An extremely mind stretching exercise in cinema

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2000)

Twelve monkeys enthralled me from the very beginning to the end and afterwards. It stimulated my brain so much I couldn't stop it ticking over putting the pieces together, for hours afterwards. This story is so clever, that even when you think you have got the plot, you find its gone off in a different direction, and once discovered again, gives you a feeling of great achievement. Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt establish themselves as serious actors in this film, and earn fresh respect for any previous misconceptions of their acting abilities. Very rarely does a film which starts out promising, continue to deliver as brilliantly as this does. The time theme while continuously reeling your mind in confusion, maintains its logic. So who in the end is the culprit. The sower of the seed, or the garden which made it grow. And what other themes are brilliantly investigated in this movie. The concept of the circle of time gets blown out of the water. History can't be changed. The fine line between sanity and insanity. The delicate balance between reality and what you want to believe. The power of the mind to only accept what it can understand. A film (or anything) that generates such stimulating food for the brain, comes along very rarely, and must be held in the highest esteem.