The Brothers Grimm (2005)

I am always prepared to cut Terry Gilliam a bit of slack since he perseveres in trying to get his singular visions onto the big screen, often against formidable obstacles.  However, this picture (on general release tomorrow) is more of a parson's egg than an outright success.  His take on the fabled brothers presents them as conmen tricking the locals out of their shekels by ridding them of non-existant spooks; Heath Ledger whom I have never much taken to previously does a good job of the more studious sibling who writes down the tales, while Matt Damon is the carefree amoral one.  So far, one doesn't mind Gilliam playing with the facts.  However when he introduces the villains played by Jonathan Pryce (doing a Peter Sellers Clouseau accent) and his idiotic Italian sidekick played by Peter Stormare, one quickly loses patience.  The story continues with our heroes being forced to solve the mystery of a wicked forest that has swallowed up a number of children as fodder for the 500-year-old Monica Bellucci to retain her youth.  It is here that Gilliam's rampant imagination is given full swing but at times to an over-the-top effect -- and if anything is guaranteed to put me off, it is close-ups of hundreds of creepy-crawlies to evoke fear.  An obvious fortune was spent on the special effects and I can't help but compare this to what "MirrorMask" accomplished at a fraction of the budget.