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The Brothers Grimm Details

2005 DVD Certificate 12.gif
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 42,671 members

Director Terry Gilliam, who brought his magical storytelling talents to such films as Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, sets his sights on the Brothers Grimm, turning their life into a playfully grim fairy tale all its own. Set in early 18th Century French-occupied Germany, The Brothers Grimm stars Matt Damon .. Read more

Starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey, Julian Bleach
Director Terry Gilliam
Genres Action/Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

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The Brothers Grimm

Director Terry Gilliam, who brought his magical storytelling talents to such films as Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, sets his sights on the Brothers Grimm, turning their life into a playfully grim fairy tale all its own. Set in early 18th Century French-occupied Germany, The Brothers Grimm stars Matt Damon as Will Grimm and Heath Ledger as Jake Grimm, siblings who travel the countryside as snake-oil salesmen, convincing unsuspecting towns that they are haunted and agreeing to get rid of the demons for a price. In the meantime, they set their tales down in writing, creating a wealth of oddball, offbeat, and frightening characters. But after they are caught by General Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce) and his sidekick, Cavaldi (Peter Stormare), they are sent to the tiny village of Marbaden to solve the mysterious disappearance of a number of young girls, placing them in the middle of a fantasy world unlike any they'd ever invented. They enlist the help of a peasant woman, Angelika (Lena Headey), and they set off for the evil forest to save the lives of the girls and themselves.

Starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey, Julian Bleach, Bruce McEwan, Peter Stormare, Monica Bellucci, Jonathan Pryce, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Mackenzie Crook, Richard Ridings
Director Terry Gilliam
Studio WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 54 mins
Blu-ray: 1 hr 54 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate 12.gif
Genres Action/Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Language English
Dubbed Italian
Hearing-impaired English
Subtitles English, Italian
Released DVD: 13 Mar 2006
Blu-ray: 12 Nov 2007
Production year: 2005
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (5) of The Brothers Grimm

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  • Mr. Terry Gilliam and his sometime writing partner Tony Grisoni (Tideland, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) take an unusual credit for The Brothers Grimm Dress pattern makers. ... read more »

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    • Tom Charity, 
    • LOVEFiLM
  • Most helpful member's review of The Brothers Grimm

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  • 31 out of 34 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    Disappointing

    I was really looking forward to seeing this film, it had a lot of promise, unfortunately however I found the result really quite disappointing. Don't get me wrong though there are elements to this film that are good - the cast are great, Gilliam's visions are as vivid as ever and in places it is both amusing and scary. Unfortunately the film as a whole just does not work. I found it incredibly boring in places, so much so, the only way that I really made it through the film completely was by dividing it into half hour chunks were I would turn off the DVD player and go and do something else for a while. It was truly difficult...although I'm not entirely sure why as the plot is straightforward and there is plenty of CGI to keep you amused. Possibly it was overlong, possibly it was underdeveloped, I'm not sure....but what I am sure of is that I won't be watching it again to try and work it out! Not one to avoid - but don't choose it unless you've got absolutely nothing better to watch.

    • Gromit
      • Gromit from Canterbury
  • Most recent members' review of The Brothers Grimm

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    A confusing film but the family liked it.

    I think perhaps that I was expecting too much from this film and was subsequently disappointed. The film is a mix of characters from the Grimms fairy tales meshed in with their supposed early lives before they started writing the tales themselves. The kids knew little about the Grimm brothers and their tales, so they loved trying to find characters that make a showing in the film that they recognised as a fairy tale character (eg. Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel) etc. Once you got a better hang onto what was going on in the story line, the film became more enjoyable. Up until then, it was all very confusing - which spoilt things a bit. I cannot say that the acting was great - because it wasn't. This also reduced some of the enjoyment. Some of the acting was very ham-like. Mixed with a generally weak story, it did not bode well.

    As I stated, I was disappointed, having expected more. There were a couple of times when I thought about not bothering to watch the whole film, but I persisted. The rest of the family, however, enjoyed the film - hence the 3 stars.

      • A customer from Farnborough
  • News and features

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    Vertigo

    The Imaginarium of Terry Gilliam

    • 13 Oct 2009

    Read more

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Rating breakdown

42,671 Member ratings
  • 100
1,534
  • 90
2,011
  • 80
4,438
  • 70
6,057
  • 60
8,975
  • 50
6,347
  • 40
5,441
  • 30
3,602
  • 20
2,809
  • 10
1,457

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