Time Bandits (1981)

The Worst Film Ever

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is a film with a massive heart. It engages both adults and children. I first watched this when I was 12, my brother was 9. We sat with our parents, all of us laughing and really engaging with the silliness and surprises throughout. It does rely on having a very British sense of humour, and anyone who gets Monty python will have no problem with this, but I would challenge anyone not to find the premise and execution of this film anything other than highly engaging.

Unhappy eleven-year-old boy Kevin (a fine and engaging performance by Craig Warnack) inadvertently joins up with a gang of mischievous dwarfs who possess a map that enables them to travel through time and happily plunder treasure from famous historical figures. Meanwhile, Evil (a splendidly sardonic portrayal by David Warner) plots to obtain the map so he can rule the universe.Director Terry Gilliam, who co-wrote the witty and creative script with Michael Palin, displays a tireless and positively infectious go-for-broke inventiveness that's quite a joy to behold from start to finish, keeps the wildly entertaining story moving along at a constant snappy pace, ably crafts and maintains a fairly dark, yet blithely irreverent tone, delivers an uproarious array of inspired wacky gags (for example, an ogre's ship turns out to be a hat on top of a giant's head), further provides wickedly spot-on satirical swipes at free will, mindless greed, technology run amok, shallow consumerism and materialism, and the necessity for evil to exist in the world, and tops everything off with a genuinely startling bleak ending.A slew of sharp cameos from a terrific assortment of big names qualifies as an additional delightful plus: Ian Holm as a neurotic and irritable Napoleon, Sean Connery as the kindly King Agamemnon, John Cleese as a cheerfully doltish and polite Robin Hood, a deliciously droll Ralph Richardson as the prim'n'proper Supreme Being, Peter Vaughan as an ogre with a bad back, Katherine Helmond as the ogre's doting wife, and Palin and Shelley Duvall as lovers both in the Middle Ages and on board the Titanic. Tiny Ross, Kenny Baker, Jack Purvis, Malcolm Dixon, Mike Edmonds, and especially David Rappaport as rascally leader Randall are all extremely personable as the dwarfs. A real treat.

From the mind of the man who brought us Monty Python, Terry Gilliam, comes the 1981 film Time Bandits. A misfit group of time travelers joined by a little boy bring to life eras in history with wonderful designs and detail. With cover art that is a brilliant mix of Dali and Kandinsky, Time Bandits is a film that has to be enjoyed at least once.Feeling increasingly more neglected by his technology-obsessed parents, Kevin (Craig Warnock) seeks solace alone, often tucked away in his room. One evening his room is crashed by a gang of misfit time travelers, international criminals (in training) who have stolen a map with all the time holes marked on it. These time holes will help them pop into a time period, steal whatever they wish, and jump into another time period before they can be caught. Along the way, Kevin runs into many of the people he has always read about in books during his alone time. Among those he meets are an endearing Robin Hood (John Cleese), the imposing King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and the ever self- conscious Napoleon (Ian Holm). Traveling with his new troupe brings about some danger and not just in their missions alone. As it turns out, the gang is also constantly jumping away from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) that they stole the map from in the first place. Time hopping was instrumental for Kevin to escape his ignored life at home, and finding just the right gang of misfits was more than he could ever imagine, and a group he didn't want to let go of.Time Bandits was a fun movie both for its plot, and production design. Each time in history that they jumped to was full of detail and thoroughly designed. I think of this movie as a good version of Forrest Gump. The group jumped around from time to time, yet maintained a story and was engaging. I doubt I will see this film too many more times, but it was a fun one to watch!

I would say for the most part, the entertainment(music, movies)that I enjoyed as kid I still like as an adult. Time Bandits, holds up way better than most and as time goes on, I actually appreciate the film more. Time Bandits has a lot going for it. It is a unique fantasy film that is intelligent, funny, well made and all around entertaining. This very unconventional adventure is carried well by young Craig Warnock who plays Kevin(who is very smart and grounds the film) and our most outstanding gang of little people who stole a map of creation from God, to go through time to rob history blind. This sets them on course to The Fortress Of Ultimate Darkness where Evil(played by the great David Warner) has his own plans for the map and plans to recreate the world in his image. Also John Cleese, Shelly Duvall and Sean Connery all appear in memorable, well used cameos. This came from the mind of genius Terry Gilliam who wrote this in a weekend and directed this as well. While this movie is appropriate entertainment for the whole family, it never comes across as cheesy or dumbed down. It is also very unpretentious, lighthearted and moves along quickly. Time Bandits holds up better than most and I have never seen anything else that is quite like it.