Enjoyable movie...it could be worth a second look

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2003)

Although I'm not a big fan of time travel movies because they twist your brain so much and you still cannot come up with a decent logical answer, I liked `Twelve Monkeys' as a time travel movie and otherwise.
There is one feeling I particularly get from time traveling stories. It's the way the characters are organically and cosmically connected to each other, there is a sense of universal order when two people meet each other and the feeling of past/ future familiarity forms inside them. This is what happens with James Cole and dr. Railly. They know somehow they are bound to each other, but they just have to let things happen to get to know HOW they are connected. The courses of their lives are governed by the implacable flow or leaps of time, which already set into place the events for them.

I also enjoyed the discourse of social insanity, delivered in a funny and witty manner by Brad Pitt's lunatic character. Although his ideas are not new (not wanting to be a consumer labels you as a crazy person, or if others decide you are insane, you accept it and become insane or the fact that the real' crazy people are outside institutions) they are still sensible and captivating.
Overall, Twelve Monkeys is not the most original film I have ever seen, but it's pleasant, active, has a natural feeling about it so that you can empathize and communicate with the characters. Quite nice.