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12 Monkeys isn’t your standard post-apocalyptic time-traveling
flick. Though similar, in ways, to films such as Total Recall,
12 Monkeys is darker, stranger, and even more confusing.
Actually, most of the pieces do come together by the end, but
what kind of picture they create is still up in the air.
What it does show us is James Cole (Bruce Willis), a semi-psychotic,
imprisoned man living around the year 2030 in a world that’s
recovering from a plague that killed 5 billion people in 1997.
The makeshift government chooses James, for some strange reason,
to go back in time and discover where the plague originated. It
is believed that the plague started with a terrorist organization
called the 12 Monkeys, which is led by the fully psychotic Jeffrey
Goines (Brad Pitt). So James travels back in time and obtains
the support of psychologist Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) in
tracking down and stopping the 12 Monkeys.
What follows is a psychedelic romp though an insane asylum. Why
they sent James Cole to save the world instead of James Bond is
baffling. While he should have been making progress towards solving
the mystery, James spends more than half the time trying to get
a grip of himself. Willis does a good job at it though, and even
better is Brad Pitt who’s just plain fun to watch as a hyperactive
nutcase.
12 Monkeys is an enjoyable watch, simply for its weirdness
if nothing else. Through the acting, visuals, and mystifying story
line, it keeps you engaged till the end. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
seem to offer much when it gets there. 12 Monkeys wants
to soak in its own premise and never ventures out into telling
us anything beyond the fact that it’s presenting a clever
script.
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