The Brothers Grimm

Note: This page was copied from the now deleted Awful Movies Wiki.

This movie will make you grim alright.

The Brothers Grimm is a Live-Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure Film created by Dimension Films and was released in August 26, 2005 in United States, November 4, 2005 in United Kingdom, and in November 11, 2005 in Czech Republic.

Summery

In a fantasist world of Stories, a sinister Witch known as the Mirror Queen is capturing young little girls to which they will release her from her prison, it's up to the Grimm Family to rescue them.

Why This Film Will Make You Grimm

1. This film insults many stories from the Brothers Grimm like Hansel & Gretel and Jack and the Beanstalk.
2. In a similar vain to the 2002 Scooby-Doo Live Action Film, the tone for The Brothers Grimm is horribly inconsistent, it feels way too kid-friendly to be a film for adults, and yet at the same time it has way too many dark/violent moments that could scare children, such as the infamous gingerbread man scene and the horse scene (more on those later).
3. Unlikable protagonists:
   1. Wilhelm Grimm(The older brother) is an extremely self-centered prick who thinks highly of himself and rips-off Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, he also acts like a total and utter dick to his younger brother as well as show no care for him, such as not given him the money after what happen when they were kids.
   2. Jacob Grimm(The younger brother), while more likable then his older brother, is a one-dimensional know-it-all who is also an idiot at times, one example is during the intro when their kids, seeing as he gets beans, instead of medicine to save their younger sister, Sister Grimm.
4. Some moments are drop out and are never talked about again, such example is the Protagonists' mother, she only appears in the intro of the film and is never talked about or even mentioned again.
5. General Vavarin Delatombe is a pointless character who does nothing more then be all "I'm the General and everyone has to do what I say" that had been done with much better characters previously, and for some strange reason randomly becomes the secondary villain as he wants to burn down the forest and kill the brothers for no-reason.
6. Whats probable the main issue with the film is the plot and the overall pacing, the protagonists CONSTANTLY screw around and/or get distracted by other things, rather then doing something as simple and very important as, you know, RESCUING THE CAPTURED GIRLS, and heck, even some of the other major/supporting characters doesn't seem too even care about rescuing the girls that have been captured by the Mirror Queen and do nothing but sit around though out a mass majority of the film, and when the characters DO finally have the brains to stop messing around and rescue the captured girls, that's not until during the climax against the witch, which is near the end of the film, which is un-excusable in an action film, much like how in FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, Pips and the Beetle Boys are too distracted by the carnival/human attractions to save the a baby animals that have been captured by the Poachers.
   1. One of the worst examples is after one of the girls gets captured by a horse that's possessed by the Mirror Queen, after it gets away, instead of looking around to find her, Mercurio Cavaldi instead instincts on blaming the Grimm Trio for what happen to one(out of a hundred by the way) of the guards, and tortures them!
7. Many gross-out and disgusting moments that can be too much(even for adult standers), such as the scene were Sister Grimm peels off skin of a meat/animal.
8. Angelika(the main female protagonist) doesn't do anything major other then be filler for the film and later on becomes a damsel-in-distress after she gets captured by a villain.
9. The supporting characters are no better and are very mean-spirited/unlikable, with the worst being Mercurio Cavaldi(the tritagonist), who is, without question, one of the single WORST characters in the whole film, he's extremely self-absorbed, never bothers to rescue the captured girls(you know, despite being the king's RIGHT-HANDED MAN) and consistently blames the brothers(and the main female protagonist) for something that they didn't do wrong, and even worst, he never gets punished for his actions, making him a Karma Houdini.
   1. Near the end of the film, while Mercurio Cavaldi does become a better character and helps the brothers save the captured girls, he never apologized for how he acted to them previously, making him even more shallow and unlikable than he already is.
10. The infamous scene during the torturer scene were Mercurio Cavaldi accidentally kicks a kitten into a saw blade were it gets grinded up ON-SCREEN, and, rather then the king arresting him, he CONGRATULATES Mercurio Cavaldi, comply ignoring the fact that he just killed a kitten. Granted it was an accident as stated earlyer, but still.
11. Many pointless filler, such as the torturer scene, which keep in mind, happens AFTER one of the girls gets captured by a possess horse as stated in the first tear of the #6 segment.
12. Inconsistent on who the main antagonist is, the main antagonist is the Mirror Queen, but there's also General Vavarin Delatombe who also becomes the secondary antagonist near the end of the film for no reason what-so-ever.
13. Despite being the main villain, the Mirror Queen does not appear until near the end of the film.
14. Somewhat poorly made effects that are utterly horrifying, even for 2005 standards, with the worst being the Tar Ginger Bread Man that appears after it captured one of the girls.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Angelika is likable.
2. The scene were both the Jacob and Angelika have a chat about bravery is well write.
3. There are a few funny moments.
4. The ending is heartwarming.

Reception

The Brothers Grimm received mixed-to-negative reviews by fans and critics alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 38% based on reviews from 182 critics, with an average score of 5.18/10. The site's consensus states: "The Brothers Grimm is full of beautiful imagery, but the story is labored and less than enchanting." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 36 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert called the film "an invention without pattern, chasing itself around the screen without finding a plot. The movie seems like a style in search of a purpose, with a story we might not care about."

Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote that "The Brothers Grimm looks terrific, yet it remains essentially inert. You keep waiting for something to happen and after a while your mind wanders from the hollow frenzy up there with all its filigrees and fretwork."

Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle felt "despite an appealing actor in each role, the entire cast comes across as repellent. Will and Jake Grimm are two guys in the woods, surrounded by computerized animals, putting audiences to sleep all over America."

Peter Travers, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, largely enjoyed The Brothers Grimm. He explained that "if you're a Gilliam junkie, as I am, you go with it, even when the script loses its shaky hold on coherence." Travers added, "even when Gilliam flies off the rails, his images stick with you."

Gene Seymour of Newsday called the film "a great compound of rip-snorting Gothic fantasy and Python-esque dark comedy".