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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 3497
Released: May 10, 2005 |
| Our Price: $5.99 |
| Used Price: $3.87 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée (which is included on the DVD Short 2: Dreams), 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. --Jeff Shannon
12 Monkeys (Special Edition) Reviews:
12 Monkeys 
2008-09-02 - Great sci-fi movie to watch. Bruce Willis does a great job playing the part, along with Brad Pitt also. Need to see movie.
Beware the Army of the 12 Monkeys
2008-08-26 - From his days with Monty Python to his visionary epic Brazil, Terry Gilliam has never been an ordinary filmmaker. His unique sense of style and his trademark absurdist humor can be found in all of his films. In 1995, he cemented his reputation as one of the most unconventional directors in America with his brilliant science fiction film, 12 Monkeys. 12 Monkeys is an apocalyptic, romantic, time travel adventure inspired by the French film, La Jetée, which was written by Chris Marker. However, Gilliam's film is entirely his own, a stunning masterpiece of contemporary cinema, and one of the most cleverly bizarre films ever made. The screenplay was written by David and Janet Peoples, who inject the story with an intimate humanistic quality, juxtaposing romance with an eerie atmosphere of impending disaster.
In the year 2035, James Cole (Bruce Willis) is a prisoner in a subterranean stronghold where the last survivors of a cataclysmic virus are held up. Their world is monitored by a panel of scientists who use the prisoners for mysterious experiments. Cole is selected to go up onto the Earth's desolate surface and collect life forms for the scientists to study. Upon his return to the underground prison, Cole is told that he's a candidate for an experiment, which if it were successful he would be given a full pardon. He is sent back in time to discover the source of the virus, but he arrives in the wrong year. After getting into a fight with police officers, Cole is sent to a rundown insane asylum where he befriends a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). He also meets a host of mentally dysfunctional patients, including a paranoid schizophrenic named Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) who spends most of his time watching cartoons, harassing other patients, and ranting about government conspiracies. Jeffrey helps Cole in an escape attempt, which ends with Cole being caught by the mental hospital's guards and being put into an isolation room, heavily restrained. He mysteriously disappears from the hospital and arrives back in the future. There, the scientists tell him that despite his failure he has been exceptionally useful. They ask him if he would be willing to go back and further investigate the 12 Monkeys... and Jeffrey Goines who may be involved with their formation. However Cole is sent, not only to the wrong time but the wrong place. He lands in Southern France, in the middle of WWI. He's shot in the leg before he vanishes into time.
Meanwhile, Kathryn Railly has been giving lectures on abnormal psychology and the theoretical "Cassandra complex", which states that some people suffer a mental disorder that makes them believe that they are clairvoyant, and knowledgeable of future catastrophes. After one of her lectures, she's ambushed by a strange man who wants her to drive him to Philadelphia. It's Cole and he's traced the origin of the virus to Jeffrey Goines and his billionaire virologist father. Kathryn convinces Cole that he's delusional, but then Cole's story is proven to be true when she discovers that the bullet she removed from his leg dates back to the first quarter of the 20th century. Now she must uncover the truth and help Cole to stop the spread of the virus, but nothing is what it appears to be.
The entire cast is superb. Bruce Willis delivers one of his most nuanced performances as Cole, creating a strong yet vulnerable man who must overcome his own fears of madness in order to save humanity. Madeleine Stowe gives a fascinating performance of a sane woman, who must call into question all of her long held beliefs, and face the insanity of the world around her. But the most memorable character is Jeffrey Goines, who is brought to by Brad Pitt in one of his most remarkable performances ever. He succeeds in making Goines sympathetic, funny, and completely manic. Not only does show off his underutilized versatility as an actor, Brad Pitt also gives us, the audience, access to the off kilter world in which the entire film unfolds. As for Gilliam's direction, 12 Monkeys proves that he's capable of making films that are not only humorous, but stark and profound as well. Ironically, the film's greatest flaw is also its greatest strength. As an audience, we are never explicitly told how the story ends. Sure, there are implications within the film, but there are so many different interpretations that one single idea feels constricting and limiting. Terry Gilliam's brilliance is that he doesn't dictate his story to the viewers; rather he allows them to discover its subtleties and secrets on their own, and then draw their own conclusions. It makes the film even more interesting to watch with a group of friends and everyone's perception of the ending is contrary. It's this idea of open interpretation that makes 12 Monkeys so timeless.
