The Adventures of Baron Munchausen details
| Formats: | PG DVD, Blu-ray, LOVEFiLM Instant |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Charles McKeown, Winston Dennis, Uma Thurman, John Neville, Oliver Reed, Sting, Jonathan Pryce, Alison Steadman, Sarah Polley, Jack Purvis, Robin Williams, Eric Idle, Valentina Cortese |
| Director: | Terry Gilliam |
| Genres: | Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy - Fantasy - General |
| Studio: | COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO |
| Collections: | 100 Big Adventures, Back to the 80s, Decades: 80s |
| Title | Runtime | Certificate | |
|---|---|---|---|
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen |
2hrs 1 min | PG |
LOVEFiLM Instant Information
| Run time: | 2 hours 1 minute |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | To be confirmed |
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Most helpful review
There really was a ...
By John#53 from TELFORD , 13 Feb 2004[Highly rated reviewer]
There really was a Baron Munchausen. His full name was Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Munchausen, and he lived from 1720 to 1797 and fought for the Russians against the Turks. He was, it is said, in the habit of embellishing his war stories.
The special effects are astonishing for its time, but so is the humor with which they are employed. It is not enough that one of the baron's friends is the fastest runner in the world. He must run all the way to Spain and back in an hour, to fetch a bottle of wine and save the baron's neck. And he must be able to outrun a speeding bullet, stop it, and redirect it back toward the man who fired it.
These adventures, and others, are told with a cheerfulness and a light touch that never betray the time and money it took to create them. It's one thing to spent $46 million; it's another to spend it insouciantly. The movie begins when the baron indignantly interrupts a play that is allegedly based on his life, and continues as he tells the "real" story of his travels - which took him not merely to Turkey but also to the moon, to the heart of a volcano, and into the stomach of a sea monster so big that people actually lived there quite comfortably, once they had been swallowed.
The movie is slow to get off the ground (the prologue in the theater goes on forever before we discover what it's about), and sometimes the movie fails on the basic level of making itself clear. We're not always sure who is who, how they are related, or why we should care. One of the things you have to do, when you fill a movie with extravagant fantasies, is to explain the story in clear and direct terms, so it doesn't fly apart with intoxication at its own exuberance.
I would recommend this to people of all ages who have not lost the wish to live a fantasy. It is a classic film that can be watched again and again.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(44)Criminally underrated
By RJNeb2 (922 reviews) from London , 13 May 2013Now notorious for being a costly failure, the amazing thing here is that Gilliam was able to bankroll this film in the first place because it’s totally bonkers. It’s also messy and ramshackle and incoherent but that’s totally part of its charm; you never quite know what to expect. Neville is suitably bombastic as the titular baron who is known for a few economies with the truth and Gilliam frontloads his film with madcap incident after madcap incident. A headless Williams and a quick-to-anger Reed are good value in that regard. Impossible not to get caught up in its eccentricity, plus it’s very funny.- Was this review helpful to you?
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a bit boring
By wilsonwilson (9 reviews) , 15 Feb 2013slow moving fantasy tale with unlikeable characters and substandard plot. i have enjoyed other gilliam films -this one falls a little flat in comparison. scenes/backdrops emulate a theatrical style,casting is good,including uma thurman and robin williams. overall below average- Was this review helpful to you?
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very disappointing
By booktig (4 reviews) , 08 Nov 2012I could not watch the whole story. It was childish and silly.
I had to stop after an hour, as I could find something better to do.
Very disappointing!- Was this review helpful to you?
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Very surreal but spectacular
By Bassman71 (617 reviews) from Didsbury, England , 01 Oct 2012Surreal, fairy-tale esque, spectacular squalor from Terry Gilliam which has both its good sides and downsides.
An excellent cast with lots of great cameos and Oliver Reed’s Yorkshire accented Vulcan the best of quite an impressive bunch.
As you’d expect from Gilliam, it’s incredible visually with some huge sets and set pieces and backed up by some good music from Michael Kamen.
It does get a bit too silly, surreal and disjointed at times and I suppose it depends on how much patience you have for that sort of thing and I just found it slightly irritating towards the end.- Was this review helpful to you?
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A classic tale
By scullgal (16 reviews) from Ashford , 30 Jul 2012[Highly rated reviewer]
I used to watch this film when i was a kid so it was a blast from the past. The war time scenes drag on a fair bit but the fantasy parts more than make up for it.- Was this review helpful to you?
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