Might've been halfway decent.....Except it wasn't linear or fluid in any way, form, or fashion. As a matter of fact, it was as if Terry Giliam just put the entire film into a shredder, mixed it all up, and taped it back together expecting it to be in order. The visuals were waaaaaay over the top, and looked fake and hokey. Like I said....it would have been a great story...if there "WAS" a story. 3 out of 10.… Expand

I walked out it was so bad. Rather than scary it was laughable.

Oh My God! It was that awful. Stay away.

This was a fun, exciting movie. While there have been some complaints about the script, the movie takes us on a ride through the haunted forest and it's mysteries that shows us that fantasy might be real and that cynically dismissing wonder won't lead you to fulfilled life. The visuals were another satisfying look at Gilliam's work as the beautiful opening titles foreshadow. This movie will give you as much enjoyment as you have the ability to suspend disbelief and enter this enchanted land.… Expand

Pretty bad. Just short of terrible. It was completely directionless, completely lacking focus. It had something like a plot, but somebody forgot about it along the way. Sloppy, messy, and not bad enough to be fun.

The most underrated film of the year.

I saw it because I am a Gilliam fan and afterwards, decided that it is best to not think that Terry Gilliam was in fact involved with this... Storyline made little to no sense... French accents were true in that they were completely incomprehendable, and the "love" storyline was just ludicrous. I would recommend you not see this movie unless you can see it for free.

How do they make these bad movies? Is there a magic formula on how to piss the public off? Avoid at all costs.

A good summer movie! Humorous and amusing! Acting was great and I thought it was fun!....

Everyone that worked on this film seems to be having a bold, terrific and heartfelt effort. I love every Gilliam film ever made. This one is right near the top.

This was an ugly movie, both in tone and visualization. About the only thing attractive in the movie were the horses. There was no sense of wonder, nothing to admire or root for and what passed for comedic relief was irritating and tiresome--not funny. Rather than exploring why German folk tales were so dark, the movie seems to enjoy wallowing in a squalid portrayal of its story.

A confused mess. oy-vey. Such a shame... with just a little effort they could have made this into a really mediocre movie. Instead it was just a mess. At least when the curse was broken they all became Jewish and danced the hora!

An underated movie to be sure. After seeing all the bad reviews I had to go see it. I found it entertaining, a little funny and occasionaly a little scary. The plot was easy enough to follow if you pay attention to what is going on. Anyone expecting a "normal" movie from Terry Gilliam has obviously not seen his other movies. I enjoyed this movie more than most of the junk Ive seen this year so I gave it 8 stars.… Expand

My my, what a cackle of negativity we have here! people, please! were you really expecting a fantasy film on par with lord of the rings? while i agree that jackson's film raised the bar, let's not forget that this is gilliam, and this is hollywood. so the story was a little messy and it didn't quite hang togethe; neither, as some have said, did it entirely fall apart. and if you were expecting a history lesson from this director, well ... it was a fun popcorn movie with nifty special effects, and that was all it ever claimed to be. so for all you naysayers who wish you hadn't "wasted your evening" i say: next time, rent a classic!… Expand

Awsome!

Trust Terry Gilliam's ability to con and bring fantasy to the audience in the same way we have fantasized and conned little children to uphold the Grimm Brothers' tales as sweet and cool bedtime stories. Absolutely a very creative and fun adventure story in which the two famous brothers are seen living out their own fairy tales! It's a joy to be fantasized by fantasies.

I loved this movie. I loved the lush, old world storybook painterly look of each scene that reminded me of my favorite illustrators. I loved the lovingly whimsical costumes and the delightfully caricatured characters. that reminded me of the original Wizard of Oz. Several of the characters made me laugh out loud without saying a word. I loved the delicious dark 'scary' scenes...the kind that used to titillate me as a kid. It's wit and humor and storybook moral and morale were wonderful. If it fell off the breathtaking punch of the Rings trilogy and the like, it was only because it was generously faithful to the whole Grimm's Fairy tale feel. I was happy it didn't try for blockbuster overamped action adrenalin rush or punch in the gut 'grit' or cloyingly sweet fluff. I had a great good time every minute that left a clean taste in the mouth. I was surprised and pleased by Damon's and Ledger's understated performances that stayed honest and well balanced within the tapestry of the movie. I'd give it 9 stars.… Expand

