Product Description

Madeline Stowe, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, Frank GorshinDirector: Terry Gilliam

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3412 in DVD
• Brand: Blu-ray Science Fiction
• Released on: 2009-09-07
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 129 minutes

Synopsis
When a man enters a hospital claiming to have journeyed back in time from the year 2025 to stop a killer virus from exterminating mankind, a beautiful psychologist decides he might be more than delusional. Terry Gilliam populates this labyrinthine, apocalyptic film with twisted characters and eerie revelations. The film was shot primarily in Philadelphia; Gilliam uses the more dilapidated area of the city to the film's apocalyptic advantage. The film is based on the 1962 French short film LA JETEE. The Signature Laserdisc includes a feature on the film's making.

Customer Reviews

Softy, softy catchy monkey
A sort of forgotten Sci-Fi gem that for some reason never gets mentioned on their portfolio hot list, and I'm talking about both Willis and Pitt. I suppose it just shows how many other great films they've done. But miss this, it's your loss.

An ultra complicated yarn which includes the future, a virus that ends mankind, time travel and the abovementioned 12 Monkeys - which is the secret to it all.

Bruce is a criminal who is sent back to '96 (When this was made, that was ironically real time future) to try and find out how the virus began. Pooey for him he ends up in a nut house because of his psychobabble, but on doing, does meet an interesting character who may be more important than he seems.
Now if you thought Brad Pitt is where is he is because of his six pack and square jaw, check this out to see what a good actor he is, before he was too cool for school in stuff like Oceans 11, 12 & 13 etc, films like this and Seven were what he was up to...Now I mention it, what is it with him and films with numbers in? Another - Seven Years in Tibet? Odd.

Anyway, don't try to watch when feeling a little docile because it is a real thinker, flashback after flashback, time travel conundrums and cast based in a mental asylum is where the sense you're going to have to make of this is, but it's well worth it.

Essential purchase if you're a fan...
The DVD release of this film was shoddy to say the least with it's non anamorphic transfer, and forced black bars over a 4:3 image. Still doesn't make sense to me.

The Blu Ray is a welcome upgrade. The film has never looked better - i said that in my last BR review, but i think that's all we're interested in is it not? Whether it's worth buying in the new format? Well i think it is, no question.

Don't forget that this wasn't exactly filmed in HD, and director Terry Gilliam intended certain shots to be softly focused to heighten the sense of disorientation and uncertainty.

Basically, all you can do is sharpen and clean up what's already there, and the picture looks far superior to the DVD release.

The aspect ratio has been corrected too, so for me, this is a worthwhile purchase.

Great film, don't expect much from the transfer
A fantastic but sorely underrated film with possibly both Bruce Willis' and Brad Pitt's best acting performances. A typically complex Gilliam piece of film making, Twelve Monkeys really pulls you in and keeps you guessing until the end. Don't expect too much from the blu-ray transfer though, the film is deliberately grainy and softly focussed. Based on the US blu-ray, oddly the aspect ratio is off for the first few scenes, with black lines both vertically and horizontally. I'd say a DVD player with decent 1080p upscaling would look just as good. 5 stars for the film, 2 stars for the blu-ray (no real extras of note above the existing DVD).