Brazil

Rating:
Summary: If WWII Had Never Happened
Review: I really loved this movie, it should have become a serial. If you notice anything about the tech. used by the characters in the movie, you will notice that certain tech. only developed by slow evolution and not by a crisis like WWII. It is almost an alternate universe that might exist on a different plane somewhere.

Rating:
Summary: After all the hype, it left me disappointed
Review: I had heard lots about Brazil and for years meant to see it. When I did, it left me feeling a little ripped off. Visually, the film is absolutely stunning, the performances are great (particularly Michael Palin), the satire was subtle, and there were some brilliant moments. But the overall story was plodding and the characters you were meant to identify with were generally unappealing. If you want to experience Gilliam's visuals, but with a story and characters that you care about, I recommend Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys or the Fisher King over Brazil. I did not see the Criterion DVD version, but would recommend that over the "no name" DVD. Gilliam's commentaries are almost as entertaining as the films, and it comes with lots of extras. Not worth the pound of flesh they are asking, but I have to admit, those Criterion dudes give Terry Gilliam films the royal treatment every time.

Rating:
Summary: This film is one of the most confusing and brilliant films
Review: As the film begins, a deep depression came over me as I realised that this wasn't to far from the truth about working in an office in todays world. Terry Gilliam does the most wonderful camera work as usual...and I think Robert De Niro is the most memorable character in the movie.

The movie was very well done, even though very confusing....I am still trying to find a story line within the movie, but if it means watching it again to discover one, then it would be my pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most unique american films in rescent history
Review: What can I say that hasn't been said before? This film deserves a four star rating simply for the visuals: my favourite, the symbol-heavy scene in which a house (complete with white-picket fence) is lifted mysteriously away to reveal a landscape of industrial hell. The price we pay for a pleasant exterior? The acting itself is at the very least competent (Pryce was good, but not terrific), with some marvelous parts such as Robert De Niro's rebellious Tuttle, and Michael Palin's ambiguosly sensitive mass-murdering family man (if you like Michael Palin, this is his best role.) My only real complaint is that it's almost too much of a good thing: those fantastic visuals often take prescedence over plot and characterization, so much so that the film's pace creeps to a noticeable crawl at points...having said that, I don't think I could mention any one moment which could be edited. Besides, whose to say plot and characterization must take precedence anyway? We have enough movies featuring those...

Rating:
Summary: Like taking a film course!
Review: Watching the "Criterion Collection" version of "Brazil" is like taking a fascinating film course. Gilliam's running commentary during the "Director's Cut", the documentary disc, and even the edited version (with commentary) provide hours of thought-provoking viewing.

Rating:
Summary: Terry Gilliam's masterpiece
Review: Terry Gilliam's masterpiece. One of my favourite movies. Dark film of bureaucracy gone mad. Robert De Niro has the most spectacular entrance and exit you will ever see in a movie

Rating:
Summary: This film is not for everyone
Review: I saw this film when it was first released in the U.S. and it left me feeling stuned. The visuals were overwhelming, the plot was dark and depressing and the satire cut like a razor. Exactly my kind of movie! In order for one to truly enjoy this film one has to be able to identify with its main character of Sam Lowry and this is where, I think, the film succeeds with its many fans. Those who fail to appreciate this film are those who fail to understand Sam's posistion, his delima and his ultimate solution to dealing with the true horrors of the world in which he lives.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliantly flawed masterpiece
Review: We should all take care to understand that the two reviewers just below ("A viewer from USA, August 31, 1999" and "[e-mail] from Ohio, USA , August 29, 1999") have some very good points about the film. Yes, it is intellectual. Yes, it is a dark film. But what these poor people have certainly missed is the visual brilliance of effect and emotion that the filmmakers of Brazil have achieved. True, the car chase scene--admitted by Gilliam himself--is juvenile. But like most of Gilliam's film, barring Jabberwock, Brazil deserves at least two viewings. One to look at the dessert, the second to eat it.

Rating:
Summary: A Breathtaking, Overlooked, Original Fantasy Worth Six Stars
Review: Cast aside what you have come to expect from a full length major motion picture, and sit back and enjoy one of the most fascinating, completely off the wall science-fiction/fanstasy ever to grace the industry...well, almost. "Brazil" may not satisfy the typical film goer, but I found it fresh and clever, and enjoyably dark and gritty. Few movies in recent years have come close to the dark drama "Blade Runner", with Harrison Ford, and though "Brazil" is a humorous spin on a dreadful future, it certainly deserves to share the same creative umbrella. If you enjoyed "The Matrix" or "Gattica", then "Brazil" is certainly for you.

Rating:
Summary: Poison without the antidote
Review: African writer Chinua Achebe once commented that the job of a writer is to offer more than just despair. Given that charge, Achebe would have been appalled by the movie Brazil.

Gilliam documents some of the more appalling aspects of our society and where it is headed, but has little, if anything, to say about it. Bureaucracy is bad? No kidding. Reducing human beings to paper-shuffling drones, to mere cogs in the machine is an awful thing? No sh*t. People live this stuff already, Terry. They have been for a long while. The question is what to do about it.

And when Gilliam reaches a dead-end in the first part of the movie, he falls back to a rather prosaic romance, a chase scene, etc., all of it unconvincing and amateurish in execution.

He tops it off with a black, depressing ending, which angered the studio executives and made a hero out of Gilliam in certain art circles as a rebel who bucked the system. As for the audience, those who buy Gilliam's ambiguity and ambivalence as a badge of genius will love this movie. Those who see Brazil as an exercise in excessive, sloppy, and poorly crafted filmmaking will likely opt for a bottle of aspirin and a hot bath.