There's no monkeying around when it comes to this movie

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2005)

Terry Gilliam is one of the original six members of the Monty Python cast. His works include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life, where he helped direct two and helped write all of them. He also directed Jabberwocky where he used Lewis Carrol's poem and some of his Monty Python buddies to make a movie. In 1995, he decided to make a movie that was a little bit different.
Inspired by a previous film called La Jetee, Twelve Monkeys is a science fiction thriller/drama that revolves around James Cole played by Bruce Willis. This man has "volunteered" to go back in time to try and stop deadly virus from spreading, killing five billion people and leaving the animals in charge on the surface. He is first sent to the wrong time period, 1990. His destination was supposed to be 1996. Instead he winds up staying in a mental hospital. He becomes allies with a crazy man by the name of Jeffrey Goines. Brad Pitt is wonderful as this "nutty" of a character. His portrayal of Jefferey gave him an Oscar nomination.
What happens now is Bruce is transported finally to the right time period, after being brought back from the mental hospital. Now he must use his psychiatrist from the mental hospital, Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), and her car to try and stop the virus from getting out into the open. Cole must now find out if what he thinks is reality is just all in his head and he really isn't being brought back and forth from the present to the past, or as Railly sees it, from the future back to the present.
This story is very well written. Writer David Webb Peoples is no rookie when it comes to writing a screenplay. His previous triumphs were Blade Runner, thought to be one of the best science fiction movies of all time, and Unforgiven where he received an Oscar nomination.
Twelve Monkeys is a great movie you can watch over and over again and still find something to like. Whether it is Brad Pitt giving his best performance ever on film, or just the plot and how Gilliam illustrates it for us, this movie is a classic. There's no monkeying around when it comes to this movie