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Brothers Grimm, The
Dimension Films


5.3

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 46 votes
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FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Comedy \| Fantasy \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Ehren Kruger
DIRECTED BY:	Terry Gilliam
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 20, 2005 Theatrical: August 26, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Czech Republic / USA

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...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Gilliam has rarely been more inventive, energetic, or just plain funny.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Just as fabulously cartoon-Gothic as "Sleepy Hollow."

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."

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The result is minor Gilliam: still more engaging than most moviemaking, but nonetheless a letdown after such a long wait.

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.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

In the end it's still Gilliam Lite, but Gilliam Lite is better than no Gilliam at all.

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The result is a bit of a mess: sometimes delightful, sometimes tedious, always creative.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Sorry, but the real Grimms did a whole lot more with a great deal less.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

An absurd mess that's more entertaining than it has any right to be.

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.

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.

Empire Dan Jolin

Gilliam at his best and his worst.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Brothers Grimm gives you plenty to look at, but it's not much to see.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

This is one of the most visually off-putting films ever made by a director who supposedly makes beautiful pictures.

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.

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.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Not terrible so much as terminally silly.

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.

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Gilliam does two things well: mud and trees.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 46 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.

Brothers Grimm, The Dimension Films

Brothers Grimm, The
Dimension Films