Spot On

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2003)

I need to get a good copy of this, because I taped it off of bloody digital cable and the movie looks like a dark impressionist painting half the time. But this film is a definite keeper. We've been peppered with these altered reality movies of late, and most of them stink, and all for the same reason. They set out to confuse the hell out of us, which is ok by itself. I think most people still love a good mystery, and are usually up for a mental challenge when giving a movie a try. The problem usually is in the revelation. Which if it makes sense, i.e. Vanilla Sky, is usually a major letdown because of its triteness. Or in the cases of Donnie Darko and Mulholland Drive, the moviemaker never intended to answer your questions fully in the first place. 12 Monkeys kinda puts it all together in that its mentally stimulating in its buildup, and then goes on to reward us with a well thought out resolution of the events, that loses none of the imagination and I guess sheer horror. Time travel to the past we know is impossible, so that even a yeoman's effort like this still has its annoyances in the loopholes of logic that simply have to be accepted. But you can get past them here, and the story keeps you totally tuned in. Gilliam almost seemed to learn from the mistakes of Brazil, and just tweak it a bit to bring it more down to earth. That's all he needed apparently.