Product reviewsTwelve Monkeys (DVD, 1999)

great item thank you

great item thank you

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: musicmagpie

I am very happy with my purchase thank you

I am very happy with my purchase thank you

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: musicmagpie

Timeless

One of my favourite movies, and despite it's age, I still find it watchable, even though some of the special effects fall far short of what the modern viewer has grown up with.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: musicmagpie

Terry Gilliam - Cult Sci-Fi

This is the Terry Gilliam movie that gets the least attention. It is his best effort to date, though. 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' comes second. Then 'The Fisher King'. Then 'The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus'. 'Tideland' was OK. But '12 Monkeys' ... that's a movie ...

Cole (Bruce Willis) is living in the year 2035. He is one of only 1% of the Earth's population left living underground as the result of an airborne virus. The virus hit Earth in 1997. Now the surface of the Earth is once again ruled by animals. Scientists in 2035 send him back in time to collect samples and information. But they send him back to 1990 instead of 1997. During his 1990 venture he is captured and locked in a mental institution. Here he meets the stunning Dr Railly (Madeline Stowe). He attempts to warn her that the apocalypse is coming but she rightly considers him insane. He also meets an insane Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) who is an advocate for animal rights and similar causes. The scientists pull him back and the institution are left wondering how Cole could have escaped a locked and padded cell while in arm and leg constraints.

They play Cole a strange voice message than will lead him to the Army of the 12 Monkeys. The think the virus was initially released y this group. They then boost Cole back, to 1996 this time where he again runs into Dr Railly and Jeffrey (now out of the nut hatch). This time Cole and Railly hit the road and she discovers that Cole is right, that there is a plague coming. Cole meets up with Jose (John Seda) another time traveller who gives Cole a handgun and mission instructions. They also discover that Jeffrey Goins is the leader of the 'Army of the 12 Monkeys' and who has kidnapped his wealthy scientist father (Christopher Plummer).

But the 'Army of the 12 Monkeys' could just be a red herring. For Dr Peters is in the airport carrying a test tube filled with ...

'12 Monkeys' was a limited release that eventually outsold its original budget five times over. It was a major No. 1 hit at the box office and only gave way to 'From Dusk 'Till Dawn' and 'Black Sheep' at the time of their release. The film expertly executed and the actors put in convincing performances. '12 Monkeys' and 'Pulp Fiction' indeed proved that Bruce Willis could act beyond his action films and work with respected directors. Brad Pitt is hilarious as the looney tunes Monkey Man. He was producing high quality films even then including 'Se7en' and 'Sleepers'.

Genre: science fiction, low-budget (for a sci-fi film in Hollywood). Critical Response: Very Good + with 85% positive. Themes: Time and Space. Time Travel. Memory. Technology. Viruses and the Apocalypse.

Kooky. Fun. Intelligent. Weird. Brilliant.

Ghost
BookFiends.Read full review...

Twelve monkeys is ace!

(taken from BBC)
"In 1996, a virus kills five billion people. 40 years later, the underground survivors 'volunteer' convict James Cole (Willis) to travel back and study it. Time travel is no exact science and he's initially sent back to 1990, where he's certified insane, then to the trenches of the First World War.

By the time they get it right, he's already met two key figures: psychiatrist Dr Railly (Stowe) and fellow patient Jeffrey Goines (Pitt). Son of a prominent biochemist, Goines is suspect number one for spreading the disease, whilst Railly is the only person remotely sympathetic to Cole's delusional paranoia."

I loved this film- brilliant. If you like a suspense thriller this for you!Read full review...

Mind twisting excellence

Timetravel, futuristic setting mingled with hellish visions of decay and corruption of the past.

Excellently produced by all involved. With particular credit to the absolutely brilliant acting of Brad Pitt (who would have thought it - hes not just a pretty face) and the bizarre and yet compelling character played by Mr Bruce Willis

I saw this film late at night, from about half way through, and i was hooked.
I had no idea what it was called, all i knew was that it was bizarre but strangly fantastic. It had a host of great actors, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis Madeline Stowe to name a couple.

The very next day i hunted this film down. Having no info about it it was really hard, but i was determined.

So here in my hand i held this film Twelve Monkeys, not knowing what to expect i played my new DVD.....

It almost blew my mind away... it was so unusual and original. A real brain churner.

One of those classic films that is a must for everyone to see, but that is so special and obscure no one really has seen which just adds to its mystery

So if you like unusual, original nothing like this out there before films. Then this is definately for you!

Great actors, fantasticly brilliant screen play, and script, (by the genius that is Terry Gilliam).

It is hard to follow in some places, but bear with it, it all becomes clear, and it will be worth it in the end :)Read full review...

Morbid Mayhem...

A lone time traveller from the year 2035 must solve a riddle that may save his people... but it may also take him to the brink of madness. Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe and Brad Pitt star in this brilliant sci-fi masterpiece from Terry Gilliam. After the world's population is devastated by a killer virus, survivors must live in dark underground communities. Cole (Willis) "volunteers" to travel into the past to obtain a pure virus sample, thereby helping scientists develop a cure. Along the way, he crosses paths with a beautiful psychiatrist (Stowe) and a one-card-short-of-a-full-deck mental patient (Pitt). But the race is on, as Cole searches for The Army of the 12 Monkeys, a radical group linked to the deadly disease.

With unforgettable performances and imaginative special effects, 12 Monkeys is a modern-day classic laced with Gilliam's trademark wit and dazzling visual style.Read full review...

Clever Sci-Fi film

Twelve Monkeys is a clever Sci-Fi film. The people of the future send back Bruce Willis to try and find out what went wrong. They know a plague started with a group called the Twelve Monkeys.
Also stars Brad Pitt in an award winning role.Read full review...

twelve out of twelve

one of the best films ever made, vastly underrated
Terry Gilliam at his best,
Superb, acting from an A list cast that includes Bruce Willis,
Brad Pitt and Madalene Stowe,
Superb time travelling between mid nineties earth and a post
apocalyptic future and solving the task who or what was the army of the twelve monkey'sRead full review...

A Must See!

If you like any sci-fi type movie then Twelve Monkeys is one you have to see before you die...at least three times!
With a brilliant story line that keeps you guessing throughout, both Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt perform their roles so perfectly, with extra credit to Brad for some first-class acting, deserving of the golden globe for best supporting actor, which he won.
Considering it took only four months to film, they have managed to create a masterpiece.
Summed up in four words..."The Future is History"
Make sure you make the effort to see this one!
TTCRead full review...