Lawbolisted Powerful

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Woodyanders Cowardly and dim-witted peasant Dennis Cooper (a likeable performance by Michael Palin) stumbles his blundering way into a situation in which he has to slay a ferocious monster that has been terrorizing a rundown medieval kingdom. Director/co-writer Terry Gilliam not only presents a grim, grungy, and rancidly unromantic evocation of the Middle Ages, but also delivers gobs of hideous gore, provides a wickedly funny satirical commentary on the evils of commerce and the dismal failure of bureaucracy (the local merchants want the beast to continue to live because they make more money off all of the people seeking refuge in the city!), and further spices things up with a deliciously twisted sense of pitch-black humor. Moreover, this film acquires considerable sardonic bite from the crafty way it savagely mocks standard notions about heroism and chivalry. The spirited acting by the enthusiastic cast rates as another substantial asset, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Max Wall as inept buffoon King Bruno the Questionable, Warren Mitchell as crude merchant Mr. Fishfinger, Deborah Fallender as a lovely, but hopelessly naïve princess, Jerold Wells as desperate beggar Wat Dabney, John Le Mesurier as the sharp-tongued Chamberlain Pesselewe, and Bernard Bresslaw as a hot-tempered landlord. Terry Jones makes a brief appearance as an ill-fated poacher while ubiquitous British bit player Fred Wood can be glimpsed as a bandit with a bushy beard. A delightfully subversive treat.

Sergeant_Tibbs Ah, the wonderful world of Terry Gilliam. Controlled chaos or just plain chaos? Jabberwocky is perhaps the one film buried deep in his filmography but it deserves to be unleashed and live among his most well known. Although it looks like its on a shoestring budget with most of its cheapness coming from the equipment rather than the production design, Gilliam still makes great use of his signature dutch angles to have it feel bursting with creativity. Rather than being a spoof or an all-out comedy, it's a tongue-in-cheek satire on these types of quest films, as a character is called Mr. Fishfinger and the biggest and best joke is that the protagonist doesn't even want the gorgeous princess. It's all entertainment, too silly to be thought-provoking or emotional. Although the jokes are funny, the momentum of the story needed some work. It sets up its concept early and then it doesn't pay it off until way too late in the game. It does kind of remind me that Gilliam has a very rigid formula for the stories of his films. Naive protagonist out of their depth, whacky side characters bouncing around them and a hectic journey of self- worth. Still, it seems his formula works even on the lowest of budgets.7/10

Electrified_Voltage This 1977 medieval comedy film, a largely extended version of Lewis Carroll's poem, "Jabberwocky", was the first full-length movie directed solely by Terry Gilliam, after years of working as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, and he has gone on to direct a number of others since this one. Like several of his other non-Python movies, this one features other members of the groundbreaking comedy team in the cast. The lead role in "Jabberwocky" is played by Michael Palin, and Terry Jones makes a brief appearance. The film also features a small role from Monty Python contributor (not an official Python) Neil Innes. I first this film a few years ago, and couldn't remember much from that viewing. Watching it a second time, I think it did improve somewhat, but not quite as much as I could have hoped.Set in the Dark Ages, a kingdom is terrorized the Jabberwock, a dangerous monster that kills humans! Dennis Cooper is a young cooper who lives in a village which has been left alone by this horrible creature. He is in love with Griselda Fishfinger, an obese young woman who also lives in this village, but she doesn't seem to be too interested in him. On his father's deathbed, the dying man disowns his son and does not leave him with any kind words. After this, Dennis decides to leave the village and go to the city to find a new job. He intends to return after he has made his fortune and is ready to marry Griselda. Unfortunately, the young former cooper doesn't know how much trouble he is headed for on this journey! When he arrives at the entrance of the enclosed city, where people are well aware of the Jabberwock, the guards refuse to let him in, since he has nothing to offer, but he soon manages to sneak in through another door, and is in for a lot of chaos inside as he meets many different residents of this city! This comedy adventure doesn't seem that promising around the beginning, with the narration and such, though there are some mildly amusing moments. It could be funnier, and the scene with Griselda scratching her rump is a part that stands out as unfunny to me (though I've certainly seen worse). The deathbed scene made me laugh, and other early scenes might have as well, even if they weren't big laughs. The part when Dennis first comes to the entrance of the city and meets the guards might be funnier than anything that comes before it in the film, and there were many more times when I laughed during my second viewing, with the way Dennis sneaks into the city and many chaotic things that then happen while he's there. However, I also found the story for "Jabberwocky" to be somewhat dull and tedious. The film can also be a little hard to follow at times, and maybe a bit too noisy as well. Unfortunately, the laughs are not quite consistent enough to completely make up for the severe flaws.This movie was made in between two hit Monty Python films, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian". Because of that and the fact that the director and lead actor were both members of that highly influential comedy troupe, it's obviously hard not to compare "Jabberwocky" to the work of Monty Python, even if it's not quite the same idea. Even after seeing it twice, I still can't say I think it's anywhere near as good as Python, as much as I know many would disagree. In my opinion, it could have used a little more focus and is fairly forgettable, even if I can remember a lot more of it after my second viewing than I could after my first. I remember within the next year or so after I first saw this film, I saw several other non-Monty Python movies from Terry Gilliam, including "Brazil" and "Twelve Monkeys", which are much more popular than this 1977 release, and I thought those two were much better. Some Python fans might dislike Gilliam's non-Python work in general, but if you're a fan of Gilliam as a filmmaker, then this film COULD be worth watching for some good laughs. I'll just say that you MIGHT not want to expect it to be one of his greatest films.

