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"THE BROTHERS GRIMM" (2005) (Matt Damon, Heath Ledger) (PG-13) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Moderate Heavy Heavy *Heavy Heavy Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild Mild Extreme None Mild Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Moderate None Moderate Moderate Extreme QUICK TAKE: Drama/Horror: Two brotherly 19th century con-artists try to solve the mystery behind missing children when they're sent in to investigate what turns out to be a real-life fairy tale curse. PLOT: It's the early 19th century and brothers Will (MATT DAMON) and Jake Grimm (HEATH LEDGER) are two con artists traveling the French-occupied, German countryside in search of superstitious and gullible villagers who they can fleece by performing staged exorcisms and such of "supernatural" beings or occurrences. Their cons, however, eventually draw the ire of French leader Delatombe (JONATHAN PRYCE) who has his right-hand man Cavaldi (PETER STORMARE) capture them and orders that they be put to death. That is, unless they can figure out what appears to be a similar con occurring in another village on the outskirts of a foreboding forest. Various children have gone missing there and the villagers claim the forest is enchanted if not outright haunted. Ever the skeptic, Will is sure they'll easily spot the swindlers, but the more superstitious Jake -- who documents most everything and everyone they encounter -- isn't so sure of that. With the aid of local trapper Angelika (LENA HEADEY) -- who claims two of her sisters have disappeared -- and watched carefully by Cavaldi, the brothers set out for the forest. There, they come to the realization that it really is haunted, with everything eventually revolving around a long-dead Queen (MONICA BELLUCCI) who lies in state at the top of a tower. As things become hairier by the minute, Will and Jake try to solve the mystery, rescue the children and avoid all of the supernatural trappings hidden deep within the forest and its long forgotten castle. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? It will look too scary for younger kids, but some teens as well as those who are fans of anyone in the cast and/or director Terry Gilliam may be interested in it. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13 For violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: MATT DAMON plays an early 19th century conman who, with his brother and several assistants, stages fake supernatural happenings so that they can receive payment for getting rid of such occurrences and beings. More of a realist than his brother, he thinks the happenings in the forest are staged until they become too extreme. He also fools around with and/or has sex with two women off camera. HEATH LEDGER plays his brother and accomplice in such matters who's superstitious and thus more quickly believes what they're encountering is supernatural. He briefly uses some profanity. JONATHAN PRYCE plays a French general who doesn't like the brothers (and tortures them) but sends them off to deal with odd occurrences in a haunted forest. He shoots and kills some of his own men (deserters) and drinks some. LENA HEADEY plays a trapper who assists the brothers by guiding them into the forest into which two of her sisters have disappeared. She shows courage as she battles supernatural beings there. PETER STORMARE plays a sadistic French officer under Delatombe who enjoys his knives and is assigned to follow the brothers on their mission. MONICA BELLUCCI plays the long-dead queen who wants the blood from twelve children so that she can regain her former young beauty. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a brief summary of the content found in this dramatic horror film that's been rated PG-13. Profanity consists of at least 1 "s" word along with a double entendre for "breast," while a handful of other expletives and colorful phrases are used. Non-explicit, but sexually related dialogue is present, and a threesome is implied (we see a man in bed with two women after the fact). Violence consists of on (by shooting) and off-screen deaths (we see two severed heads), an attempted murder (a person is shot but is later okay) and general fighting (including people knocking others down or around). A demonic horse swallows a child, a blob grabs and takes a child down into a well while other such supernatural material (tree branches and roots knocking or dragging people aside, a wolf-man creature after people, etc.) is present and a kitten is killed by accident off camera. That and other such scenes have bloody/gory results, and that material and other moments of peril might be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to some younger or more sensitive viewers (but probably not much, if at all, to older ones). Various characters have varying degrees of bad attitudes, some drink (one to the point of drunkenness) and some brief, crude humor is present. Parents worry about their missing/abducted children, two adult brothers quarrel and occasionally fight, while some material might be enticing for some kids to imitate. If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home who may be interested in seeing it, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, a brief scene has some rather jumpy camerawork. