Twelve Monkeys (1995)

In 7 words or less: Time travel with the standard twist

What's it all About? After an unknown virus decimates the human population, James Cole (Willis) is sent back in time in an attempt to discover clues about the cause of the epidemic. Unfortunately he is sent back too far into the past which has disastrous, aka predictable, repercussions. oooooo.

Best bits? Terry Gilliam stamps his look and feel all over this flick. Slightly off centre jaunty camera angles, crazy characters doing crazy things and moments of quasi comedy set against an apocalyptical backdrop. Typical Gilliam but it works. 

Did it make you think thoughts? Why do time travel flicks always feature a 'desolate' wronged future? People are always striving to put right what once went wrong (Wow, I must watch Quantum Leap again). Here, the opening premise is interestingly different enough though. Brucie is actually a convict and volunteers for the time travel expeditions, although I'm not sure it's ever explained why.  There's also no explanation of how the tech works but that doesn't prove to be a problem as the story moves along at a good clip.

Look at my funky time travel suit

From a promising start though it descends into the usual, 'I'm from the future', 'Don't be silly, you must be crazy, mental home for you my friend', etc. The twist, as with most time travel pics, is fairly obvious and kind of ruins the ending which is a shame.

I've always been a fan of Brad Pitt but his looney-toon nutjob is intensely annoying and not a good addition. Willis is solid and Madeline Stowe doesn't really do much except look good. Oh well.

I'm crazy, touched in head

Would you watch it again? I've seen it a couple of times now and I think that's about my limit.

Rating (out of 100%): Without the Gilliam style, this would be just another run of the mill sci-fi time jumping escapades. The Terry factor adds several points and means I give Twelve Monkeys a 4.5 x monkey dozen score of 54%