Wednesday 10 February 2016

The Greatest Movies of All Time - Twelve Monkeys

We all have one. That movie. That one movie we love more than any other. A movie we've seen more times than we can count. Then there are  those movies most people can agree are the greatest. Critics and movie goers alike will praise this films forever as being ground breaking, well made, well written, darn near perfect. On IMDB there are 250 of them. Listed in orders of rating from most loved. These films range in genre, budget, decade and country of origin. There are even quite a few children's films listed. I endevour to watch each and every one of them before I die. I've seen a good chunk of them of course. Some of them are personal favourites of mine and it did delight me to see my ultimate favourite film listed as well as the one I personally think is the greatest movie of all time. I will not be going in order because I do have to feel like watching something so I will begin with.....

Twelve Monkeys - 1995

Director - Terry Gilliam
Starring - Bruce WillisMadeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt

Listed quite low on the list, in the bottom 50ish is this cult classic. Often praise has included it's difficult to follow but very clever storyline and excellent acting. A tale of time travel and preventing the apocalypse. Bruce Willis stars as the convict, James Cole who is sent back in time to collect information about a deadly virus that has wiped out most of the population of the planet. Generally, not taken seriously and pegged as a crazed lune, Cole's frantic rants lands him in a mental institute and causes him to take desperate measures such as kidnap and murder.

This is a great movie, it's funny, clever, violent and overall a bloody good time. Willis is excellent as ever. The supporting cast are also worthy and Brad Pitt's performance is simply, genius. I'm far from a fan of Pitt in general but he nails it here. I enjoyed it's none linear story and even though I had the ending spoilt for my a long time ago, I really did enjoy it's build up and inevitably bleak ending.

It's shot beautifully and has a nice gritty feeling that many a film from the year 1995 particularly boasted.

There isn't a lot to say about classics like this. The chances are, I'm one of the few classic film lovers who haven't seen this one. It's a wonderful blend of dark humour, bleak setting and excellent acting solidifies its place on this list.