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Will, Jake and others drink ale or something similar at a party where Jake is drunk. Delatombe and others have wine with dinner. Delatombe has some wine. BLOOD/GORE We see a witch (later shown as faked) that has a decomposed and scary-looking face. Delatombe reluctantly eats some blood sausage that a woman has served him. The brothers watch in disgust as Angelika guts and skins a rabbit that's hanging from her ceiling. We don't see the actual gutting (the rabbit's body blocks our view), but we hear it and then see her rip the pelt off the rabbit, leaving a bloody, furless body. We then hear more gutting sounds and see some blood coming out, while there's also blood on her hands. Bird excrement lands on Cavaldi's face. The upper half of a man's body suddenly falls to the forest floor. We see what looks like his spine sticking out from the open end of his torso (but there's no blood). Cavaldi has some blood on his head, and when he gets some on his hand, he faints. A little kitten surprises Cavaldi who instinctively reacts by kicking it, sending it flying through the air and into some rapidly spinning blades. We don't see its actual death, but a small, meaty and somewhat bloody piece flies across the room and lands on Delatombe's face. He then removes and eats it, liking the taste. A crow falls into a well, with a boy pulling out the wet and seemingly dead bird. It then suddenly comes to life and sprays the boy with dark mud (or something similar). We then see an eyeball on the ground and then see that the boy no longer has any facial features (it's just blank). Seeing some sort of supernatural monster, a man states that he believes he's soiled himself, with his companion being relieved as he thought the apparent smell was from himself. A wolfman creature pricks a girl's finger to get some blood (we briefly see the blood). Jake discovers the mummified corpse of a queen up in a tower. The tops of two large barrels are lifted and we see that two men's severed heads are attached to the bottom of those lids. We see what's presumably blood in an amulet for the queen and she later drinks some of that to rejuvenate herself. A large knife is driven into Will's chest and we see what looks like a blood stain on his shirt from that. The queen pulls what looks like a large tack from the wolfman's chest (we see blood on the end of it). Jake smashes the queen's magic mirror that causes her skin to start to crack and fall off her face in a similar manner (and her hands are bloody from holding shards of the glass). Will's hands are somewhat bloody from holding broken shards of mirror glass. Jake pulls the above tack from Will's chest and we see some blood on the end of it. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE We learn that Jake, Will and the two men who work for them are con artists who stage faked supernatural events so that they can charge payment from superstitious and/or gullible individuals desirous of ridding themselves of such supernatural beings. Delatombe and Cavaldi have bad attitudes toward others, including the Grimm brothers. To remind Jake of a past childhood event (where Jake returned with "magic" beans) and used in a demeaning fashion, Will always says "beans" to him when he thinks he's doing something stupid again. The long dead queen (helped by her henchmen) is abducting children so that she can be reincarnated as her young, beautiful self. FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence," "Blood/Gore" and "Jump Scenes" may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers and/or those with low tolerance levels for such material. Others, however, might not find any of that or the following that way. Jake and Will go to investigate reports of a haunted barn possessed by a witch. While there, wind suddenly blows through it and the barn animals react adversely. The two then spot a witch (with a decomposed and scary-looking face) hovering above them. It then swoops down and knocks down both men and then seems to control them and their actions as the two struggle to keep from shooting each other (with a gun and crossbow). They manage to break free and one fires the crossbow into the witch that then disappears into smoke but turns into a pile of snakes on the barn floor. The two then strike at them with swords (the impact isn't seen) and then quickly bag up the remains to give to the owner. After he leaves, the