Friday, March 04, 2005

Movie Review: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys is the Animal Planet sponsered remake of the classic Henry Fonda flick, 12 Angry Men. Instead of a controversial trial pushing 12 men to a debate whether a man is innocent or not, the plot consists of 12 monkeys in a jury room throwing feces at eachother for 2 hours and 14 minutes.... only kidding. The real plot of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys is clearly based on the Chris Marker short, La Jetée. Gilliam virtually took the story set-up of Jetée, kept the ending as well, but added on a whole dynamic storyline inbetween, giving the movie it's own unique tale. 12 Monkeys is one of those flicks, like Fight Club, that makes you realize that you really need to see it more than once to get a good feel for it (I have actually only seen it once, but have taken the liberty to review it nevertheless). While we are on the subject of Fight Club, I must note the striking resemblence in Brad Pitt's character in 12 Monkeys to his portrayal of Tyler Durden in Fight Club. I don't want to give too much away, but I just want to point out that you will definately notice a similarity in the personas of the characters right away. Willis and Pitt make great performances, as well as a bear that is unfortunately uncredited.
4 1/2 stars

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