Rating: 
Summary: Just didn't get it
Review: I am a BIG fan of British humor, but I found this movie to be a muddled, totally unfunny mess. It was all I could do to watch it through to the end, scratching my head the entire time and waiting in vain for it to get good. I wouldn't watch it again on a bet.
Rating: 
Summary: A not very human tragedy
Review: 'Brazil' is, by turns, as disturbing, blackly comic, and visually imaginative as most reviews relate; however, it left me feeling empty, both on seeing it recently, and on its cinematic release some years ago. Perhaps a film can't do everything, and it is worth sampling this for its satire and hallucinatory production design - analogies with Kafka have been made, and there is something to them, not just in the positive sense but also in the negative - you don't find too many interestingly real human characters, and fewer still human relationships, in Kafka and so it is in 'Brazil'; that both too appear based on dreams is significant - like a dream, 'Brazil' lacks a strong narrative structure, making do instead with an abstracted love interest and the threat of persecution - for me, that's not quite enough to make this deeply moving or memorable. Despite the dark trappings, it ends up being a bit light and unsatisfying. (It's also interesting to find Tom Stoppard as a screenwriter - his plays, for all their incredible technical skill and overt erudtion, leave me similarly unmoved) In his production notes, Terry Gilliam states that he wanted to ensure that the audience was 'entertained' - I suppose I'd like a bit more from a film.
Rating: 
Summary: Mindblowing, ultimately stultifying DVD package
Review: This DVD package has everything you wanted to know about Terry Gilliam's film "Brazil" --- and everything you never wanted to know. The DVD has the director's European cut, which will be an eye-opener to the American audiences used to the (relatively) uplifting ending. Another DVD has the Universal Studios edit, a mangled, incoherent mess that shows "the triumph of creative editing," and makes this American viewer wonder how often what we see distributed in the theatres conform to what the director delivered to the studio. The last DVD has everything from script evolution and changes, production drawings, and an indispensable documentary, "The Battle of Brazil," which updates Jack Mathews 1989 book on the production with rueful interviews with Gilliam and other key players. I spent a weekend watching everything in Criterion's exhaustive package, and though I don't regret it I wouldn't mind if I never watch "Brazil" again.
Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Brazil is a masterpiece. I've seen the movie at least 50 times, and I still find new meaning in it each time. I believe it (along with Fight Club) is the greatest movies ever made.It's hard to say what Brazil is. On the surface, the movie is a commentary on how the bureaucracy and technology in modern society isolates people from each other. It's about how things that are supposed to make our lives easier are actually end up making our lives harder. Once you dig deeper, the movie means so much more than that. One thing I'd like to make clear, and it's important for viewing the film. It takes place in the present...actually the past, not the future. It even says at the beginning of the film "Somewhere in the 20th Century". The reason the film may look "futuristic" is because the movie is a visual satire. A cartoon on modern life. Everything you see in the film, intentional or not (as you find out when you listen to TG's commentary), does mean something. As far as the DVD, the Terry's commentary is great, quality is perfect, and the bonus DVD about trying to get Brazil made is informative. The "Happy Ending" Brazil is sick. The only minor drawback is that the film suffers from the usual directors cut problem. They add about 15 minutes to the movie in some spots...and take away 1 minute in other spots. It's always odd to see when the directors choose to do that. Brazil is a piece of art. It's like watching a painting unfold before you. Watch this film several times and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie Great ending
Review: I bought this movie before seeing it, based on comments by others. When I finished this masterpiece of a movie, I was left in awe at the foot of my television screen. I thought about the movie I had just seen, and realized it was one of the best. There are some great visions in here like when all of the newspapers stick onto the man and he disappears. But this triple disc set, it is worth every cent.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Brazil!!
Review: From the first viewing of this motion picture, I was HAUNTED. Like many other folks, I read all those books like "Animal Farm", "Brave New World", and "1984". As disturbing as they were for the impressionable teenager who read them, this movie was and still is troubling for that teenager-now-adult. No-one but Terry Gilliam could have taken a story as complex as this and communicated it as clearly as this while leaving the complexity intact. DeNiro is superb in a minor part that serves to shape the whole story, and Jonathan Pryce IS everyman ...
Rating:
Summary: If you're a pseudo-intellectual, buy it!
Review: I enjoyed The Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but this one just doesn't cut the mustard. Folks, in order to be enjoyable, symbolism has to have meaning. This film doesn't. Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Terry Gilliam is a true impressionist.
