Time Bandits

Wasn't sure what to expect with this one, I find Gilliam movies either hit or miss with me. This one was certainly a hit, the effects are clearly a bit dated. Once you get about 15 minutes in it's very clear that this movie helped establish Gilliam's style as many of the traditional effects are very similar to Brazil and Munchausen.

Story is very creative and one hell of a ride, all of the little people did a pretty good job. Although, there were quiet a few non-P.C. little people gags that clearly wouldn't have been gotten away with today. Interesting that John Cleese got top billing and only appears for about 5 minutes...followed by Sean Connery (in a bad hairpiece) that gets about 10-15 minutes in screen time. Nice to also see a few other Python alumni scattered throughout.

My kids casually started watching and ended up being glued to it, I'm not sure if it's just the physical effects that they're not used to seeing in today's movies or just the whacky little people running around in some pretty damn creative set pieces....either way, that doesn't happen very often with movies this old. Only thing I would say is that like most of Gilliam's work, he believes that everything is gold and should be included (which I believe is his downfall at times) it probably could have been tightened up a bit, there were a few slow spots and didn't need to run almost 2 hours in length.

The Blu Ray left a lot to be desired. It looked good in parts, but there were a lot of flicks and specks throughout. Most of the digital effects were cleaned up nicely. Looked like it came off a tape master of sorts instead of a true transfer.

Overall, great movie on first time viewing. Not sure how well it'll hold up on repeats. Glad I picked it up and was certainly as good as people had said it was.