Obviously, a lot of people adore "Twelve Monkeys", as it's currently #180 on IMDb--placing it among the very best films ever made. While I recognize that it is an amazingly unusual plot (done before in the short French film "La Jetée"),it just isn't the sort of film that appeals to me--though I generally do like fantasy and sci-fi films. I guess the film's weirdness and very slow pace just didn't appeal to me--perhaps you'll love it.

Bruce Willis plays a criminal from the future who has been sent back in time to try to prevent a HUGE apocalyptic event in which most of the people on Earth will be wiped out in 1996. Now I NEVER understood why they put the entire future of mankind on a criminal nor did I understand why they just didn't send dozens or thousands back in time to make 100% sure the plague would not occur. Regardless, he arrives too early--back in 1990. And, unfortunately, he's seen as a crazy man and is sent to an asylum. There, he meets a goofy psychiatrist (are there any other type in films?!) and a real crazy guy (Brad Pitt). How will these three folks work together to either cause or prevent devastation? See this film if you want to know.

Aside from seeing Frank Gorshin in a very unusual role as the man running the asylum, not a lot appealed to me about this one. I didn't dislike the film--I just never felt all that interested. Part of this might be because I never liked "La Jetée"--part of it might be because Madeline Stowe's character seemed really hard to believe (sort of like Ingrid Bergman and her incredibly gullible character in "Spellbound"--another goofy female psychiatrist with no personal boundaries and a tenuous hold on reality). All I know is that I wanted to like this movie but didn't. However, I did respect that it tried to be different and quite complex. Worth a look, though I can't figure out exactly what everyone loves about this one.

Terry Gilliam, the man responsible for the many wacky cartoons in Monty Python's Flying Circus, directed this film which turns out to be clever, haunting, and also extremely confusing. The plot twists and turns every ten seconds, and is set in half a dozen time periods, so you need to keep all your wits about you to work out what exactly is going on. Strangely enough though, in some instances the film seems to completely lose the plot and meanders along for quarter of an hour or so before kicking back into gear, so that it's about half an hour too long in the end.

These minor quibbles aside however, TWELVE MONKEYS is a refreshingly intelligent slice of science fiction. As I've mentioned before, time travel films always appeal to me because of the paradox aspect, and I've always been hooked on themes such as these. Bruce Willis turns in one of his more interesting performances as the anguished, belaboured time traveller, who spends most of the film either being beaten up or humiliated, yet finds his own humanity at the end of the film. He is given solid support by Stowe, Plummer and Brad Pitt, who comes across well as a twitching lunatic.

It's difficult to review a film like this because of the complexity, but everything on the production side comes across glossily, while the music and atmosphere puts it into the same class as art house fare like THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN; there's a definite French flavour to it. TWELVE MONKEYS is clever stuff, but also liable to give you a headache if you don't watch out, and in that respect it can be frustrating. However it does have a quality ending which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it. Good acting and good direction, let down only by occasional moments of silliness, make this film interesting viewing for those in the right frame of mind.

This movie opens with "... 5 Billion People Will Die From A Deadly Virus in 1997 ... The Survivors Will Abandon The Surface of The Planet ... Once Again The Animals Will Rule The World ..." - Excerpts from Interview with clinically diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, April 12, 1990 Baltimore County Hospital.

In a dystopic near-future, criminal James Cole (Bruce Willis) is forced to volunteer to go up to the surface and collect samples. He is given the opportunity to reduce his 25 to life sentence by time-traveling to 1996 and gather information on the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Back in 1990 Baltimore, county psychiatrist Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) is brought in to examine James Cole after a fight with 2 cops. He is locked up in the county sanatorium where he meets manic babbling Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt). He pleads to make a telephone call but the time hasn't come yet. He's suppose to be in 1996. Meanwhile he keeps having flashbacks of an incident as a kid. The future pulls him back but he's thrown back into the wrong time period again. When he finally arrives in the right time, he kidnaps Kathryn Railly.

This is chalk full of Terry Gilliam goodness originality. I love the craziness. I love his style. This is the closest to portraying madness coherently on the big screen. Bruce Willis inhabits the regular guy under stress and then there is the wild madness coming from Brad Pitt. Madeleine Stowe is also terrific. I love the various settings. I love the crazy future. I love the decaying present. I love the asylum. I love it all.