The Brothers Grimm (DVD)

Yet another poorly received film by critics this year was The Brothers Grimm, and it also falls into the category of "Movies I Had Not Yet Seen" up until now. So what is my first reaction? Well, this movie ain't half bad. Fairy tales, folklore, witches, crazy brothers, lovely ladies, bad CGI and crazy mud/gingerbread men... What more can a moviegoer ask for?

Directed by Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Grimm stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as our title characters, two brothers playing the roles of, well, con men. You see, these two sell themselves as protectors of the innocent from teh magical and mythical creatures that haunt theirs small villages. What the villagers don't know is that the creatures are fake, which enables the brothers to clean house and bring home a handsome fee for their "troubles". Unfortunately, this little role in society soon backfires when they come across a real fairy tale situation gone bad as little girls are disappearing left and right and a tall tower and a magical witch seem to be smack dab in the center of the controversy.

The witch I speak of is played by Monica Bellucci, who quite honestly is one of the most beautiful women in the world and gets the chance to prove it in her "mirror, mirror" bits, that is once those nails get clipped. She can be quite grotesque in this flick as well. Is Bellucci being beautiful critical to the story? Yes it is! So don't think I am avoiding the review. This witchy woman has been trapped in her tower for many years and her looks, love and the missing girls play a large part in her desired "reanimation".

So, with my enjoyment of this movie, why did other critics not like it? Well it isn't perfect. The complaint I heard most often was that it looked spectacular but it was a bit scattered. Our resident reviewer Laremy Legel even had the audacity to call it "boring". While I didn't think it was boring at all I can see where people might find it a bit disjointed and pieced together at times, the ending is a conversation in and of itself, but boring? I think Laremy was just having a bad day. If I was to try to nail down a reason why I enjoyed it and others didn't I would have to say it has to do with the fact that I saw it in the comfort of my own home rather than in a theater.

My belief is that so-so films are always better at home. There is just something about knowing that you didn't waste any more time than getting up and putting the movie in the DVD player compared to getting ready to go to the theater, driving there, paying for parking and waiting for the movie to start. When you go to the theater "so-so" doesn't exactly cut it, but at home it doesn't really bother as much. So am I saying this movie is good? Yeah, I liked it, but the special features are another story.

First off, listening to Terry Gilliam talk is like listening to a man describe oatmeal. It just isn't interesting because he doesn't seem interested. Okay, he can tell me something was exciting, but if it sounds like Ben Stein selling Visine I just don't care. So that rules out the audio commentary for me, sorry, I just couldn't make it through. Gilliam also chats it up over a decent bit of deleted scenes... if you watch them don't listen to him.

The other features are your usual making-of featurettes and goodies, no real surprises.

My advice is to rent this one first. I liked it and will probably watch it again, but since there are several conflicting opinions out there I think a rental is in order to ensure you are getting something you will watch more than once.