W. Doug Bolden

Review

This movie was a little too schizophrenic for its own good. Based both on the trailers, and on some friends' commentaries, I figured this would be a movie I would like. It seemed to have all of the right elements: creepiness, adventure, well-staged scenery, and that old sense of gothic sound stage (ala Sleepy Hollow). Oh yeah, and it had Terry Gilliam. The problem, though, is it has too dangling of a script, and two fickle of an attitude on how to handle the subject matter.

The French soldier and Italian torturere subplots were unnecessary. The tracker woman was a little too D&D. The love interest was conflicted, at best. Had it cut down these side items, built up the out of the blue feeling, and focuses a little better on the brothers; then it could have been a redux of Three Amigos with a fantasy twist. As it is, its a sprawled out movie that gets nowhere, then does some stuff, and then kind of leaves in a lump beside the road.

Oh, and they feel the need to reference as many possible Grimm's fairy tales as they can, often in conflicted ways. And, of course the Brothers Grimm don't see most of them, so its sort of a wasted gesture.

But it does have that creepy ass mud meets sliding face scene. Props for that one.

This is going next to Urban Legend for most-wasted great-concept movie.