Almost but not quite

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2005)

Like most of Terry Gilliam's works, this has the air of a great film not quite being made. His baroque vision of the future is wonderful. Civilisation underground after the plague is a hellish dystopia saturated by the same incompetent control-freakery he portrayed in Brazil. Some of the images are spectacular, particularly the wild animals running loose in an American city. Gilliam's narrative playfulness, throwing Bruce Willis back and forth through time before the story really starts, almost rescues the plot from clichés. Not entirely though. This was designed as a blockbuster thriller and is only original by those dreadful standards. But the chief problem is the cast. Willis, while being less annoying than normal, is a monosyllabic grunter. Madeline Stowe only really does a job as the usual beautiful scientist-cum-love interest Meanwhile Brad Pitt is allowed to give us the full scope of his non-existent talents. An evil genius hammy even by Gary Oldman standards, he is virtually unwatchable.