Review: Disturbing. I recommend this movie for anyone with half a brain or more. It was a memorable film, and I'm better for seeing it. But I must admit, it took me about two weeks and a year to recover from the experience (that means less than one flashback per day). It's as if Terry Gilliam has some special knowledge of the human mind and how to disturb it. Gilliam's uniquely weird vision recalls Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange as well as his own animation work for Monty Python. Using an atmosphere of "clip and paste" sets and mechanically naked effects creates a low-budget surrealism that is all the more convincing for it. This is quite unlike the computer-generated movies of today, which are far less compelling for reasons to aggravating to discuss here. And who needs ultra-realistic special effects anyway? How many paintings that simply duplicate reality have sold for fifty million dollars? Terry Gilliam is a true impressionist. Incidentally, fifty million is exactly how much it cost to produce the breathtaking set of the Kevin Costner classic Waterworld, proving that more money definitely means more movie. Admittedly, 12 Monkeys does throw a banana in this discussion, in that Brad Pitt costs money (believe me), and the film did look a lot less like a watch with gears showing. And what about a film like The Fisher King? It seems like somewhat of a departure. So what is the trend in Gilliam's career? In order to really get at this question, I would have to conduct a vertical tasting of all TG's films. Since I don't have that much time and already implied I cannot see Brazil again anyway, the only way we're going to get an answer is if TG sends me some email, or more realistically, has talked about this in some interview. In any case, the point that you don't need a high-budget set to make a great film should, by now, be less useful than the simple observation that some film makers are better than others. But let's get back to Brazil. Notwithstanding the metaphorical crap you get from pompous college English professor come film critics, let me use Brazil to discuss the persecution of individuality. Imagine Hollywood/society is trying to give TG the shaft for his unwillingness to make concessions (a la Orson Welles). One response is to fight, the other, to turn inward employing autistic fantasy. Every artist makes this choice all the time. And everyone must see this film at least once, but you are excused for not seeing it a second time. * I think the people who make the television series Red Dwarf were probably inspired by Terry Gilliam. Either that or it's just a British thing, some sort of imperialistic revulsion to the more clean computer-generated style of American science fiction. And don't write in telling me he's an American either.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant surrealistic love story in disguise.
Review: This is the director's edition from the Criterion Collection. I had expected to receive the original version on DVD so I sold my vhs copy. Disappointed!! Still...this is some amazing film making from Terry Gilliam. Everyman, dreamer Pryce chases the girl of his dreams thru a dark and selfish futuristic world. It's so easy to get swept up in Brazil that you lose sight of the films flaws. Also, the visuals are so nightmarish and disturbing at times that you'll recall these moments long after it's over. I can still hear the shreaks of that woman, "What have you done with his body....?" and Michael Palin in the baby mask. There's just so many visions that will stick with you. The lady typing EVERYTHING she hears...it's so bizarre. And now it's all in glorious DVD! My version had very little extras. There was a terrific trailer that made me want to immediately watch the movie again. As for the sound and picture I'd prefer a cleaner picture. It was actually a bit grainy most of the time. The sound was pretty good. If I had it to do over I'd buy the ... Criterion Edition. I actually plan to do that anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Part 2 In A Wonderful "Trilogy"
Review: As many Gilliam fans will undoubtedly know, this film is part of an informal "trilogy" of life. "Time Bandits" deals with the fantasies of a young boy; "Brazil", the fantasies of a young man; and "The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen" deals with sunset fantasies of an old man. And what makes "Brazil" so compelling? Isn't there something in that film we can all relate to? The strength and impulse of love that leads to us to oft-times self-destructive behavior? The appalling display of indifference that we sometimes exhibit to disastrous events? (case in point: "Sam, why don't you do something about these terrorists?!" "It's not my department.")The bureacracy inherent in the way we do things when action is called for? The film and story is candy for the mind and senses and it never relents; its ending (original version) is heartbraking--if you can imagine your fondest wish and dreams being dashed back to reality. I remember a quote from one of my favorite authors, Stephen Donaldson who said something along the lines that the only way you can hurt a man who has everything taken away from him is to give him back something broken. What makes this PARTICULAR collection so fantastic is the cleanup of the film's picture (compare it to the VHS tape and SEE!!). Also, it's a perfect example of why money-grubbing movie executives should NOT be allowed to control a movie's story. See Gilliam's version and then the version that the movie industry wanted you to see. Ouuuuuuuucccchhhhh! The movie industry's version is watered down and caters to those with a complete inability to INFER anything. Case in point would be Sam's dream sequence--if you really didn't know it was a dream, please stick a finger in an electric socket and I'll call you tomorrow. And let's not forget the movie studio's desire to see a happy ending....*shudder*. It completely destroys the entire premise of the film and the "trilogy" that it is a part of.
|
