{"id":528,"date":"2017-08-08T16:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T22:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=528"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:41:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:41:07","slug":"movie-time-bandits-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/movie-time-bandits-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Time Bandits (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/8\/82\/Time_bandits.jpg\/220px-Time_bandits.jpg\" alt=\"Time Bandits\" width=\"220\" height=\"345\" \/>Time Bandits<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1981<br \/>\nRating: PG<br \/>\nLength: 110 minutes \/ 1.83 hours<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s one thing Terry Gilliam\u2019s films are known for, it\u2019s their imaginative visuals. In a time before CGI was prevalent, the practical and model effects certainly made his films distinctive, especially in the fantasy genre. That being said, one of his earliest films, <em>Time Bandits<\/em> (1981) was quickly outclassed, not only by Gilliam himself but by other films as well. While <em>Time Bandits<\/em> is a cute little story about traveling through time, it is precisely that: little story. Even with the spectacular visuals, the plot seemed to be quite lacking, almost as an afterthought to how many interesting set pieces could cram into one film.<\/p>\n<p>I will admit that <em>Time Bandits<\/em> was ahead of its time, but I wouldn\u2019t consider it better than films that came after it. If you want plenty of imaginative fantasy effects, look no further than <em>Labyrinth<\/em> (1986). A series of time-travel vignettes? Then <em>Bill and Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure<\/em> (1989) is for you. A child\u2019s adventure in a fantasy world? Try <em>The NeverEnding Story<\/em> (1984). Sure, <em>Time Bandits<\/em> pre-dated all of them, but I don\u2019t think it necessarily influenced them directly since the 1980\u2019s was a bit of a golden age of these types of movies.<\/p>\n<p>In watching this film, I could tell the absurdity and sketch-comedy style of the Monty Python days remained in Gilliam\u2019s filmmaking. By 1985, and the brilliance that is <em>Brazil<\/em> (the correctly cut version, that is), Gilliam certainly began to show his development as a director. In the 1990\u2019s, he certainly hit his stride with such films as <em>The Fisher King<\/em> (1991), <em>12 Monkeys<\/em> (1995), and <em>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/em> (1998). As it stands, <em>Time Bandits<\/em> is a visually entertaining piece that shows the transition of Terry Gilliam\u2019s filmmaking from absurdist fantasy to a mind-bending social commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy on practical special effects and light on plot, I give <em>Time Bandits<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h1><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/strong><strong>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/strong><strong>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time Bandits Year: 1981 Rating: PG Length: 110 minutes \/ 1.83 hours If there\u2019s one thing Terry Gilliam\u2019s films are known for, it\u2019s their imaginative visuals. In a time before CGI was prevalent, the practical and model effects certainly made his films distinctive, especially in the fantasy genre. That being said, one of his earliest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2],"tags":[677,668,673,671,678,672,679,13,8,669,676,675,670,674],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-movie","tag-12-mokeys","tag-668","tag-bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure","tag-brazil","tag-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas","tag-labyrinth","tag-monty-python","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-terry-gilliam","tag-the-fisher-king","tag-the-neverending-story","tag-time-bandits","tag-time-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}