{"id":9026,"date":"2018-08-21T17:45:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T21:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=9026"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:48:43","slug":"12-monkeys-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=9026","title":{"rendered":"12 Monkeys-1995"},"content":{"rendered":"

12 Monkeys-1995<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Terry Gilliam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #804<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed August 21, 2018<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruce Willis stars in a 1995 science-fiction thriller named 12 Monkeys that is sure to confuse even the keenest of viewers.<\/p>\n

With an impossible-to-follow plot (at least on a single watch), the film is quite novel and filled with edge nonetheless.<\/p>\n

With this film, Willis came into his own and proved to some naysayers that he is more versatile than a one-note action hero. He would develop even more as the years passed- think Sixth Sense (1999).<\/p>\n

If I may begin to summarize the complex plot, 12 Monkeys is a film about time travel (confusing enough) that traverses from the year 2035 to the year 1990, then to the year 1996, with a bevy of dreams or memories thrown in, but I am still not crystal clear on that.<\/p>\n

The time involved threw me for a loop, and I was not able to comprehend where things shifted to……or was part of it a memory possessed by Willis’s character as a little boy?<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, in 2035, James Cole (Willis) is a prisoner who is selected by “the powers that be” to go back in time to find a cure for a deadly virus that has wiped out a large part of the world.<\/p>\n

He is transported to 1990 instead of 1996 and ends up in a psychiatric hospital, where he meets the fanatical Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt).<\/p>\n

Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) appears in both the 1990 and 1996 stories as a respected psychiatrist and author. Both she and Goines become central to the plot, and the story twists and turns as events unfold.<\/p>\n

The intention to make Willis and Stowe a romantic couple did not seem to quite work at first, but their chemistry grew on me.<\/p>\n

The duo never received a “happily ever after” finale as they deserved, nor was their troubled romance ever fully realized, to say nothing of consummated.<\/p>\n

The flirtation and bond they share felt more like a tease than anything else, or rather, having two Hollywood heavyweights forge some sort of romance.<\/p>\n

Regardless, “romance” did not seem to be the point of this film.<\/p>\n

Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for the film. While he provides a quirky, showy, multirole (or multi-personality) performance, complete with tics resembling those of a Tourette’s syndrome patient, the role is not one of his best.<\/p>\n

At this time (1995), Pitt was a rising star, and the recognition helped him tremendously. But he seems slightly overacted, making the character too over-the-top.<\/p>\n

I much prefer his more subdued work in Seven (released the same year), or future roles in Babel (2006) and Moneyball (2011).<\/p>\n

Appealing in parts are the frequent exterior shots of the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the film is set.<\/p>\n

Treats include the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the Eastern State Penitentiary filming locations, as well as numerous highway and bridge shots that add tons of authenticity.<\/p>\n

A major score for the film, and Alfred Hitchcock fans everywhere, is the incorporation of classic film clips, specifically the mysterious Vertigo (1958), into the story.<\/p>\n

As Kathryn and James camp out in a rustic movie theater and disguise themselves as different people, they watch a marathon of Hitchcock films (as evidenced by the many titles on the marquee).<\/p>\n

It’s clever that the characters James and Kathryn begin to mirror the actions of Vertigo’s Scottie and Judy.<\/p>\n

Blondes anyone?<\/p>\n

12 Monkeys (1995) does come together after the film as the dreams\/memories are laid out pretty clearly. As we have witnessed these sequences throughout, it leads to a semi-satisfying conclusion.<\/p>\n

A bit of a beautiful mess, the film has clever tidbits and is well-acted, and the bearing of both Willis’s and Pitt’s butts might get some additional viewers.<\/p>\n

I need to watch the film again to understand, perhaps, and connect all of the dots better.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Supporting Actor-Brad Pitt, Best Costume Design<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Monkeys-1995 Director Terry Gilliam Starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt Scott’s Review #804 Reviewed August 21, 2018 Grade: B+ Bruce Willis stars in a 1995 science-fiction thriller named 12 Monkeys that is sure to confuse even the keenest of viewers. With an impossible-to-follow plot (at least on a single watch), the film is … Continue reading 12 Monkeys-1995<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,103],"tags":[10208,1533,1789,5005,757,11584,11583,3265,1042,6120,11582],"class_list":["post-9026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1995-movie-reviews","category-scifi","tag-annie-golden","tag-brad-pitt","tag-bruce-willis","tag-christopher-meloni","tag-christopher-plummer","tag-david-morse","tag-frank-gorshin","tag-lisa-gay-hamilton","tag-madeleine-stowe","tag-matt-ross","tag-terry-gilliam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9026"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23336,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions\/23336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}