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Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The
Columbia Pictures
MPAA RATING: PG for violence and brief nudity
Starring
John Neville,
Eric Idle,
Sarah Polley,
Oliver Reed,
Jonathan Pryce,
Uma Thurman,
Charles McKeown,
and
Winston Dennis
The enchanting adventures of Baron von Munchausen follow him on his journey to save a town from defeat. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures. (Sony Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Adventure
|
Comedy
|
Fantasy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Rudolph Erich Raspe (novel)
Gottfried August Bürger (novel)
Charles McKeown
Terry Gilliam
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Terry Gilliam
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 27, 1999
Theatrical: March 10, 1989
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
126 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
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
San Francisco Chronicle
Judy Stone
Aided by the luscious cinematography of Giuseppe Rotunno (one of Fellini's favorites) and the illustrious production design of Dante Ferretti, Gilliam has clearly won this round to preserve magic and wonder on the screen. [8 Mar 1989, p.E1]
90
Washington Post
Hal Hinson
Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a wondrous feat of imagination. In terms of sheer inventiveness, it makes the other movies around these days look paltry and underfed. The worlds Gilliam has created here are like the ones he created in his animations for Monty Python -- they have a majestic peculiarity. And you're constantly amazed by the freshness and eccentricity of what is pushed in front of your eyes.
90
Washington Post
Desson Howe
Terry Gilliam is the wit behind this lavish display of sieges, sea-creature tussles and trips to the moon. Adapting the handed-down stories of Baron Von Munchausen, an 18th-century spinner of tall tales, this modern maker of similar flights of fancy has created another brilliantly inventive epic of fantasy and satire.
80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Terry Gilliam's third fantasy feature (1989) may not achieve all it reaches for, but it goes beyond Time Bandits and Brazil in its play with space and time, and as a children's picture offers a fresh and exciting alternative to the Disney stranglehold on the market.
80
The New York Times
Vincent Canby
With their remarkable contributions, ''Baron Munchausen'' is full of moments that dazzle, just for the fun of seeing the impossible come to life on the screen. What the Folies-Bergere once was for the foot-weary tourist, ''Baron Munchausen'' is for the television-exhausted child. Nothing much happens, but you can't easily tear your eyes away from it.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
I was confused sometimes during Baron Munchausen and bored sometimes, but this is a vast and commodious work, and even allowing for the unsuccessful passages there is a lot here to treasure.
75
TV Guide
Staff (Not Credited)
The narrative is highly episodic and only intermittently engaging, but Gilliam's wildly inventive mise en scene, ably assisted by production designer Dante Ferretti, is extraordinary.
75
Boston Globe
Joan Anderman
Gilliam has a vision and a viewpoint, and he puts it on screen with an extravagance, a humanistic generosity and a visual imagination that make it a standout in 1989's virtual cinematic vacuum. [10 Mar 1989, p.32]
75
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Munchausen is indeed a beautiful, burgeoning, madly voluptuous movie from minute to minute and image to image; it's in the aggregate that the film fails to find the weight and the rhythm it needs to truly enthrall. [10 Mar 1989, p.A]
70
Los Angeles Times
Sheila Benson
Gilliam never aims down, his films zing in somewhere at the Mensa level of reference, but he seems confident that we will catch the wit of his visual quotations and so we do. Like a film making Catherine wheel, he throws off an immoderate art history display; he plunders past film styles with a free hand to make a point. [5 Mar 1989, p.23]
70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
I felt much the same way as I sat goggle-eyed through this endless extravaganza of visual abracadabra. It seemed entirely possible that I might die of the fidgets or old age while waiting for Baron Munchausen to kill the Turks. And yet I found myself wanting to see the end of the movie before I expired. [9 Mar 1989, p.1]
63
USA Today
Mike Clark
Excesses or not, I'm rabid to see this again. [10 Mar 1989, p.1D]
60
Variety
Staff (Not Credited)
A fitting final installment in Terry Gilliam's trilogy begun with Time Bandits and continued with Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen shares many of those films strengths and weaknesses, but doesn't possess the visionary qualities of the latter.
60
Empire
Ian Nathan
Weird to the Gilliamth degree, Munchausen just might making being an 'uneven' movie a compliment.
0
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jay Scott
Despite an inspired central section involving Robin Williams as the King of the Moon and Valentina Cortese as his Queen, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a near-disaster of Ishtarish proportions. [11 Mar 1989, p.C3]
 The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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