"Destroy the human race?......'s a great idea!"

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 2007)

Great Fun.A dazzling virtuoso display of directorial tricks during which one can find "hommages" to-and this is by no means a complete list - "Alien","Star Wars","Citizen Kane","Close Encounters","2001""Blade Runner","One flew over the cuckoo's nest","Paths of Glory" and several Hitchcock films culminating in lengthy extracts from "Vertigo".Mr Gilliam also quotes from his own work - the very definition of chutzpah.Well,if you're that good,why not?
Reduced to the bare bones the story is of the resolution of a fragmentally remembered dream which is shown at various stages of the film,each stage revealing something extra until it finally comes together at the climax.This is masterfully done and a textbook exercise in cinematic teasing.
Mr Gilliam takes a not very original plot about the destruction of 99% of the human race by a man - made virus and weaves it round the recurring dream idea and adds the catalyst of a reluctant time traveller (Mr B.Willis running the gamut of emotion from A to C for once). Mr B.Pitt shows off a bit as the maladjusted son of the corporate Bad Guy (Mr C.Plummer who,for some reason,choses to play him with a terrible Southern accent).Miss M.Stowe plays the only other serious part in the film,a psychiatrist entrusted with the care of both Mr Willis and Mr Pitt - surely a job too big for any one human being.The rest of the cast are comic book figures.She does a nice line in confused disbelief,an attitude I imagine she shared with a fair percentage of the audience.
But the point in "The Twelve Monkeys" is not in the acting,the writing or the plot.It is a signature piece for the wildly iconoclastic Mr. Gilliam,and it is entirely his creature. It's showy,it's flashy,it's astonishing.I loved it.