IT’S NO TWELVE MONKEYS

A Video Review of "La Jette"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

This twenty minute long black and white compilation of slides with voiceover from France is supposedly the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s brilliant Twelve Monkeys. If this is true it only verifies the genius of Gilliam to turn this dreck into a great sci-fi movie.

The stillframes at times seem random as if not even taken for this ‘movie’ and at best the story is a bad "Outer Limits" episode. Good twist, bad followthrough, bad production. The premise is a French prisoner after World War III subjected to time travel experiments where he travels to the past in his dreams.

The long breaks of silence, French dialogue that is untranslated and sleepy time music will only make what is a poor presentation more intolerable. By the time you get the gist and the twist you no longer care. If you’re still awake, that is. Quite an undertaking for a twenty minute film.