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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
1998 | Comedy
A crazy, interesting ride
Since I am a huge Gilliam fan, I was excited to watch this film. From the very first frame you are sucked in to this unusual, sometimes hilarious, sometimes detestable adventure of two men doing drugs, booze women all while in Vegas for a convention.

Some of the movie doesn't make much sense, the voice over helps a little. The awkward situations the two men get into and some of the unique people they encounter are my favorite parts.

Maybe I lost some of the point since I have only seen it sober? Not sure about that.

I do know it was one of the most stolen and/or never returned films in the history of Hollywood Video.

  
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
2018 | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Terry Gilliam emerges victorious from his epic battle to the death with Miguel Cervantes' famous novel. Not quite the movie he famously never finished making with Johnny Depp, nearly twenty years ago, but a subtly different tale of a film director finding himself entangled in different versions of the Quixote story and, perhaps, looking for redemption.

After a slow and rambling start the film eventually becomes a charming, funny, and occasionally thrilling and moving adaptation (sort of) of the book - if it's picaresque and episodic, that's the nature of Quixote. The knowing wit and intelligence of the novel survive too. Strong performances, visually very impressive - the fact the film exists at all is remarkable, let alone that it's this good. Very reminiscent of Gilliam's movies from the 1980s: hugely imaginative, narratively chaotic, very individual, and equally easy to like.
  
Time Bandits (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
1981 | Fantasy, Sci-Fi

"When I was a kid, the ending of this movie, where Kevin’s parents touch pure evil and explode, scared the shit out of me. I know Brazil is technically the more mature of Terry Gilliam’s films, and yet this is the one I go back to again and again. I’ve watched it many, many times since then, and I still don’t understand how it works. Gilliam creates an entirely plausible alternate universe with its own unspoken internal rules. It’s nightmarish and yet taps into what every kid desires/fears . . . the need for life beyond the yoke of one’s family. That last moment—which I’m sure was just a goofy set joke—was my first taste of existentialism. It freaked me out. I still don’t cerebrally understand why that moment ends the film. And yet it somehow works. I have yet to introduce this film to my daughter. Not sure when/if I will."

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Jeff Bridges recommended Tideland (2006) in Movies (curated)

 
Tideland (2006)
Tideland (2006)
2006 | Drama, Sci-Fi

"Another movie that I’ll maybe bring some attention to… not one of, but I think the strangest movie that I’ve ever been involved with, with the strangest character was a Terry Gilliam movie called Tideland. And this one is really great. We had a wonderful time making it. You know, these big-budgeted movies… Fisher King was a pretty big-budget movie and Terry kind of goes after these big-budget things that need a lot of money to pull off what he has in mind. But this one was very low-tech and not a giant budget movie. We shot it in Canada and I play a junkie rock star in it for some of the film, and for a lot of the film, I’m a carcass, you know, a dead body. It’s based on a great book with the same title by Mitch Cullin, and very, very surreal. I’d even stretch it and say it’s the weirdest movie that Terry has ever made, for my tastes (although everyone’s got different tastes). But it’s macabre."

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Andy K (10821 KP) Jan 9, 2022

Fantastic film!

Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
1986 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Soviet-era comedy-SF resembles a high-speed collision between Mad Max and The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as directed by Terry Gilliam. Earthling Everymen are accidentally teleported to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of Pluk, where lower-caste citizens must wear bells in their noses, social status is determined by the colour of your trousers, and most of the local language translates as 'koo!' Can they persuade a couple of dodgy locals to help them get home?

Possibly a little bit slow and overlong, and many of the jokes are probably too understated, but the desolate alien world is well-realised on a low budget (special effects are sparingly used, but look good when they are) and the intricately ridiculous society of Pluk has been worked out in impressive detail. Hard to tell whether the satire is aimed at capitalist society or communist, but perhaps this is the point: life on Pluk may be unfair, arbitrary, and often unintelligible, but then isn't that true everywhere? Well-played, solidly scripted for the most part (end comes unravelled a bit), very watchable and entertaining.