AppsScraps Movie Reviews

Jul 9, 2008

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Release date: 8 December 1988 (West Germany)

This cult classic is now 20 years old and while a fiasco from start to finish and wildly over-budget, it did not diminish the directing status of ex-Monty Python member, Terry Gilliam. Based on a series of tall tales written by Rudolf Erich Raspe back in 1785 called Baron Münchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels, it starred gobs of talent in Neville Mariner (as the Baron), Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, a young Uma Thurman (as Venus), an even younger Sarah Polly, an over-the-top and very frustrating Robin Williams (as the King of the Moon), and heck, even Sting. They story is ... well ... a hodgepodge of fantasy travels and fairy tales with a sort of Wizard of Oz story within a story angle, and is far too complicated to due it justice here. The film is probably a love-it or hate-it sort of venture with this reviewer decidedly on the love-it angle (with the exception of the aggravating sojourn on the moon with Robin Williams doing his tired old shtick).

For the spectacle of it all and with kudos to Mariner for pulling it off, my rating 7 out of 10.

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