Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Brothers Grimm, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 48 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Ehren Kruger
Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 26, 2005
DVD: December 20, 2005
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: Czech Republic / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material
Starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Monica Bellucci, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey, Peter Stormare, and Roger Ashton-Griffiths
The adventures of legendary fairytale scribes Will and Jake Grimm, two brothers who travel around the Napoleonic countryside vanquishing monsters and demons in exchange for quick money. But when the French authorities figure out their scheme, the con men are forced to contend with a real magical curse when they enter an enchanted forest where young maidens keep disappearing under mysterious circumstances. (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 12 Monkeys Brazil Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Jabberwocky Monty Python and the Holy Grail Monty Python's Life of Brian The Fisher King Tideland
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Gilliam has rarely been more inventive, energetic, or just plain funny.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Just as fabulously cartoon-Gothic as "Sleepy Hollow."
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli
A wildly wondrous reinvention of the story of the chroniclers of dark, occasionally horrific, child-pleasing fairy tales.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This brisk, free-falling fantasy about the famous collators of German fairy tales, played here as a kind of comedy act by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, is Terry Gilliam's most entertaining work since the glory days of "Time Bandits," "Brazil," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," and "The Fisher King."
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's a barrage of visual stimulation so excessive that it's hard to sort it all out. But it's often funny, its texture can be breathtaking and its pleasures likely will grow with repeated viewings.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The result is minor Gilliam: still more engaging than most moviemaking, but nonetheless a letdown after such a long wait.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
If you're a Gilliam junkie, as I am, you go with it, even when the script by Ehren Kruger (The Skeleton Key) loses its shaky hold on coherence.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
In the end it's still Gilliam Lite, but Gilliam Lite is better than no Gilliam at all.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Damon, an underrated comic actor, is particularly good as an ultra-rationalist who'll scream like a girl and run from anything he can't immediately explain.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The result is a bit of a mess: sometimes delightful, sometimes tedious, always creative.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Sorry, but the real Grimms did a whole lot more with a great deal less.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
An absurd mess that's more entertaining than it has any right to be.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
If The Brothers Grimm flies apart like a badly designed airplane (and it does), it still has more going for it than most of the movie fare this summer.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Hugely ambitious but often failing to live up to those ambitions, Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Brothers Grimm emerges as a folkloric adventure that intermittently entertains.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Strenous yet flat, The Brothers Grimm is a let's-see-what-sticks spectacle that, coming from Terry Gilliam, is more grim than "Grimm."
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
The Brothers Grimm reeks of compromise, of a brilliant fantasist losing his footing and nerve and getting hopelessly gummed up in the cruel machinery of big-budget blockbuster filmmaking.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
The tilt here toward a hyperactive, buddy-movie action-adventure with loud comic archetypes is a poor fit for a film that relies on fairy tale icons and themes.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Kitted out in period garb and dubious British accents, the actors throw themselves into this flimsy contrivance with energy, but are badly served by a director focused on flipping switches and twirling knobs. Despite a few early sparks of promise The Brothers Grimm sputters and coughs along like an unoiled machine, grinding gears and nerves in equal measure.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A work of limitless invention, but it is invention without pattern, chasing itself around the screen without finding a plot.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Although Gilliam's bright color palette and weird camera angles lift the film, it has an overall sense of darkness, as if shot among people who have yet to see the Age of Enlightenment.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Never calms down for a second. It's the visual equivalent of the "Sabre Dance," and its only oxygen comes from the actors, who are quite good.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The Brothers Grimm gives you plenty to look at, but it's not much to see.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Seriously lost in the woods. This aimless epic about a pair of charlatan brothers sinks under the weight of a problematic script, questionable star casting, hamfisted editing -- and penny-pinching by Gilliam’s latest patrons, the Brothers Weinstein.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Neither Grimm comes across as especially interesting to watch, and neither does anything in the movie offer much to get excited about.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Although The Brothers Grimm is partly an inventive fantasy, it's also a cluttered, jangly action picture, and there's too much noise and commotion for Gilliam's subtler ideas to really resonate.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Brothers never catches fire the way Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" did. And you almost feel during subpar special effects that sweaty stagehands are pushing the trees around.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Unfortunately, although Gilliam has always had a taste for the outre, he has allowed it to get out of hand here and swallow the picture whole. There's an excessiveness, an unwelcome too-muchness to "Grimm's" creepy moments.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Like a lot of Gilliam's movies it's too overloaded--antic, indulgent, overdesigned--to get off the ground for more than a minute or two at a stretch.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
This is one of the most visually off-putting films ever made by a director who supposedly makes beautiful pictures.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
On the whole, The Brothers Grimm is a mess; a formerly daring director’s attempt to cash in on big studio backing even after the rug has been pulled out from under him.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The film seems almost intentionally bad in most ways, as if Gilliam were expressing a suicide wish for his directing career.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
It's easily the ugliest film Gilliam's ever made, a movie shot with a lens someone forgot to wipe. It's also his loudest: Every scene is amped up to 11, and every line of dialogue is delivered as though it's a cry for help from the bottom of the well.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's the cinematic equivalent of an all-dessert meal: After the initial jolt, the lack of any real nourishment is apparent, and it becomes a struggle to stay awake.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 48 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Craig A gave it a3:
Looks good, when not let down by dodgy cheap SFX, but ultimately a mess.
Jon M. gave it a4:
So much potential gone to waste. Occaisonal spots of Gilliam's ingenious directorial flair get lost in a disjointed story line. The film seems to swing between childrens fantasy and attempts at more adult horror, leaving it lost some where in the middle. I can only assume Hollywood money men reigned in Gilliam to keep the age cert. down, hence this confused state the film exists in.
Scot J. gave it an8:
Sometimes a little difficult to follow but very impressive visually, and yes, it does have a coherent storyline.
Anna R. gave it a7:
Because I was in it, I'd say I really enjoyed watching it all, but from someone elses view, I gotta say it was OK. The filming was great though, I really love Matt Damon.
Annie F. gave it a2:
I'm usually easily entertained, but this movie was so awful I felt compelled to voice my opinion. I was only able to follow the story line thanks to the summary on the case cover. The characters, acting, plot sequences... nothing worked for me. Even getting to look at Matt Damon didn't help. Don't waste your time or money on this one.
J. F. gave it a1:
it pretty much sucked.. had potential.. bringing the fairy tales to life in a dark fashion, but it completely flopped. wasn't remotely funny.
Grant N. gave it a5:
Terry Gilliam tells a story in a very unusual but captivating way. He has the power to turn nothing into something. And with the Brothers Grimm he almost is able to make nothing into something great with the help of two very talented actors. But alas Mr.Gilliam falls just short and makes a movie that is plainly mediocre. The ending provides the largest dissapointment of the entire movie.