Also recommended:
Monty Python's Flying Circus: Terry Gilliam's Personal Best
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Jabberwocky
Time Bandits
Brazil
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Fisher King
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Worth watching for Brad's performance alone - and Bruce's naked butt 
2008-08-24 - I initially didn't want to watch this film, I'd heard things from other people, who'd found it quite difficult to follow, and yes, that did put me off. But after some persuasion (and the fact I always make my Dad watch my movies, and I rarely watch his), I decided to give it a go.
I did find that I really got into watching Twelve Monkeys, including working out stuff that my Dad hadn't worked out when he first saw it. (The first shot of the young boys eyes was so obviously Cole's character younger - but I worked it out cos it's a hideous cliché, that's always used.) I also noticed that the passage from The Book Of The Revelation is quoted twice, referring to seven golden vials filled with God's wrath. Kathryn says it in her lecture, and then the homeless guy also repeats it.
The story starts off in the future - the viewer is never given a set year, although it's mentioned that 1% of the population survived by the year 2035. So possibly, the viewers are left to make up their own minds that it could possibly be sometime after this. An unknown, lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. The survivors now live underground, and a convict called James Cole (Bruce Willis) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back tin time to 1996 to gather information about the source of the epidemic so scientists can study it. Mistakenly, Cole is sent back to 1990, where he is promptly locked up in a mental institution, and he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), who is also in the mental institution. He needs to find a group of people, calling themselves The Twelve Monkeys, who could possibly be releasing the virus in different cities. He also recurring dreams, which feature intermittantly throughout the movie, showing the viewer a bit more each time. What's really happening?
I found it incredibly difficult to watch Brad Pitt in this movie. His acting is incredible, but I just couldn't handle watching him. Apparently, to get him to act the way he did, he inititally sent him to a speech coach, and then took away his cigarettes. Very strange. And what was with the eyes? I didn't really notice them (I was focusing on something else), until it was pointed out, and then they gave me shivers up my spine. Yes, his acting is brilliant, the way he managed to do, but I really struggled with watching him, and a couple of times, had to look away from the screen.
The 'romance' between James & Kathryn didn't ring true for me. It happens all of a sudden - considering she hated him to begin with - and just seems totally unbelievable.
The different things that are explored in the movie, really got my brain buzzing, and I found it difficult to switch off after watching it - but I was still thinking about Brad's character too. Time travel is heavily the focus of the movie, and it's paradoxes - James kept seeing things in the future and the past, and I couldn't work out whether he was projecting these images or what. It also touches upon the subject of mental illness, reality, animal rights, and the technological advances which could bring about the end of the world.
There's always different things to watch out for during the movie, and I never found myself bored at any point, despite the running time of two hours. I did end up working out the ending, but thankfully not too soon. Cos that just would have been disappointing!
I really did enjoy watching this film, although needed something a bit light hearted to watch after it. The standout thing for me was Brad Pitt. I definitely came away from the film, thinking about his performance. And for the girls, we get to see Bruce Willis naked! From behind! A highlight of the movie.
Great strange movie
2008-08-22 - Sci-fi thriller. Bruce Willis does a great job. The end will blow you away.
Loved it at first......now, meh!!! 
2008-06-26 - I loved this movie when it first came out; I watched it again a few months ago.
I love the whole end of the world spin, but the animal rights garbage I can do without.
Brad Pitt is brilliant in this movie, too bad he's gotten so boring in recent years.
I dunno, it's just not a movie that really keeps my interest anymore.
The story is ok, the ending is great.
I would have given 12 Monkeys five stars when it first came out, I'm giving it three now.
There are better movies on this subject nowadays, I Am Legend being a five star example.
I recommend a rental.
