Watch The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of 'Twelve Monkeys' For Free

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Gilliam is not a difficult man to understand. He's a painter, not a filmmaker, so he is all about scenes and richness of the moment. Everything has to be delivered now; there is no notion of building so that bigger things can be delivered. There's no long form conveyance, no structure at the scale of life: only powerful effect in the moment as if you were on a drug that erased most memory and all anticipative cognition.There's a place for this. Usually it isn't as the filmmaker. But there is a class of films where the inadequacy of the filmmaker is the point: his foibles becoming entangled with what we see on the screen. This was the case with "12 Monkeys" and it is the metastory of this film.Simply put, Bruce Willis' character has no idea what is real or not. He has no concept of narrative continuity. Everything reflects a past future, meaning no future.What he has is what he sees and he has no ability to project. As it happens, Gilliam gets entangled with this project in a way that messes with his life while bending the manner in which the story is told to reflect this quiet madness. So the way the film is broken is the point, and we have this here as the real story.Its pretty cool. You need to see the two together, plus the remarkable "la Jette"Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This documentary is included in full on the DVD of Twelve Monkeys that I have.It documents the difficulties encountered in trying to make a relatively un-Hollywood movie inside of the Hollywood system. It tells the story of how Twelve Monkeys got to be made under exceptional circumstances, and is very effective at conveying the frustrations and problems encountered in dealing with the various collaborators.Nevertheless, it remains light-hearted and candid, and is presented in the true off-beat style of Terry Gilliam. It also gives us a fascinating look at Terry Gilliam's unique style of filmmaking.Very interesting.

This documentary does a good job of showing the true face of the movie industry. It takes away all of the glamour and ease that many of general public attach to movie making.It is also put together exceptionally well. There are lots of shots that the existence of seems almost impossible.For those interested in what the film industry is really like - this is a very insightful documentary.

Rarely do you get to view the real behind the scenes of movie making. Most of the times these films are just lengthy pitches for the movie. The Hamster Factor tells its own story about the struggles of the director,producer, crew and less importantly the actors in bringing a finished product to the audience that will please everyone including the director who often has a separate and lofter vision than the producer.The balance is a delicate one, for if the audience isn't pleased then there will be no money for the next film.The only other memorable documentary of a movie that I can remember was the one by Mrs. Francis Ford Coppola documenting the making of Apocalypse Now. Wow! I considered it more dramatic than the movie.