witch then flies back down at them and knocks down Jake, but -- Spoiler Alert -- we then learn that all of this was staged and the witch was really a man in a costume, etc. We see a girl in red riding hood in a forest and then see the POV of a wolf creature watching her and hear a related growl. The girl is scared and runs through the woods where the trees seem alive. She ends up falling and then trying to crawl away, followed by her screaming as the sight of a creature's large shadow crosses over her. The brothers see that Delatombe has their assistants strung upside down with glass boxes over their heads that contain some snails. Cavaldi then lowers the two headfirst toward a boiling cauldron and Delatombe calls off the descent just in the nick of time. We see young Hansel and Gretel going through the woods when a tree branch suddenly grabs her shawl. It lands in a creek and then keeps moving and flying through the air, just out of her reach, leading her into a dark cave. There, it lands on a wall and starts to get sucked inside by a number of small holes. When she pulls it out, all sorts of bugs come pouring out of the holes and she then sees a silhouetted figure -- holding an ax -- at the cave exit. The brothers watch in disgust as Angelika guts and skins a rabbit that's hanging from her ceiling. We don't see the actual gutting (the rabbit's body blocks our view), but we hear it and then see her rip the pelt off the rabbit, leaving a bloody, furless body. We then hear more gutting sounds and see some blood coming out, while there's also blood on her hands. We see the POV of something watching Jake as he writes. There are weird sounds around him and we see a tree moving along the ground via its roots. A man feeds live spiders to a horse (that later turns out to be monstrous in nature with sharp, scary-looking teeth). For those who don't like bugs, various scenes feature various types of bugs crawling on the ground, things and even some people. Holding a lit lantern, a young boy enters a barn/stable where he sees the above horse. It briefly looks normal until we see a spider crawling along its snout and then a spider-web that catches and then wraps up the boy. We then see the shadow of the monster horse flipping the cocooned boy up into the air and then into its mouth, swallowing him whole. The horse opens its mouth and we see the boy halfway down its throat before he slips completely out of sight. The horse then races away with an abnormally extended belly. Tree branches knock Angelika from her ride and we then see trees moving along the ground as roots/branches grab and start to pull her, with her whacking them off her. A large (and somewhat fake-looking) wolf then shows up, with Angelika looking scared but managing to get off several crossbow arrow shots at it, but the wolf avoids them as it bounds around her and off nearby trees. Moments later, the wolf briefly stands upright, before mesmerizing Angelika who drops her sword and looks into the wolf's eyes before it bounds away. Tree roots/branches grab a man by the feet/legs and start pulling him away. The brothers try to rescue him, but a root/branch then blasts out through the guy's mouth (from the inside, but with no blood) and he's then pulled into a hole. The upper half of a man's body suddenly falls to the forest floor. We see what looks like his spine sticking out from the open end of his torso (but there's no blood). Delatombe throws Cavaldi down some steps into a dungeon where we see that the brothers and others are strung up (with one man occasionally being flogged). Delatombe tries to get the brothers to talk, but since they won't, Cavaldi starts and then lowers some large, spinning blade contraption down toward Angelika who's chained into a half-barrel of sorts. As this proceeds, a little kitten surprises Cavaldi who instinctively reacts by kicking it, sending it flying through the air and into the blades. We don't see its actual death, but a small, meaty and somewhat bloody piece flies across the room and lands on Delatombe's face. He then removes and eats it, liking the taste. The blades then continue down close to Angelika, even entering the barrel, but Delatombe orders that Cavaldi stop them, and the latter does so just in time. A crow falls into a well, with a boy pulling out the wet and seemingly dead bird. It then suddenly comes to life and sprays the boy with dark mud (or something similar). We then see an eyeball on the ground and then see that the boy no longer has any facial features (it's just blank). A blob of mud or something similar with eyes then comes to life from the well and comes after the boy. One person shoots and blasts it apart, but it reforms and keeps coming. Angelika then cuts it in half, but it forms long arms that slide into a building and grab the boy. They then pull the boy back into the blob forming the Gingerbread Man that then slips back