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Yar, you be here: Time Bandits > Customer Reviews Time Bandits Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 20 Reviews)A Terrific early film from Terry Gilliam
I saw Time Bandits many times when it was on cable back in the early '80s, so it is nice to have it preserved forever on DVD. The commentary by Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, John Cleese, David Warner, and Craig Warnock is a nice idea, as you don't get those moments of silence that one often gets when a director does a commentary on his own. They all seem to have clear memories of the film and have interesting stories and insights about the film. The Scrapbook is ok, with photos of production and such finishing up with a photo of Gilliam and Warnock (who played the young boy, Kevin) from 1997. The trailer is terrific fun and offbeat. It's great to see a movie trailer that is out of the ordinary. The film itself is great from start to finish. The time travel element is realized in a creative way and adds a bit of excitement to the story. From Kevin almost getting the father of his dreams (as played by Sean Connery), meeting Robin Hood (John Cleese) who comes off like a member of the royal family, ending up on the Titanic, and much more. Reading the reviews of Time Bandits, people seem to really love this film or really hate it. The folks who love it seem to like to go into great detail as to why they love it and the people who hated seem to just write one or two lines of text about how the movie was awful. If you hate the movie, tell us why. A review that simply says 'This movie was awful' along with several other reviews describing in detail how great a film is will probably act as encouragement to buy the DVD. Pretentious junk
Save your dough. A british kid goes on adventures with a bunch of hammy-acting little people. At the end, his parents die for no apparant reason. (Before some film school moron e-mails me with the reason, I got it. It was just dumb.) Get "Brazil" or "Munchausen" instead. Gilliam's off his game here. Or try "12 monkeys." That's a great film
The plot revolves around a young boy (wonderfully played by Craig Warnock) who ends up joining a group of dwarves running from God. You see, the construction of the universe was a hurried job (with only seven days to do it!) and so there are several holes in time and space. The dwarves, assigned to fix them, instead steal the map and use it to become international thieves. Their adventures take them from Napoleon to Robin Hood to the Titanic. The storytelling is like that of a child's point of view, and feels like a fairy tell of the modern era - this adds to the enchanting style of the whole thing. Granted, this does mean the plot tends to linger in parts, and that might turn some people away, but it doesn't do it in such an obnoxiou manner that you can't just enjoy yourself. I also found a special attachment to the character Kevin. He reminded me a lot when I was younger: I was very fond of military history, and given the chance to meet such people as Napoleon or Agammemnon, I would take it in a hearbeat. Kevin is also, among other things, an intellegent character. He gets his dwarven friends out of trouble more than once, and it's good to see a movie with a kid character who can hold his own. I believe the ending also hints at the common Gilliam theme of dreams and reality: just where do dreams end and reality begin? (See the uncut version of "Brazil" if you don't know what I mean) However, I think the highlight of this entire movie is none other than David Warner as Evil itself. In perhaps his greatest role - and his only GOOD movie - David Warner does well in his part as the ultimate villain...as the character represents evil itself! The movie has some great scenes for him; waving his hand, hearing an explosion offscreen, and then saying, "Sorry." The part of Evil is hilarious, as Evil plans to leave his Fortress of Ultimate Darkness and use technology to rule the universe, finding God's work shoddy: "God knows nothing about technology. Look how He spends His time: 43 species of parrots...nipples for men!" As for DVD's, I currently own the normal version of it. The Criterion collection, I agree, is far too expensive for an edition that only has a director's commentary and not much else in the way of extras...I mean the "We Were Soldiers" DVD cost me $15 and it has more extras than that DVD! The DVD I own right now has the theatrical trailer (not really worth watching), but it at least has the movie. All in all, I found this film to be marvelous. If you are in the mood for some eye candy and Gilliam humor - or you liked the films "Brazil" and "Baron Munchausen" - then this is a definate watch for you.
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