Watch The Brothers Grimm For Free

i must have seen a different film!!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Exactly what am I enduring here? Can somebody tell me who gave birth to this?"As in other Gilliam projects, this production was subject to a difficult birthing process, taking two years to complete, and having its release date pushed further and further back. When will it dawn on both the studios, and Gilliam himself, that his skills are far better suited to employment within art direction rather than sitting in the director's chair. No one can doubt that visually his movies are always resplendent. Yet, he often misjudges pace, and fails to attend to directing his cast to refine their performances. Overall, his movies can, and in this case certainly does, descend into cheap vaudeville comedy. The sole fact of his close proximity to the writing members of the Python team has not endowed him with their creative ability in terms of comedy, with many of the supposed jokes embedded within the script being nothing more than simple buffoonery. Much of the blame for the film's deficiencies have been lain at the door of the original scriptwriter, Ehren Kruger, and studio interference. Yet, Gilliam must be held to account for the rewrite he undertook - he and fellow co-writer, Tony Grisoni, (who had written the screenplay for Gilliam's last movie, 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas') having to be credited as 'Dress Pattern Makers' to avoid problems with the 'Writers Guild of America' - with a treatment which completely detracts from any of the dread and mystery of the original tales of the eponymous brothers. The premise behind the screenplay could have held great promise in the hands of a director who could have dissuaded members of the cast from treading the pantomime boards, and from adopting accents worthy of the worst of television comedy serials. In this film, the fairy-tale authors are recast as travelling con-artists playing on the suspicions of the rural indigenous population of French-occupied Germany at the end of the eighteenth century. The elder brother, Will, played with a strained British accent by Matt Damon, is an unapologetic pragmatist and ladies-man, while his younger brother, Jacob is a reserved bookish dreamer. In fulfilling the latter role, Heath Ledger, plays a nervy mumbling character who becomes a source of irritation, leaving many of his contributions indecipherable. One wonders if both would have been better served had they not jointly appealed to take on the role originally intended for their fellow co-star. The brothers are arrested and offered reprieve from the guillotine if they agree to unmask those responsible for a series of child disappearances within the nearby Black Forest. The French general who charges them with this mission is played by Jonathan Pryce, whose appalling French accent merely serves to reconfirm to this reviewer his true worth as an overrated ham. Meanwhile, Peter Stormare's agent should have really tried to dissuade him from adding his pantomime Italian sidekick to his CV. The only members of the cast to emerge with any credibility are the female contingent in Lena Headley, as the disinterested romantic interest for the brothers, and Monica Belluci, truly worthy of the epithet 'the fairest of them all'. In attempting to discover a rationale cause behind the disappearances, the brothers are forced to reassess their belief in sorcery and magic, while Jacob notes down much of what they witness serving as the germination for many of the Grimm's famous tales. As such, the plot is littered with clumsy attempts to incorporate as many of the tales' characters as possible, leading to ever more surreal and ludicrous inventions. The worst of these has to be the appearance of a gingerbread man, evidently made of mud, the CGI for which would suggest that this character was left on the cutting floor of a very early forerunner for 'Ghostbusters'. Though, the appearance of Damon and Ledger in frilly frocks 'a la Terry Jones' to incorporate reference to Cinderella runs it a close second. The final twenty minutes to half an hour rescue the production when the antics give way to the Belluci story-line which has the necessary Gothic atmosphere so lacking in the rest of the running time. This not only displays the undoubted talents of cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel but also the finer pieces of the film's score from Dario Marianelli.

This was without a doubt an interesting spin on the story of The Grimm brothers with the added quirks and usual strangeness produced by Terry Gilliam. The movie is basically a fictional fantasy about Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm who were two real life brothers that brought nearly every fairytale that we know out of the folklore of nations and into popular knowledge during the 1800's. The film had a lot of big names like Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Peter Stormare, Jonathan Pryce (a Gilliam favorite from Brazil), Monica Bellucci, and Lena Headey. With that being said though, this was not a big movie. While the characters and bizarreness kept it somewhat entertaining, the film overall was a mess. With some unexplainable happenings and undecipherable dialogue a lot of the movie seemed to be in a state of confusion and mass chaos. Let's not even mention the graphics and effects. This movie is currently ten years old (which is hard to believe) and obviously cgi and other technologies have been drastically improved, but I think these are awful for the time period (even without considering aging). The quality was not even close to other Terry Gilliam films I have seen and it was quite disappointing.

I personally believe this movie is a bit underrated, criticized harshly and unfairly. The Brothers Grimm is quite entertaining - yes it has flaws but so do many films. It is not a perfect movie but it's a pretty good fantasy adventure.What I did not like about this movie: The Mudd Monster (or whatever it was suppose to be) that was just too much for my taste. And I did not like the literal shattering of the wicked queen witch at the end of the film... the shattering mirror yes, queen no.What I did like about the film: Everything else. The story was fun. The acting is good. But my favorite part is the visuals - it is visually stimulating (costumes, sets, cinematography, and the action).Like others that have reviewed this film: I too was reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean when watched The Brothers Grimm. Hidlick and Bunst reminded me a lot of Pintel and Ragetti. Lena Headey as Angelika is much like Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann. The French Army is reminiscent of The Royal Navy.Interesting enough, the Wiki says that Gilliam's first choice for the role of Will Grimm was Johnny Depp. Which is odd since the movie (BG) reminds me of PotC just a little bit. Brothers Grimm is nothing like Pirates of the Caribbean in any way - just some of the characters reminds me of the PotC in a roundabout way.All in all it's a pretty good fantasy film.8.5/10

This movie was a mistake ... a mistake by the studio to give Gilliam a free hand and to have Ehren Kruger (whose normal specialties are Transformers sequels and shlock horror), and by the actors for agreeing to take part. It is dreadfully unwatchable and tasteless. It's like one of Monty Python's medieval sketches, drawn out to what seems like three hours and with zero humour. The actors mumble through their lines with accents more in place in 'Allo 'Allo. What passes for humour includes, (person A:) "I've soiled myself", (person B:) "Oh, I thought that was me", and a cat killed by being kicked into a revolving fan, then Jonathan Pryce licking the bloody remains that have been splattered on he face.It is an ugly, messy, tasteless piece of work, which I'm sorry I had the misfortune to sit through.