into the well. With Will belaying him, Jake ascends the tall tower via a rope that then breaks just when he gets to the top edge from which he briefly dangles. He eventually scrambles up to the angled top and walks around it, nearly slipping off several times (he also notes 12 crypts positioned around the tower like a clock). Will hears mysterious sounds around him in the forest. A girl suddenly floats up in some water, with Will then hiding when the wolf creature arrives, stands, and transforms into a person. It then retrieves the girl's body from the water and places her inside an open crypt where he pricks her finger to get some blood (we briefly see the blood). Jake discovers the mummified corpse of a queen up in a tower. A crow then drops something inside the corpse's mouth, causing it to come alive (and the sight of it might be rather scary to younger kids). The mummified queen's corpse lets out a scream and various roots/branches reach out for Jake and Will as they try to escape. The tops of two large barrels are lifted and we see that two men's severed heads are attached to the bottom of those lids. Delatombe orders to have the forest burned along with the brothers who we then see tied to some scaffolding in the forest as the fire rages and grows around them. Delatombe also has his men fire cannonballs into the forest (where they explode and cause more fire), but Angelika cuts the brothers lose just in the nick of time, although they fall hard since their feet are still attached to the scaffolding after her first cuts free their upper bodies. The wolf transforms back into a wolfman of sorts. Will strikes the wolfman with a flaming branch, briefly catching part of the latter on fire, but it then knocks Will aside. Angelika then falls into some water than then instantly freezes over, with her banging on that ice from below it and Will trying to save her from the top side. We see the wolfman putting Angelika inside a crypt as a sacrifice for the queen. We see various crypts outside the tower opening. The large tower collapses with Jake inside it (but we later see he's okay in the rubble). Will appears to be dead from a fall and/or spell from the queen, but he's later okay. GUNS/WEAPONS Pistols/Rifles/Crossbow/Knives/Swords/Cannons: Carried and/or used to threaten or wound others and/or cause property damage. See "Violence" for details. Awakened by a ruckus, Cavaldi comes out and fires his pistols into the air, followed by his soldiers who shoot their rifles into the air. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Bullsh*t," "You idiot," "German pigs," "Shut up," "He drives me mad," "Idiot bumpkins," "Piss bucket" and "Damn good name." The fighting, stunts and other physical action might be enticing for some kids to imitate, as might staging faked scary scenes. Cavaldi spits on one villager and later spits on Angelika. Various villagers spit in response to hearing Angelika's name. Cavaldi seems to enjoy throwing his knives into things. Emulating what Angelika did earlier, Will licks the top of a huge toad, hoping it will give him directions out of the forest. JUMP SCENES A witch suddenly swoops down at the brothers. Cavaldi reaches under a stone for something and is suddenly startled. A crow suddenly flies by, startling a person. This then happens again. The queen's mummified corpse suddenly sits up. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) An extreme amount of ominous and suspenseful music plays in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY 1 "s" word (while several others are said in foreign languages), 1 slang term used as a double entendre for a breast ("t*t"), 2 damns, 2 uses of "Oh God" and 1 use each of "Christ" and "God." SEX/NUDITY Will asks two women at a party if they'd like to continue this upstairs, adding, "A little t*t, a little tat." We later see him asleep in bed with the women asleep on either side of him (implying sex or fooling around) but all are clothed. Among the things the brothers are accused of is buggery (they seem surprised by that). Cavaldi gets close to Angelika and seems to inhale her scent, much to her disgust. A queen shows cleavage in several scenes. Angelika shows a little cleavage at certain times. Jake sees the reflection of the mummified queen's corpse in a mirror where he looks young and beautiful and comes on to him by rubbing her hands along his clothed body and caressing him (nothing explicit or groping, etc.). She tells him that she wants to make his dreams come true, and while some may view that as sexual in the context of the caressing, etc., it seems to be more of a magical promise. However, she then does ask what he desires and asks if that's Angelika. SMOKING None. TENSE FAMILY SCENES We see a flashback to when the brothers were young, their family poor, and a sibling sick. Wood from a hobbyhorse is yanked off as firewood, and the mother comments on one