A possibly deranged baron and a little girl embark on a lavish
adventure to rescue her hometown from a Turkish invasion. COMEDY/FANTASY
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The Adventures of
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Terry Gilliam is the kind of filmmaker you either adore or despise. He's directed some of my all-time favorite movies (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Time Bandits, The Brothers Grimm), but he's definitely an acquired taste. Baron Munchausen isn't perfect, and it can be a bit of a snooze. It's not even funny, if I'm being brutally honest. But there's something charming about it. Like Monty Python meets The Odyssey. The performances are all fantastic, as well, and it looks remarkable. If it had had a tighter script, I'd be singing the film's praises right about now.
John Neville plays the incomparable dashing hero Baron Munchausen, who is irked when he stumbles onto a stage play about him that makes him look a fool. In the midst of a Turkish invasion he inadvertently caused, the Baron decides to get his old crew back together and save the town. A little girl named Sally (Polley) hitches a ride and helps the Baron, as they travel to the Moon (where Robin Williams has an uncredited cameo as the King of the Universe), end up in a volcano with the Roman god Vulcan (played perfectly by Oliver Reed), and finally in the bowels of a giant fish before making their escape. It's delightfully over-the-top, but regrettably boring and overly long for the most part. I had high hopes, being a Python fan and a Gilliam fan (mostly), but The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is just okay. I don't think it's lasted as one of his best, mostly because it's hard to follow and lasts about a half hour too long. |