The Brothers Grimm

Perfect material, you might think, for Terry Gilliam's brain of perpetual invention. But despite occasional flashes of dark genius, he hasn't laid a golden egg.

The Brothers Grimm has enough haunting, fairy-tale imagery for 10 movies, but no emotional kick to drive those images home.

It's kind of cold and it's kind of a mess, but I thought it was a glorious mess and it looks so great and it is so interesting and there is so much going on that I have to recommend it on a very mild level.

It's easy to sense the allure this fantastic project held for Gilliam, but it's hard to imagine the outcome is anything like his early expectations.

Only a cinematic genius like Terry Gilliam could make an unqualified masterful mess like the long-delayed fantastical adventure The Brothers Grimm and still come out looking brilliant.

A welcome change from the bland remakes and sequels that have cluttered up the multi-plexes this summer.

Gilliam's feverish and fabulous visions for what he hopes to capture on film seem impractical and a little mad at times.

Wide-eyed, messy, lustrous, rich with enchantment, both giddy and perverse

The only redeeming feature is the hope that [director Terry Gilliam's] salary from The Brothers Grimm,/i> will help him set up a good, old-fashioned Gilliam film, in the tradition of his excellent early work.