The Worst Film Ever

Simply A Masterpiece

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

OK, but not great. Plot is random. At first, this is good and provides several funny moments and pleasant turns. After a while though, it becomes chaotic, and the random turns seem like a desperate way to keep the movie going and pad out time. Reasonably fun though - kids will probably enjoy it. Also very funny at times and has some great Pythonesque moments (quite appropriate, for a movie written by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, directed by Gilliam, and starring Palin and John Cleese).Ultimately a bit disappointing as it had quite a lot of potential and started so well.

From the mind of the man who brought us Monty Python, Terry Gilliam, comes the 1981 film Time Bandits. A misfit group of time travelers joined by a little boy bring to life eras in history with wonderful designs and detail. With cover art that is a brilliant mix of Dali and Kandinsky, Time Bandits is a film that has to be enjoyed at least once.Feeling increasingly more neglected by his technology-obsessed parents, Kevin (Craig Warnock) seeks solace alone, often tucked away in his room. One evening his room is crashed by a gang of misfit time travelers, international criminals (in training) who have stolen a map with all the time holes marked on it. These time holes will help them pop into a time period, steal whatever they wish, and jump into another time period before they can be caught. Along the way, Kevin runs into many of the people he has always read about in books during his alone time. Among those he meets are an endearing Robin Hood (John Cleese), the imposing King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and the ever self- conscious Napoleon (Ian Holm). Traveling with his new troupe brings about some danger and not just in their missions alone. As it turns out, the gang is also constantly jumping away from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) that they stole the map from in the first place. Time hopping was instrumental for Kevin to escape his ignored life at home, and finding just the right gang of misfits was more than he could ever imagine, and a group he didn't want to let go of.Time Bandits was a fun movie both for its plot, and production design. Each time in history that they jumped to was full of detail and thoroughly designed. I think of this movie as a good version of Forrest Gump. The group jumped around from time to time, yet maintained a story and was engaging. I doubt I will see this film too many more times, but it was a fun one to watch!

I'm a huge fan of Terry Gilliam's unique visual storytelling style, and I can say that this has to be his most visually effective film. No expenses are spared as every frame is filled to the brim with opulent, period detailed, eye boggling set design and special effects. Moreover, this being released in 1981, all of the effects are of the old fashioned, practical variety, which take much more work than cgi and the payoff is enormous. Gilliam's films are somewhat hit and miss, but I consider this to be a tremendous success, enrapturing and exciting from beginning to end, if not for a few overly silly bits, but you can expect at least a few loopy touches from the creators of Monty Python.Kevin, a smart young kid, is hijacked by a sextet of sassy time travelling dwarfs on the run from their employer, the Supreme Being (a delightfully droll Ralph Richardson), and taken on a madcap odyssey across a network of portals, each leading to a different era in history. Along the way they encounter the Evil Genius (David Warner having a ball in devilish rockstar steampunk getup), intent on stealing their time leaping secrets and unleashing his nefarious plan on the universe.Time Bandits is a sweeping, wholly immersing, visually striking, phenomenally entertaining film that never panders to a young audience by shying away from dark or ominous tones, and always maintains its rip roaring momentum. Gilliam at his finest.

A young boy accidentally joins a band of dwarfs as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal.Upon my first viewing, I didn't much care for this film. Not sure why, but it definitely did not appeal to me. Even with all the Monty Python folks involved (including John Cleese as Robin Hood), I wasn't sold.On second viewing, I love it. The costumes, the characters... and with Blu-ray, the film looks better than ever before. There are some elements of fantasy similar to "Legend" or other films of the era, but executed better here and with that quirky sense that Gilliam had before he went mainstream.