Brazil

Rating:
Summary: I should be more fair...
Review: but, honestly, I totally agree with the other "1-star" review posted here...this movie is indeed a triumph for pseudo-intellectuals! I wonder if many who posted "5 stars" here and call people who dislike it "dumb," just *pretend* to like it to sound smart. Lots of wasted talent. I disliked it not because I didn't understand it, it's becuase this film makes you wonder if the director simply took bits and pieces of shots here and there and inserted them at random places and use Sam Lowry's "dream" as an excuse for silly scenes. Tsk tsk, this film is the biggest waste of talent yet.

Rating:
Summary: The best all-around DVD presentation I have seen
Review: Criterion's presentation of Gilliam's Brazil is an amazingly complete look at the controversial film. Watching the three disc set, one gains a feel for what it is to be a director attempting to participate in the Hollywood system while still trying to keep his voice. The movie itself is great; it is gleefully subversive, the satire is funny and pointed and still vibrant today, fifteen years later. Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning, extremely moody and sometimes sardonical fun-fare
Review: If you are a film buff...if you've ever thought, "What if", if you love Sci-Fi and Fantasy, or, if you simply like to be taken away into a totally different dimension, then, DO NOT MISS BRAZIL.

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional film for bright people
Review: Joe six-pack won't like this movie. That's one major plus it has going for it. Terry clearly made this film with an audience in mind that is at least as intelligent as he is, which is what ALL artists should strive for. Brazil (the director's cut) isn't dumbed down, but intended to make you see our world from a different perspective, and to make you think. The movie is filled with amazing detail, and like a great work of literature, requires several passes to understand at all levels. In fact, I don't know how many viewings are required to get everything, because I discover new things still every time I watch it.

The short version, created by Universal, simply sucks. It is very obviously dumbed down and cheered up, to appeal to a larger segment of the movie viewing public, and therefore more profitable. They don't give a damn about art, just about the all-mighty $. They did the equivalent of drawing thick lines and annotations on a Picassos, to make it easier for the weak-minded to appreciate. This criterion edition of Brazil includes this insipid, pathetic version of Brazil, which bears only a superficial resemblance to the director's cut. They have basically reduced a great work of literature, with its multiple levels of meaning and symbolism, to pulp fiction.

It's really great to have this lame shadow of the true Brazil in your collection, because it is a wonderful example of how little regard movie executives have for fine art, and how low their opinion of the American audience is. It makes you wonder how many films they have destroyed by intimidating the directory into letting them trash his or her work.

Hats off to Terry Gilliam for being so tenacious. He did everything in his power to keep Universal from destroying his film, and he succeeded with the theatrical release. Again, the release of the mangled version on TV was actually another win for Gilliam because this strategy totally backfired on Universal. It shows in morbid detail how far they will go to make a film more "accessible to the audience", which is another way of saying the film will be "more profitable for us". It really shows what kind of people these executives really are, far more than any description can. It's fine to be in business to make money, that's not really the issue. It's about how far you will go to make money, also known as "ethics". When the curator of a museum goes around drawing on paintings because he believes that this will bring in more people, thus making him richer, that goes beyond the realm of what I and most people consider to be "ethical behavior". What Universal did with Brazil is exactly the same thing. They should be shot!

Rating:
Summary: What can I say? I loved this movie!!!!
Review: Terry Gilliam-GENIUS! He has directed two of my favoritemovies. This one and The Baron. The setting and the flow of this movieis outstanding. Its sort of like 1984 but the British humor and Gilliam special effects make this movie 20 times more watchable. This hard to find movie is a must see and not for the dull minded. So dummies stand clear. Brainiacs get ready to follow Sam Lowry to the state of being human in a society where individualism is outlawed and ofcourse dealt with swiftly.

Rating:
Summary: NO HIGHER PRAISE FOR THIS TERRY GILLIAM MASTERPIECE
Review: Terry Gilliam is a man well known to Monty Python fans. His earlier and later films (to Brazil) show that Gilliam is a man of passions sometimes so unbridled that the terms "lush" and "lavish" only hint at the sheer genius behind the man. BRAZIL may well be his biggest masterpiece and the Criterion Collection has released a DVD set worthy of this ingenious tale. The film shows the adventures of a lowly clerk in a totally insane society, who falls in love with a woman of questionable reputation, who challenges the very rules of society and who finally escapes the madness of this society by falling into the very cracks of (in)sanity itself. The DVD set is fully equipped with the director's cut on the first disc, an enormous amount of background information on the second and the notorious American release on the third, which was heavily cut. This release is a masterpiece and serves well to film scholars and students for study and simple enjoyment. No higher praise can be given to Terry Gilliam for his input and to Criterion for this superior product.

Rating:
Summary: DVD at it's best!
Review: This is by far the best DVD to come out so far. Criterion has out done itself with this disc set. Not only is the movie great, but it has the best extras that I have ever seen.

I went into this set knowing the story of the Battle for Brazil. What I was expecting to see on the documentaries was a bunch of people just going on about how great Terry Gilliam is, but I found the documentaries to be quite even handed.

If you don't own this set you are not a true film buff, or DVD fan.

Rating:
Summary: The 2nd best Gilliam film and you got to have brains to...
Review: watch this movie. You dumb folks who don't get it should watch it till you do. It was very dark compared to "The Baron" but the contrast made it all the more intriguing to me. Pryce is funnier than hell. And you'll have a hell of a time getting the catchy Brazil song out of your head. If you are a Terry Gilliam fan then you must purchase the 142 minute version. If you are a complete idiot buy the shorter version that Gilliam himself denounced.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great, movie
Review: This is certainly a trippy film. It certainly has a great production design, some good acting and parts of it are even edited well. But Gilliam has a history of sloppy, self-indulgent film-making. Time Bandits and Fisher King are both great examples: over long, meandering, no sense of cinematic "rythym" or pacing. The good news is that Brazil is much better than those films, but still has many of their problems. I can't recommend it whole-heartedly, although it certainly has brilliant bits.

Rating:
Summary: Essential DVD - flat out one of the best there is.
Review: Had the chance to go to a book signing of Gillaim's new book and got my copy of this DVD signed; he told me the Criterion version is undeniably the only authentic director's cut out there. A scene has even been added to this version not available in any other version; the sound was missing and had to be lifted from VHS. The supplemtary information is the richest available on any DVD, painstakingly covering every aspect of the production, editing, and subsequent battles in release. If you like DVDs that tell you how a movie was made, than this and the Alien Legacy set, with their oustanding transfer quality and supplements, are the best DVDs released.