My favorite moment in "The Brothers Grimm" is when director Terry Gilliam seems to be poking fun at the intense farewell embrace between Boromir and Aragon during the former's death scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring". It's very funny. It stirred me out of my waking coma. To me, it's a great miscalculation to present the Grimm fairy tales as factual (within the diegesis), because that makes the brothers mere academics (as collectors of attempted child murder stories) rather than the fountains of imagination that they certainly were. It's a good idea to introduce the brothers as charlatans, but rather than present them as period piece ghostbusters, their occupation should be shown as a desperate means to support their fledgling writing career. A collection of enchanting fairy tales shouldn't be turned into a loud action film. "The Brothers Grimm" makes Gilliam's lost opportunity to bring Don Quixote to the screen seem doubly tragic.… Expand

This movie is TIGHT!!!

Once upon a time there was a filmmaker named Terry Gilliam whose last would-be effort, a gargantuan movie epic about Don Quixote, fell prey to all manner of evil spells, wicked elves, ogres and gremlins that prevented it from ever seeing fruition...but DID provide a fascinating how-it-didn't-get-made documentary. Gilliam's film work is that of an uncompromising independent spirit who often gets big budgets but calls his shots the way he sees 'em, like it or not...with predictably variable results that range from ballsy and bracing (Brad Pitt's singularly unhinged work in 12 Monkeys, the unexpectedly downbeat finale of the kiddie fantasy Time Bandits) to almost totally unendurable (Johnny Depp's obnoxious Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, who spends two hours I'll never get back again making sad, miserable people he meets on his drug-addled odyssey even more sad and miserable). That's why it's a little disappointing to see Gilliam reining himself in, however slightly, for the Weinstein boys who, despite their loud pronouncements over the past decade about encouraging independent film, tend to sit on their directors (Tarantino, of course, being a rare and obvious exception) as tightly as Louis B. Mayer did on his during the 1940s. A film about the famous fairy-tale compilers and retellers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm seems like a natural fit for Gilliam, but he's hobbled by a rather witless, pedestrian script by Ehren Kruger (whose other work, such as Arlington Road and Reindeer Games, suggests that he's a lot more comfortable dissecting present-day paranoia than from the past) that refers to classic stories ranging from Goldilocks to Snow White to Little Red Riding Hood so haphazardly and perfunctorily that you'd swear he was working off a checklist, and by title performances by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger that are completely submerged by the surroundings and spectacle. Ultimately, none of this matters. As Gilliam has repeatedly proven since Monty Python and the Holy Grail, he is and remains a dazzling visual atmospherist and stylist who does peasant squalor as compellingly as he does patrician sumptuousness. Simply put, there's nobody around who films grass, dead leaves, wood, thatching, dirt and mud more fascinatingly than Gilliam...and I'm not being sarcastic in the least; it's really hard to do! In fact, The Brothers Grimm may be the only 2005 film besides Robert Rodriguez' Sin City in which every single frame is...well, suitable for framing. (In fact, I'd even rank Gilliam slightly higher than Rodriguez in this category because The Brothers Grimm is nowhere near so computer-dependent.) This movie's amazing, sepia-dappled cinematography and design makes the fact that we'll never get to see Gilliam's Quixote film even more regrettable, but even Gilliam running at half-speed here should be enough to ensure that The Brothers Grimm, though a box office disappointment, should live happily ever after as a cult success.… Expand

This mess should never have made it into reality. A fairy tale it should have remained. And a forgotten one at that. A complete waste of time.

Much, much better than most critics would lead us to believe. Also quite frightening (but in a good way)... don't bring the kiddies to this one.

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.

it pretty much sucked.. had potential.. bringing the fairy tales to life in a dark fashion, but it completely flopped. wasn't remotely funny.

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.

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.

Sometimes a little difficult to follow but very impressive visually, and yes, it does have a coherent storyline.

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.

Looks good, when not let down by dodgy cheap SFX, but ultimately a mess.

For those who likes Grimms is good, for those who don't like them is a kinda boring. I think the story showed by a sensational way the fancy world of brothers Grimms.