day having money for a doctor. Young Jake returns, but rather than having money, he has what he says are magic beans. Upset over that, young Will knocks the beans from Jake's hands and then knocks him to the floor. At a meeting, various village parents state that their children have been abducted. Angelika states that two of the missing children are her sisters. Angelika states that her father died last winter. Jake and Will push at each other during an argument (among several they have). Later, and after Will grabs Jake by the ear again, Jake punches him in the face, sending him to the ground. A father grieves over his young daughter who appears to be dead (but is later alive when a curse/spell is broken). TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The real Grimm brothers, their work, and the film's artistic license taken with both. Taking advantage of the superstitious and/or gullible. Among the things the brothers are accused of is buggery (they seem surprised by that). Angelika states that her family is cursed. The comment that the truth is much more terrible than fiction. VIOLENCE We see a castle burning in the background of a shot. Upset over young Jake returning home with "magic beans," young Will knocks the beans from Jake's hands and then knocks him to the floor. Jake and Will go to investigate reports of a haunted barn possessed by a witch. While there, wind suddenly blows through it and the barn animals react adversely. The two then spot a witch (with a decomposed and scary-looking face) hovering above them. It then swoops down and knocks down both men and then seems to control them and their actions as the two struggle to keep from shooting each other (with a gun and crossbow). They manage to break free and one fires the crossbow into the witch that then disappears into smoke but turns into a pile of snakes on the barn floor. The two then strike at them with swords (the impact isn't seen) and then quickly bag up the remains to give to the owner. After he leaves, the witch then flies back down at them and knocks down Jake, but -- Spoiler Alert -- we then learn that all of this was staged and the witch was really a man in a costume, etc. A soldier walks into an establishment and pushes a patron and knocks something from another's hand. Will grabs Jake (who's drunk) by the ear to guide him away from trouble. Cavaldi grabs Will and pulls him from his bed, while some men outside light the back ends of two horses on fire, sending them racing off. Will and Jake then realize too late that ropes attached to their feet are attached to those horses. The two are then yanked out of the room, down the stairs and out into the street where the ropes are cut. The two are then hit (one by some sort of long ball and chain type device) and knocked unconscious. We see that Cavaldi has transported Will and Jake to their destination in small cages and then manhandles them when they're let out. Villagers aim rifles and even a pitchfork at Will and Jake when the two arrive in their small village. Cavaldi throws a knife into a dead rabbit that's strung up on a wall in Angelika's place. Holding a lit lantern, a young boy enters a barn/stable where he sees a horse. It briefly looks normal until we see a spider crawling along its snout and then a spider-web that catches and then wraps up the boy. We then see the shadow of the monster horse flipping the cocooned boy up into the air and then into its mouth, swallowing him whole. The horse opens its mouth and we see the boy halfway down its throat before he slips completely out of sight. Tree branches knock Angelika from her ride and we then see trees moving along the ground as roots/branches grab and start to pull her, with her whacking them off her. A large (and somewhat fake-looking) wolf then shows up, with Angelika looking scared but managing to get off several crossbow arrow shots at it, but the wolf avoids them as it bounds around her and off nearby trees. Tree branches knock another person off their ride. A man and his horse are sent up into the air, with the horse falling back down and landing hard, but it seems okay. Tree roots/branches grab a man by the feet/legs and start pulling him away. The brothers try to rescue him, but a root/branch then blasts out through the guy's mouth (from the inside, but with no blood) and he's then pulled into a hole. Cavaldi holds guns on the brothers and Angelika. Delatombe throws Cavaldi down some steps into a dungeon where we see that the brothers and others are strung up (with one man occasionally being flogged). Delatombe tries to get the brothers to talk, but since they won't, Cavaldi starts and then lowers some large, spinning blade contraption down toward Angelika who's chained into a half-barrel of sorts. As this proceeds, a little kitten surprises Cavaldi who instinctively reacts by kicking it, sending it flying through the air and into the