Grade: D+ | Genre: Science Fiction Summary: "Care for a little necrophilia?" is just one of the gems you will hear in this outrageous futuristic drama by Terry Gilliam. This film is a mess from start to finish, though you do see flashes of Gilliam's brilliance that would resurface in much better pictures like the Fisher King and 12 Monkeys.

What can I say? I've missed our pal Terry over the last several years. He dazzled us the ground breaking 12 Monkeys in 1995 followed by the psychedelic acid trip of translating Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the screen. He's been quiet ever since. After hearing that he has a new feature coming out later this year (the Brothers Grimm featuring Matt Damon), I couldn't help but dig around in his back catalog to see what I could dust off to try on as new. Brazil looked just quirky enough to get my Gilliam fix. Had I only known what I was getting myself into, I would have queued up 12 Monkeys for the hundredth time instead.

Gilliam's version of the future, or perhaps the present in some bizarre alternate reality, seems a cross between Orwell's 1984 and Blade Runner. The government is run by an information society that keeps tabs on all of its citizens. They print out arrest reports to go track down criminals. What are their crimes? Well that part is kind of glossed over. The foundation of the whole film rests on a dead fly that has swan dived into the collator to cause a Tuttle to become a Buttle. The result is an innocent man is arrested and subsequently killed because of a typo.

Instead of Brazil, check out... The City of Lost Children 12 Monkeys Blade Runner A Clockwork Orange

Of course, Gilliam brings his Monty Python heritage onto the set to inject humor making this perhaps the goofiest futuristic escapade on record. The dark humor pervades every avenue of this picture and is probably its biggest assest. Whether it's stretching the silly putty facial skin of Mrs. Lowery or the fashion of women wearing boots as hats, the film not only takes the flier popped out to left field, it sets up camp there. Quirky isn't even the word for it. Robert DeNiro shows up here in a tiny role as a subversive HVAC superhero fighting the evil government authority one furnace at a time.

As for the ending, Gilliam just sort of gives up. One dream sequence crashes into the next unleashing the hounds of utter confusion to consume us. You are just tumbling trying to toss one bit out of your mind so you can process the next one. Any final shot this movie had of redemption just evaporates before our wondering eyes. Once we finally hit bottom, that exasperated expression of, "That's it! You put us through all that for...that!" takes over. Such a disappointing last gasp for such a painfully confusing movie.

Brazil has become a cult hit over the years so I'm sure there is a die-hard group of fans that will argue with me until they are blue in the face on the merits of this film. The Los Angeles Film Critics even hailed this as the best film of 1985. 1985 must have been a very slow year for filmmaking. While I admit that at times Brazil is a crafty, fresh look at the sci-fi drama, the story is horrible and the acting is so overblown to the point of ridiculousness. There were several points during this film I was asking myself, "why are you still watching this?" It would redeem itself for a second with one of Gilliam's clever touches, but it wouldn't be long until the question came knocking again. The small lily pads of pleasure aren't worth the suffering it takes to jump between them. Friggin' quads.

As an interesting tid bit to make you look clever during your next dinner party conversation, while filming Brazil, Gilliam "became so stressed that he temporarily lost the use of his legs, which only returned to normal several weeks later." (source: www.imdb.com)

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