12 MonkeysMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 74 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Gilliam, along with the gifted cinematographer Roger Pratt and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, fashions a disturbing and dazzling lost world. Read full review

  • 90
    The New York Times | Elvis Mitchell

    Fierce and disturbing, with a plot that skillfully resists following any familiar course. The film's hero fears that he's half-crazy, and for two hours Mr. Gilliam artfully keeps his audience feeling the same way. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    A Hitchcockian chase...A crowd-pleasing airport-pursuit pic. [27 Dec 1995, p.D1] Read full review

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    As the jabbering psychotic Jeffrey Goines, Brad Pitt has a rabid, get-a-load-of-me deviousness that works for the film's central mystery: We can't tell where the fanatic leaves off and the put-on artist begins. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Stack

    A grandiose cinematic invention, cleverly turning the present-day urban American world on its ear. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Any laughs that it inspires will be very hollow. It's more of a celebration of madness and doom, with a hero who tries to prevail against the chaos of his condition, and is inadequate. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Rita Kempley

    A densely plotted, visually dynamic post-apocalyptic thriller. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    In a movie in which time travel is used to rectify the past, it's too bad scriptwriters David and Janet Peoples didn't go through the time/space tunnel to work on that first draft again. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    Mystifying, intriguing, even infuriating, it shows what happens when an unconventional talent meets straightforward material. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | Emanuel Levy

    Gilliam's work is long on sensibility, short on sense. Read full review

View more reviews for 12 Monkeys on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Terry Gilliam's violent dystopian masterpiece.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this is a disturbing dystopian film that addresses the near eradication of human civilization by a virus. Characters drink, smoke, get in fights, evade the police, and kill one another. There are also upsetting scenes of mental institutions and jails as well as a graphic scene depicting WWI trenches. James Cole is repeatedly sedated, and images of him drooling and nearly catatonic are featured at several points. The movie raises lots of complex moral questions.
  • Families can talk about the boundaries between the sane and insane. Why is James Cole viewed as "sane" by some characters and "insane" by others? Similar questions could be asked about other characters, including Kathryn Railly and Jeffrey Goines. The film also deals extensively with issues of surveillance. Who is being watched in the film and why? Who is monitoring characters? How does this monitoring impact the characters and their actions?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A scientist releases the plague that nearly destroys civilization.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: James beats several people to death. There are also several scenes with guns and knives, including a disturbing scene that takes place in WWI trenches.
  • sex false3 Sex: Although relatively clear of sexual content, the film has quite a bit of non-sexual nudity.
  • language false3 Language: Some strong language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink and smoke, but more upsetting are scenes in which James is tranquilized in jail and the mental hospital.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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