks, or at least 75. Yet the flaws remain. No order of filmic extravagances can save a muddled script. Ledger did little for me; Damon outperforms him easily by bringing some wryness to his portrayal, something Ledger was incapable of here. There are many moments reminiscent of other fantasy flicks; Legend and Van Helsing seemed to have been touchstones. But this film suffers as Legend did from implacability, and doesn't have enough of VH's tongue in cheek self-mocking to make it all fun.
There are also some jarring scenes that detract, like the lengthy very real skinning of a rabbit, sickening to see in context of all this beauty. The kitchen sink et cetera are here, and take away from the focus of the movie, which to me should have been more on the original Grimm's fables and their many lovely and fearful contrasts and less on this script's pointlessly byzantine workings.
I'd rarely recommend it, but simply watching the last half hour of BG might be the way to go. You won't miss much plotwise, and you'll see a truly great mini-movie. It'll make you want to see the rest, and when you watch that you'll lament at how close this is to a truly classic fantasy flick...and how far.
But then again, Gilliam gave us not only the excellent movies Brazil and Time Bandits, and the perfect Holy Grail, but also the slapdash flops of Jabberwocky and Baron Munchhausen; this isn't his first confusing mess. Perhaps his Python buddies would have added the humor and focus this film shoots for but never quite attains.
[And by the way: Happy New Decade to all! Let's hope this one turns out better than the aptly-named Zeroes. No villain in Grimm could ever touch Daddy's Little Idiot.]
Good Fairy Tale December 3, 2009
Tamara Bell
I have a soft spot for for fairy tales and this one was pretty good. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are fun to watch as brothers.
 Brother's Grimm July 1, 2009
N. D. Nobbs (Columbia, SC USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great fantasy/adventure movie. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are great and the movie was exciting and fun.
 Bad. Really Bad. June 19, 2009
jessjess
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
There are few movies that I am not able to see through, no matter how bad. This was one of those. I tried twice. I don't think I got more than a half hour into the movie. For a movie that was such intense action, it was so BORING!
Really, there was nothing good about this movie. Not even the star studded cast was able to salvage it.
And in case you say to yourself, well, she didn't see the whole movie, so she can't give a fair critique--a friend told me the plot to the end. It doesn't get better.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 273
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