Its like Brazil, but with a bigger budget.

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2004)

If you haven't seen Terry Gilliam's seminal dystopian film Brazil, 12 Monkeys might just be one of the strangest things you've ever seen. Its a very strange, dark time-hopping sci-fi adventure where Bruce Willis is sent back from the future to stop the annihilation of the human race by a mass plague (there were a few survivors, who now live underground). Its the sort of film where you have to keep asking yourself "is this real?"
On a side note, if i see another Terry Gilliam special feature stuffed with his nauseating laugh and complaints about "the studio wouldn't let us do this" or "money problems" i think i'll scream. Stop whinging about it. Hitchcock and John Ford could make marvellous pictures negotiating between their own wishes and the studio's without complaining, so why don't you.
Why You Should See This: one superlatively good performance from Brad Pitt as a crazy guy which is surely one of the best things to come out of the 90's.
8/10. Essential Terry Gilliam. If you're fairly conservative in you're viewing tastes, you might not like it!