CARD SHARK'S REVIEW OF:
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1989)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I had always heard that this movie was a perfect companion piece to Time Bandits and Brazil, and after finally seeing it, I agree with that statement 100%. It has the same silly feel, and is set in a fantastical world of things that, at least from a physics standpoint, do not make sense. It is more of dream world than anything else in which anything can and does happen. In truth I am not really sure why I put off watching this movie for so long, but regardless the time to watch it had finally come.

ACTING

    JOHN NEVILLE stars in this movie as Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron Von Munchausen and he doesn't hold anything back. In the film he plays the role of a captain very well, and it is easy to see why his crew of merry men are literally willing to follow him to the moon and back. In fact he was so charismatic in the part that I wanted to join up as well.
    ERIC IDLE plays one of the Baron's merry men Berthold, he should be easy to spot as his the only familiar face of the bunch. Just like his face you also know exactly what to expect from an Eric Idle performance... that is if you are at all familiar with the Monty Python players. One thing you can say about Idle is that he always knows his role and plays it well.
    THE SUPPORTING CAST had a few big names sprinkled throughout the film, but out of all of these my favorite would have to be Robin Williams who makes an appearance as the Moon King. I think the reason I liked it so much was because he is the more silly version of Robin that we all know and love from the 80's. He may have been credited as Ray D. Tutto, and I'm sure that most of his lines were off script, but for some reason everything about the part just worked.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    TERRY GILLIAM directed this nice little piece of work. Gilliam definitely has his hardcore fans, and every once in awhile he can make a solid movie, but it's not very often that he can hit the smash button and make a truly good film. While I enjoyed the trip through the dream world, at several points I found myself disinterested. On a love it or hate it scale I would rank this film right between Time Bandits and Brazil, but if you liked either of those films you probably owe it to yourself to at least see this one too. I was a bit worried this movie would end up being another Tideland, but after watching it I am happy to report it is nowhere near that bad.
    CHARLES MCKEOWN and TERRY GILLIAM both worked on the script. The dialogue was decent and I liked how the narration made its way into the scenes in a great and fantastical way. The problem though is that nothing about the story itself, at least for me, really stood out as being noteworthy.

THE VERDICT

    At least to me, this movie ended being just average. I am glad I finally took the time to see it, but after watching it I can say with great certainty that I do not have any desire to own it, and it will also be very low on my "list of movies worth watching again". I have a sneaking suspicion this movie would be better on mushrooms... maybe... but without the aide of hallucinogens this movie felt pretty average
 
 

RATING: C

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