The Brothers Grimm

Stars : Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Monica Belluci

Directed By: Terry Gilliam
Released by: MGM/United Artists

No. One word is all that is necessary to describe this movie and any questions about it. Should it have been made? Is it any good? Is it worth the price of even a discounted movie ticket? Can Heath Ledger act his way out of a paper bag? No to all, and a big no to the last one. Put simply, this movie just isn't any good. I have never fallen asleep in a movie, but I came close here, due to the dull print and even duller storyline. The person i saw this movie with did fall asleep at times, and they're not over 60. It's really that bad. Perhaps the worst editing job ever seen on a film, certainly the worst performance by any of the actors in it, and a shocking hodge pogde of fantasy and idiocy by Terry Gilliam.

Building on the notion of the Brothers Grimm who wrote the famous fables, the movie turns them into conmen in Napoleon occupied Bavaria. The brothers, Jake and Will, sweep into small towns and get rid of evil spritis that have possessed a building in the town. They charge handsomely for it, and are well regarded in the community. However, someone is onto their plan. General Delatombe, played by Jonathan Pryce with perhaps the worst acent in cinematic history, right up there with Angelina Jolie in Alexander, and Richard Roxborough in Van Helsing, has discovered that the Brothers use two dim witted sidekicks to simulate the supposed evil that they conquer. Having been found out they face two options, to be executed (the option you secretly hope they take, to shorten the movie), or rescue a small village that is being terrorised by an unkown evil. To summarise what feels like the next four hours, the brothers discover the evil is real not simulated, fight over a comely German maiden, resolve their differences, conquer all evil in the nick of time, and get leglessly drunk. That's really all you need to know. I would normally go through the performances of the actors here, but given that nothing resembling acting was really presented onscreen, I don't really think it's necessary.

Movies like this belong at the very bottom of the trash bag of cinematic history, and I can safely say I have a new addition to my personal list of the 10 worst movies I've ever seen. There really are no redeeming features to this movie, and I am tempted to give it zero, but it did make me laugh perhaps twice, and you get the feeling that some people have to have worked hard on this movie at some point. So a half each for those reasons, but absolutely nothing more. One of the worst movies of 2005.

out of ten

Reviewed by Nick Bailey

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