Steffi_P Jabberwocky is Terry Gilliam's first feature film where he has sole credit as director. Gilliam had up to this point made a career as an animator, actor and occasional co-director for the Monty Python comedy team. Co-writing the screenplay with another python, Michael Palin, who also stars, this marks the humble beginning of what was to be an impressive career as director in his own right.First off it's strange that Gilliam and Palin decided to have their first non-Python venture in a medieval setting, seeing as Monty Python's first and at the time only film (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) was also set in that period. Jabberwocky is a very different film, but there's still a problem with the setting because it looks unoriginal and invites comparisons with Holy Grail.Perhaps surprisingly the biggest deviation from Monty Python is the style of the comedy. The Pythons mostly relied upon long drawn out comedy dialogues - the African Swallow routine, the anarcho-syndicalist peasants etc. In Jabberwocky each joke is a stand-alone – one-liners, visual gags and most of all surreal and inventive ideas.The real trouble with the comedy in Jabberwocky is that it simply isn't very funny. Some jokes are nice but not laugh-out-loud funny, others are just cringeworthy. The actual attempts to be witty are appalling. The neat little ideas and odd ways of portraying things, while never hilarious are the only things that really sparkle comedy-wise. The knights, for example, are cumbersome, inhuman looking things that, after a duel, have to be serviced like cars.Jabberwocky's cast is a real treasury of British comedy acting, and not just the big names of the era either. There are a few older, respected figures like Max Wall and John Le Mesurier, alongside several rising stars such as John Bird and Gordon Kaye. Predictably, it is these supporting players who give us some of the best moments – Max Wall's king in particular practically steals the whole show.One of Jabberwocky's greatest strengths is in the way it looks. The cinematography is stunning. Using mostly natural light and candle light Gilliam works wonders, with scenes at one moment reminiscent of Renaissance painting, the next fully conjuring up the atmosphere of the English countryside on a damp and foggy morning (an effect achieved largely by filming in Wales, which is damp and foggy all the time). For a first time director (albeit one with plenty of "here-and-there" directing experience) Gilliam shows a good eye for shot composition and detail. This also has to be one of the grittiest portrayals of peasantry ever seen on film, with far more dirt, dung and ugliness than in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.Jabberwocky is a film with plenty of good elements. It's just a pity the humour isn't one of them. It's a good thing that, after this, Gilliam's films were more driven by his unleashed imagination rather than trying to be out-and-out comedy – his later pictures are much stronger as a result. The DVD release comes with a lovely, conversational commentary track from Gilliam and Michael Palin, and ironically this is actually far more entertaining than playing the film with its own dialogue.