Time Bandits (1981)

Terry Gilliam's 1981 children's fantasy film is a curious mixture of adventure, farce, and satire that is intermittently entertaining -- if occasionally eccentric to a fault. With a camera perched at knee level, Time Bandits is told from a child's point-of-view, but rather than adopting a sickeningly sweet sentimentality, Gilliam opts for an acerbic and often nasty tone that risked offending the very audience at which it purported to be aimed. The script's indebtedness to childrens' author Roald Dahl can be seen most obviously in the relationship between the main character and his parents, particularly in the amusingly explosive conclusion. Gilliam's state-of-the-art special effects are used, ironically enough, to attack a consumer society infatuated with the latest in technological advances -- a theme he would develop more convincingly in his next (and arguably best) film, Brazil. The dozen-or-so high profile cameos are not always effectively blended into the time-tripping storyline, but when they are, Gilliam's film takes on aspects of both the surreal and existential. David Warner is the most interesting of the adult-sized performers; his devilish charms are incessantly irresistible. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide