A small budget produces one of Gilliam's best movies

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2002)

Gilliam made this after the flop of Baron Munchausen, and had to work with a smaller budget than for some of his earlier movies. I think it forced him to focus on the characters rather than the effects, and the result is a brilliant psychological drama about a man whose personal ghosts mirror the ghosts of a plague-ravaged future Earth.
If you thought Bruce Willis was a lightweight (and Alan Rickman carried Die Hard), then take a look at this. I completely reevaluated my opinion of Willis after seeing this movie. Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt are also very good, but it's Willis who carries the focus of the film.
Yet another reminder that even with a science fiction / end-of-the-world / time travel story, good characters and good script writing (and decent direction) are all-important. I suspect that this would not have been half as interesting had Gilliam had a big SFX budget. If you are interested in another intelligent well-acted (low-budget) end-of-the-world story, see Val Guest's "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1961).
One of my favorite movies, and my favorite Gilliam movie.