Rating: 
Summary: one of finest sf movies of the last years
Review: Besides what everybody else has said about this movie, what i really enjoyed was how the time game was here presented, i don't know if the director dit it intentionally; but i asked a few people who watched the movie and didn't noticed that the storie will repeat endlessly, over and over again because the character gets killed in the past while being watched by himself as a kid. very smart movie. great sf, very enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Prequel to "A Beautiful Mind" and Sixth Sense/Usual Suspects
Review: This new genre of "twisted reality" movies includes 12 Monkeys. I watched this movie for a second time when I bought the DVD, as I also have the Laser Disc. Upon second viewing, I was shocked at how much I had missed getting caught up in the plot twists and action. I read the reviews, and feel this important aspect of the movie has not been mentioned. The movie drops a lot of enigmatic hints, a la the Sixth Sense and A Beautiful Mind, as to what is real and not real. You really have to watch for them. For example: some of the things he remembers seeing in the "future", he sees again when he goes back into the past, to places where he's never been. How are "memories" from the FUTURE possible? Especially when Bruce says he's never been above ground before! How can one have "deja vu" after travelling to the past? Even Bruce has a confused look on his face whenever one of these clues to his mental state are realized. Also the bit the previous reviewer mentioned about the lady scientist on the plane. Which did he see first, or did he see just one, and imagine the other. Was he really ever in the future? Is he imagining it all? The movie leaves it up to you to decide whether Bruce Willis is from the future and saves the world, or whether he's just crazy, and we are seeing this from a crazy persons viewpoint. It's done so subtley that getting caught up in the dramatic story, one can miss the clues. I didnt catch this upon the first viewing, many images Bruce see's in the story are repeated, so as to imply that Willis was imagining things, or was he? Also, in scenes where Madeline Stowe is convinced he's from the future, they are alone! If one removes the scenes where he's ALONE with people, the case can be made that the entire adventure is imagined!Also, he says he's not crazy, but he hears voices when he's in the hospital, and he pulls out his teeth, because they've got radio transmitters in them! And the voice he hears in his head is from somebody he meets LATER in the film for the first time. Or maybe he IS crazy and knew him before he imagined he was a time traveller! So did he imagine them? The reviewer before me was left with questions about the scientist from the "future" being on the plane. This is the last clue they leave you with, and it messes with your head. If one watches the movie starting with the premise that Bruce is crazy, the movie is another movie! UNLIKE the Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects, this movie does'nt give you the big dramatic payoff at the end, when you find out what the truth is. That big payoff made one want to see the Sixth Sense again to see the clues you then knew must exist.Monkey's just leaves you hanging.So you can enjoy it on two levels. This movie totally messes with your head. I'll save you some time: Bruce Willis is crazy and 12 Monkey's are the imaginings of a paranoid schitzophrenic. Or are they? By the way, voices helped me write this review ;)
Rating:
Summary: Twisted time
Review: I was watching this movie on tv the other night and I was rather miffed that I caught it in the middle. I wasn't feeling to good (a little dizzy) so I was in no condition to watch the movie-which I later found in my collection-in its entirety.Boy am I relieved that I watched all the way through. I hadn't seen it in a really long time and I was blown away by the its depth and twists. The acting of the Willis Pitt tandem is awe inspiring. If you are a fan of some of Pitt's other roles (Fight Club) then you will definitely see some cross-over with his anti-establishment attitude, though in this movie he is much farther off the deep end. Not to ruin anything I'll just say that the plot, which will crush you in futility, is Bruce Willis traveling back in time to research a virus which has sent man kind under ground. His travels back in time aren't an exact science and as such His mind isn't exactly right. Couple that with trying to track down the insane Pitt it makes for a dizzy bit of acting. I think that this movie is a great mind-mess and should be watched again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Not a review, just a couple of questions
Review: Outstanding movie, very complex and intelligent, but you already knew that, so I'll ask my questions. First, why did the Madeline Stowe character, after meeting Bruce Willis for the first time, claim that she vaguely remembers him? Second, at the end of the movie, the David Morse character is on the plane sitting next to a woman who says she is in insurance. This is obviously the same person who is the woman scientist from 2035, at the same age. Who is she? Is she the mother of the scientist ( which in a post-apocalyptic world would be tough ) or is she the same scientist turned time traveller picking up where Bruce Willis left off? If so, did she assist the David Morse character or try to stop him?
Rating:
Summary: Valour! Compassion!
Review: There is a tiny handful of great filmmakers in the Western world, and Terry Gilliam is perhaps our only great fantasist. Each film he makes creates a world you've never been to, and shows you something you've never seen - and isn't that really why the works of great artists are remembered? This would be a saner world indeed if the movies of Gilliam and his collaborators were as popular and as discussed as those of derivative hacks like George Lucas; I predict that Gilliam's are the movies that will be studied, and revered, by future scholars of film, should we - and the form - survive. And no speculative film of the 1990s - with the possible exception of Gilliams's own, more realistic "The Fisher King" - got anywhere near the tragic beauty, dramatic intensity, or sheer breath-taking scope of vision in "12 Monkeys." It's a sad commentary on the state of our collective literacy that a complex movie like this one is considered "confusing" rather than exhilerating, and whose emotional canvas, subtle and devastating, is deemed cold and out of reach. Viva Gilliam!
Rating: 
Summary: Gotta Love this Film
Review: 12 Monkeys is a top notch sci-fi scenario focused on Bruce Willis, an agent from the year 2034 who goes back in time to find a virus in its pure form before it wiped out the human race.
Madeline Stowe (though too beautiful to be believable in her role as psychiatrist) gradually comes to believe Willis isn't just another lunatic.
