Brothers Grimm

[furtech]

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Well, the name on the ticket pretty much says it all. Elayne summed it up nicely: too much action, not enough fairy tale. This was a typical Terry Gilliam film in that the visuals were pretty but the characterizations flat. In this case, unfortunately, there weren't ground-breaking visuals (like "Brazil" and "Time Bandits"); "The Company of Wolves" did the fantasy-forest much better and "Legend" and "Labrynth" did effects more effectively. The wolf was cg and all right: at least he played a larger role than just leap, get killed and done.

As with most Gilliam films, the characters don't change and there is very little to like about them from the beginning: they are whiney and bickery throughout. Gilliam creates stories where the characters don't change, but the world's perception of them -does-. Typical: in the beginning, the world thinks these guys are idiots or crazy; by the end of the film his world sees them as heroes: ie, the world's perception changes, not the characters.

There were so many points in the film where the characters could have been fleshed out and developed; yet the director chose to pander to what studios believe the current audience wants: non-stop action and explosions. This film tried too hard to be an action-thriller film and totally missed the intimacy and calm that makes fairy tales ever-lasting. For instance, the wolf would have been a good point to bring that atmosphere around, add some tenderness to the film-- instead, the moment is lost as they go back to eye-jerking action. As well, the antagonist(s) were good points to develop character. Instead, all were pretty flat, typical "evil" characters. Yawn. Very un-Gilliam, even for him.

Still, I feel it was money decently spent; this wasn't the total loss that "The Cave" was. Blargh. The latter was -barely- SciFi Channel Horror Afternoon fare! If you like Gilliam or are just desperate for a movie, this was at least fun and had some nice visuals. I'd give it a $4 or $5 on my scale of "How much I would have paid to see this movie."

"Crimson City" by Liz Maverick
I'm not sure if I love or hate romance novels with werewolves in them. On the one hand, at least they have werewolves in them; on the other, the werewolves are usually either the generic mindless killing machines (replace with Freddy or a rabid bear or psychotic serial killer) or wimpy guys with issues. One new series, "2176", is particularly vexing. Set in a future where we have humans vs vampires vs werewolves trying to live together in a Balkanized world, it's basically a rip-off of Underworld/Werewolf:The Apocalypse if this novel is any indication. This is primarily a rip-off of "Underground": The werewolves are grimey and live underground; the vampires are fabulously rich and elegant and live in opulant high-rises and fly a lot. Funny/ironic that this is as much a rip-off of "Underground" as Underground was a rip-off of W:TA.

If you liked Underground, you'll enjoy this book. The werewolves only play a minor role, unfortunately. And it's clear the author can't write fight scenes and violence: too many "She turned and screamed" cut to "...the room was a mess: blood and gore everywhere" type scenerios. What little action there was the author lifted from other films...Underground and bad horror films in particular (you can almost name each film she lifted from). Hell, she didn't even create original characters: they're ALL archetypes of cop and horror movies! And I think she read the DC/Vertigo comic series, "Fables". Several of the characters seem directly ripped off from that series (particularly Bigby Wolf). The feel of the world seems familiar, too. The characters make dopey romance-novel decisions that would make young boys go, "Ewww...gross. That's so stupid!"

And yet...I'll probably read other books in the series: it's a quick, light read with no sense of commitment. You can read it, put it down half-read, and never finish and still have been entertained while you read. Part of that may be due to all the loose ends that this book has: in hindsight, the interesting red-herrings are never resolved and reading to the end doesn't satisfy any curiousity (in fact, there's no compelling reason not to peek at the end of the book...).