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Movies / On DVD / 12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys

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12 Monkeys (1995)

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Reviews Counted:48

Fresh:41

Rotten:7

Average Rating:7.2/10

Consensus: The plot's a bit of a jumble, but excellent performances and mind-blowing plot twists make 12 Monkeys a kooky, effective experience.

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis: In this intriguing science fiction film from director Terry Gilliam, penal colony prisoner James Cole must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five... In this intriguing science fiction film from director Terry Gilliam, penal colony prisoner James Cole must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five billion people in 1997. Cole's trip into the past won't be easy. For starters, he winds up in the wrong year on his first attempt. Once, as he time-travels, Cole ends up a prisoner in an insane asylum in 1990. There, he meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly and inmate Jeffrey Goines, who could hold the key to the epidemic's spread. Cole later winds up in the middle of a World War I battlefield. After meeting James for a second time, in another year, Dr. Railly gets further involved in his quest. Although she thinks at first that Cole must be crazy, Kathryn soon starts to believe him and attempts to help. But James has already started to question his own sanity and tries to figure out if his journeys through time are real or if he's just been imagining everything. [More]

Starring: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer

Starring: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer

Director: Terry Gilliam

Director: Terry Gilliam
Producer: Charles Roven
Composer: Paul Buckmaster

[See More Credits]

Reviews for 12 Monkeys

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21 - 40 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

The acting is good, and the visuals are sharp. But at two hours long, they should have just settled for six monkeys.

Full Review Source: Film Scouts | comment 1 Comment
04/17/02
Leslie Rigoulot
Leslie Rigoulot
Film Scouts

Bruce Willis, in an eruptive performance of startling emotional intensity, stars as Cole, a prisoner tagged for an experiment that may get him killed.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
05/12/01
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The whole scope of 12 Moneys is completely insane, often confusing, sometimes almost unintelligible; but somehow at the end it all comes together and everything makes sense if you look at it closely enough.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
02/27/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Mystifying, intriguing, even infuriating, it shows what happens when an unconventional talent meets straightforward material.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/13/01
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Willis and Pitts's performances, Gilliam's atmospherics and an exhilarating momentum easily outweigh such trifling flaws.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
02/13/01
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post

One of the qualities that makes 12 Monkeys so good is the fact that it is almost too complicated to explain.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
Barbara Shulgasser
Barbara Shulgasser
San Francisco Examiner

I'm pleased beyond words to find a movie that cares deeply for its characters even as they fall under the wheels of destiny, instead of killing them just to be clever.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

Aside from his trademark visual style, Gilliam generally handles the chaos he depicts quite well, and he's come up with a marvelous cast.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Despite my beef with the interminable convolutions of 12 Monkeys, the film has one major thing going for it: put simply, it's very, very cool.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

A consistently engaging motion picture.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

It has a story -- and a good one at that -- with characters one cares about and isn't just a flashy display of what today's special effects teams are capable of. Anybody out there in Hollywood listening to any of this?

Full Review Source: Sci-Fi Movie Page | comment Comment
01/01/00
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page

This is action movie-making at its most suave.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
01/01/00
Joe Baltake
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee

In some ways, 12 Monkeys is the end-of-the-world thriller that Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days wanted to be.

comment Comment
01/01/00
John Hartl
John Hartl
Film.com

At one point Cole says that viewing the past is like watching a good movie, 'Every time you see it it's different, because you're different.' 12 Monkeys is a film that will do that, change as you change.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Keith Simanton
Keith Simanton
Film.com

An intoxicating blend of existential SF and unrequited romance.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Kim Williamson
Kim Williamson
Boxoffice Magazine

The sort of movie that disappears on you as soon as you leave the theatre, but it's a great ride while you're there.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

The film is intelligently written, and deserves more than its guaranteed cult-film status.

Full Review Source: Cinematter | comment Comment
01/01/00
Madeleine Williams
Madeleine Williams
Cinematter

A pretentious and self-indulgent piece of oppressive and cheerless filmmaking, but for mavens of time travel stories it delivers the goods.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Mark R. Leeper
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews

A potent glimpse of doom with a jarringly familiar ring.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Peter Stack
Peter Stack
San Francisco Chronicle

In its frantic mix of chaos, carnage and zoo animals, 12 Monkeys is Jumanji for adults.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment 3 Comments
01/01/00
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
21 - 40 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 >> >|
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