blades. We don't see its actual death, but a small, meaty and somewhat bloody piece flies across the room and lands on Delatombe's face. Jake and Will push at each other during an argument. To keep Angelika from leaving with the brothers, Cavaldi grabs and then pushes her up against a wall with a large, forked stick (with the "V" part of it on either side of her neck). Will sees what he thinks is Jake being catapulted toward a tower and bouncing off it, landing hard on the floor below, but he then sees that it's just a dummy. After Will grabs Jake by the ear again, Jake punches him in the face, sending him to the ground. Angelika hits Cavaldi on the head to break free from him. A crow falls into a well, with a boy pulling out the wet and seemingly dead bird. It then suddenly comes to life and sprays the boy with dark mud (or something similar). We then see an eyeball on the ground and then see that the boy no longer has any facial features (it's just blank). A blob of mud or something similar with eyes then comes to life from the well and comes after the boy. One person shoots and blasts it apart, but it reforms and keeps coming. Angelika then cuts it in half, but it forms long arms that slide into a building and grab the boy. They then pull the boy back into the blob forming the Gingerbread Man that then slips back into the well. Jake runs face-first into a mirror. The wolfman creature throws an ax at Will that then returns to him like a boomerang. There's another throw, but Jake then falls from the tower and lands on the wolfman. Delatombe hits Cavaldi on the head with his pistol and then strikes him again. The tops of two large barrels are lifted and we see that two men's severed heads are attached to the bottom of those lids. Delatombe orders to have the forest burned along with the brothers who we then see tied to some scaffolding in the forest as the fire rages and grows around them. Delatombe also has his men fire cannonballs into the forest (where they explode and cause more fire), but Angelika cuts the brothers lose just in the nick of time, although they fall hard since their feet are still attached to the scaffolding after her first cuts free their upper bodies. Will strikes the wolfman with a flaming branch, briefly catching part of the latter on fire, but it then knocks Will aside. The queen's mummified corpse suddenly sits up and blows wind from its mouth, causing massive winds elsewhere that knock over men in Delatombe's army. When they panic and start to flee, Delatombe shoots one dead off his horse and then shoots another man dead. Delatombe fires a shot at the brothers. He then orders Cavaldi to execute them, but when the latter can't, Delatombe shoots and seemingly kills Cavaldi (but we later see him alive). Delatombe then prepares to shoot the brothers, but a tree root grabs his foot. He then shoots the root, but Jake knocks him down so that he and his brother can try to escape. Will and Delatombe fight, with Will avoiding Delatombe's sword by using what appears to be a flag pole to knock it away. At the same time, Jake throws the boomerang ax at a soldier and misses, but the ax comes around and strikes the man in the back (we don't see the impact, but do then see the ax in his back, without any blood). Delatombe then knocks Will to the ground and slices his arm with his sword. Will then distracts Delatombe with a burst of flame and then runs that flagpole through Delatombe, killing him. He pushes him off the tower and a chunk of it lands on a cart, sending Jake flying up through the air and then landing hard inside the tower. Jake throws the magic boomerang ax at the queen and wolfman, but misses and then ends up stuck against the wall as if held there magnetically. As Will climbs the long hair that's wrapped around Jake (like a rope), he causes him pain from his weight on it pulling on Jake. Once inside, Will tries to get the queen with a knife, but is also yanked to the seemingly magnetic wall with his knife nearly hitting Jake. The two must then struggle against her powers that are controlling them and must avoid being cut by the other. A large knife is driven into Will's chest and we see what looks like a blood stain on his shirt from that. The queen pulls what looks like a large tack from the wolfman's chest (we see blood on the end of it) that apparently controlled him and then pushes it into Will's chest, causing him some pain. Jake smashes the queen's magic mirror that causes her skin to start to crack and fall off her face in a similar manner (and her hands are bloody from holding shards of the glass). A man grabs a large broken mirror and jumps from the tower followed by Will and they both land hard on the ground below. The large tower collapses with Jake inside it (but we later see he's okay in the rubble). Reviewed July 15, 2005 / Posted August 26, 2005

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