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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
RRP: £9.99
Our Price: £3.03 (subject to change)
A marvellous fantasy
Review date: 2008-10-03 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is a wonderfully inventive film, full of striking images, marvellous performances and a lovely streak of dark humour running through it. Gilliam's brain must be constantly ticking with new ideas to amaze his audience as he directs these brilliant films.
Oliver Reed shows, like he did in the Musketeer films, that he is well suited for comedy roles, playing the god Vulcan as a childish, jealous child in a God's body. Robin Williams gives a wildly over the top performance as The King Of The Moon, but its perfectly suited for this film. John Neville is perfect as the ageless Baron, and Eric Idle and Sarah Polley also impress in their roles.
Really, its a film about having an imagination and not losing it as you grow up, as at the beginning the only person to believe the Baron is the child, but by the end of the film our hero has won over his adult audience too.
This is a great film, Gilliam's masterpiece in my opinion, and can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. 5 out of 5
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Reviews
"What will become of the Baron?"
Review date: 2008-02-01 Rating: 8 out of 10
21 years after the off-screen battles are over and unrealistic expectations have all been exorcised, Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen looks really rather wonderful. If anything it's probably too wonder-full to ever appeal to a mainstream audience as Gilliam plays out the eternal conflict between mundane and unexceptional reality and dreams and imagination in the palaces of sultans, the kingdom of the moon, the inside of Mount Etna, the belly of a whale and points inbetween as the teller of tall-tales hitches a ride on a cannonball, flies to the stars in an airship made from women's underwear and dances with Uma Thurman's goddess Venus in the air as waterfalls and cherubim surround them and Oliver Reed's rather wonderful god and munitions manufacturer Vulcan (played like a cross between a Northern mill owner and Gumby from Monty Python's Flying Circus) hops angrily up and down below them as his temperature rises to danger levels. As John Neville's Baron himself says, "This is precisely the sort of thing that people never believe."
Terry Gilliam's `Fellini film' - indeed, many of his collaborators (Giuseppe Rottuno, Dante Ferretti) are Fellini veterans - was much criticised as being all hot air and fantasy with no real foundation, but in fact the script is a lot better than it was ever given credit for. Beautifully structured as a ramshackle but ingenious play gradually becomes the Baron's `reality,' the figure of Death constantly hovering on the sidelines of the Baron's adventures that periodically rejuvenate him, it's end is somewhat disappointing as it paints itself into a fantastic corner, but getting there is a lot of fun. While there's much Pythonic humor along the way, it's not always entirely successful: the scene on the moon fares worst, largely due to a very loud and unfunny cameo by a literally off-his-head Robin Williams (here billed as Ray D. Tuto after his agent allegedly told him the film could be a career-killer). Hopefully the forthcoming special edition DVD will go into some detail about the original very different conception of the sequence with Sean Connery (dropped to keep the budget down: typically for the film, it cost more to cut it than it would to have shot it!). Yet even here it's a constantly astonishing looking film: where with fantasy films you often see amazing pre-production concept sketches that the film's visuals can never match, here they exceed them. The sheer unique old world craftsmanship the Italian artisans bring to the film is breathtaking, reminding you that this could never have been shot in a Hollywood studio. The effects work is amazing, all the more so for being largely physical effects that have more weight to them than the too often poorly integrated and lighter than air CGI. Even Michael Kamen rallies to the cause with a splendid score that captures the spirit of its vainglorious fantasist hero. Hot air and fantasy it may be, but gloriously heroic nonetheless.
The only extra on this DVD is the US trailer, but there is a special edition scheduled for later in 2008.
Another Gilliam misfire
Review date: 2007-08-25 Rating: 2 out of 10
I don't know what brand of garden tobacco the director was on when he made this one other than it being a strong one, but he certainly kept up his Bohemian reputation with this strange offering. Some moments briefly delight, but the overall product is dreadful. It goes to show yet again, that not all old films deserve a remake.
a disapointment.
Review date: 2007-08-16 Rating: 4 out of 10
I bought this expecting so much more and was sadly let down. I nearly fell asleep while watching it. I am a fan of Monty Python type films, but this was just not to my taste.
Wierd, wonderful and just a little bit dark
Review date: 2007-05-07 Rating: 10 out of 10
I first saw this film about ten (or more) years ago after seeing it advertised as showing on tv. Enticed by the fact it looked like a kids film, I was only put off by the (very) late night showing time because it meant setting my video timer. I had only watched it once, and the memories of how strange and brilliant it was stuck in my head until I bought it a few weeks ago.
My memory had not failed me. Not only is it definitely dark enough to suggest that it shouldn't be watched by young children - beheadings! risque jokes! The terrifying winged creature of Death! - it is also a lot wierder than I remember as a child, and as such this film deserves high acclaim. In keeping with its inherent off-the-wall nature, this is one of the best fantasy films I have ever seen, one of those films that cherishes imagination and ideas over anything else. The special effects, for the most part, still look incredible today, which is amazing considering the film's age and the fact that newer films like the first lord of the rings are starting to look dated already. Whatever the film's intended audience, it sadly didn't reach them, and has instead become something of a lost gem for those who want something a little different. This is just a brilliant and highly imaginative film!
Product Details/Specifications
Artist(s):
Uma Thurman
Eric Idle
John Neville
Oliver Reed
Robin Williams
Recording label: 4front
Manufacturer: 4front
EAN: 5050582359275
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-07-04
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 126 minutes