Some interesting undercurrents come through which may or may not have been Director Terry Gilliam's intention. One is when Willis hears the radio and says, "I love the music of the 20th century"...actually what he's listenning to is not music from 1996 but that of the '50s and '60s. I mean he's not listenning to rap, the Backstreet Boys, Brittany....I think the underlying message is: what happened to good music, not simply in 2034, but in 1996?
Another message which is more overt is that psychiatry is a flawed (to put it mildly) profession. We see some pretty bad hospital conditions and some pretty uncaring doctors (except for Stowe of course). Unfortunately, though an important and true message, it detracts from the main flow of the film.
Now the time travel aspect: Willis says there is no way to change anything cause it already happened. Well that opens up a BIG can of contradictory worms. First, of course his simply being there automatically changes things, not only that, but (Spoiler Alert) why does he run after the guy with the virus at the end if he knew he couldn't change anything? And why even bother to run away...where can he hide if he knows the virus is about to wipe out humanity?
I did think the scenario where HE is the boy at the airport is very effective and really ties the plot together. He keeps dreaming of that scene he saw as a kid in the airport and then Stowe recognizes him as the boy. Interesting time paradox there. He sees himself...so maybe he couldn't change anything because that's what happened in 1996...he was ORIGINALLY there from the future.
Anyway it's great entertainment and Brad Pitt is hilarious.
Rating: 
Summary: A DARK , DREARY VISION OF THE FUTURE...
Review: This film is very much a Terry Gilliam vehicle, as his fans will easily discern upon watching this film. Apocalyptic and dark, yet visionary, the film is trademark Gilliam, with dreary, depressing sets. It is sci-fi with a time travel twist. The year is 2035, and the future of mankind seems grim and forbidding, as the human race is relegated to living underground, never seeing the light of day, after a killer virus has decimated its ranks. James Cole, a designated criminal, volunteers to travel into the past to obtain a sample of the virus that became a killing machine, in hopes of helping scientists discover a cure, as well as getting a pardon for his supposed crimes. Cole has little information with which to work. All he knows is that in 1996 he is to search for a radical group called, "The Army of the Twelve Monkeys". In some way, that group is affiliated with the deadly virus. How, why, or where are questions for which he must find the answers. Like searching for a needle in a haystack, Cole tries to piece the answers together, while trying to separate fantasy from reality. He finds it increasingly difficult to do so, as time travel begins to take a toll on him, given its erratic peculiarities. In his travels, he comes across the seriously disturbed Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), who seems to have something to do with that for which Cole is looking. Jeffrey also happens to be the son of a scientist, Dr. Leland Goines (Christopher Plummer). Cole, mistaken for being mentally ill when he reveals his mission, comes under the care of psychiatrist, Dr. Kathryn Reilly. All of these individuals are, in some way, intertwined with his mission, but not in the way he may have originally thought. How much the past is a part of the future, and how much the future is a part of the past, is a question that the viewer must divine. Bruce Willis gives an excellent performance, taut and well nuanced. Madeleine Stowe is compelling as the initially doubting doctor, who later becomes a believer of Cole's apocalyptic message. The always urbane Christopher Plummer is also excellent as the scientific genius and father to the troubled Jeffrey. It is Brad Pitt, however, who steals the show as the mentally unbalanced Jeffrey Goines, giving a virtuoso performance that won him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This film was a difficult one for me to rate, being torn between awarding it three or four stars. I finally ended up awarding it three stars. While I liked the film, I found it to be too dark and depressing for my tastes. If you are a big fan of Terry Gilliam, however, add one star to my rating.
Rating:
Summary: Crazy As A Loon...
Review: 12 MONKEYS is an apocalyptic tale of man's future set in the year 2035. When the human race is decimated by a deadly viris, the few survivors, that are left. must live as part of underground communities. Resident James Cole (Bruce Willis), is "asked" to travel back in time, in order to obtain a pure virus sample, so that scientists could develop a cure. While in the present, Cole meets, and is eventually aided by Dr. Katherine Railly (Madiline Stowe). As the 2 desparately try to discover the link between the virus, a group of radicals called the 12 Monkeys, and a mental patient (Brad Pitt), time is running short. This unique sci-fi film from visionary director Terry Gilliam, is among my favorites, of his work. The film is dark and demented (like most of the director's films), but also puts a slight spin on the time travel plot device, that makes the movie very cool. Pitt and Willis are great in their respective roles, and even though I'm not really a fan of Stowe, she aquits herself pretty well here. The always great Christopher Plummer, also has a pretty meaty role in the film, as Pitt's estranged father. The movie is very well made and is worth a look. As for the "Collector's Edition" DVD's extras, there is an extensive look at how the film was made, in the form of a well-produced documentary. It covers many aspects of production and features cast/crew. There is also a pretty good commentary track on the disc. The rest of the bonus material is rather standard and is on almost any DVD. I would have loved to see any footage that didn't make the final cut. I will make that omission my only regret about the disc Recommended
Rating:
Summary: The time loop
Review: Spoiler Space for those who didn't see the ending or read the book....
..My first impression was that the virus did escape and killed the millions of people. The fanatic on the airplane got away with this by the end of the film. The child at the airport grows up to be the Bruce Willis character and the whole thing starts all over again when the child grows to adulthood in an endless time loop. I also got the same impression of this when reading the novel of the film. It was a good movie but not a very hopeful one. Perhaps the reason why the Stowe character was smiling at him was the child represented the hope for the future that might prevent the virus from escaping. I wish some of our readers here could enlighted me on the ending of the film.
Rating:
Summary: my tv is too small
Review: but this is still a fun movie. i'll have too watch it more. i love havig to rewatch and rewatch +rewatch
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