This is a heads up to all about the new Terry Gilliam that is slowly starting to see release.
official site
I procured a copy of this film yesterday and attempted to watch it with a friend. Both of us are fans of Terry Gilliam. We've each listened to commentaries on old Criterion laserdiscs for
The Adv. of Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, and
Brazil. I feel it necessary to mention that since I wasn't the biggest fan of
The Brothers Grimm but I have enjoyed all of his films and the work he's created. (I watched
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas 8 times in the cinema. I was a projectionist. I had keys to the building. Why watch a movie at home alone when you can watch one alone in a theater.) I could continue on about my love for Terry Gilliam,
Brazil, "...the real
Baron Mon-Choo-sen," and "games, games that want to played," but I think my redundancy gets my point across.
It makes me sad to say that my friend and I were only able to get through about 32 minutes into the film before turning it off. Instead we watched some of the new season 8 boxset of The Simpsons.
The following evening, tonight, we tried again and stopped at the 55 minute mark. It's hard to say what's so bad about this film because it looks marvelous. However, very little if anything seems to happen. It seems that Gilliam has got too bogged down in his visuals and dutch'd camera for every other shot. I felt no connection to the story and couldn't get into it. From what I'd read about the film from it's showing at the Toronto Film Festival last year, I was expecting bad, but not this bad. (In Toronto, there were tons of walkouts within the first 45 minutes. Never a good sign.)
I guess this happens from time to time. Someone whose work(film, music, art, literature, etc) you truly admire, enjoy, respect and are inspired by does all the opposite. I kind of feel like two for two right now in this regard.
Anyone else have a similar experience to share?