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Time Bandits Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2024-11-24 14:14:51
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

My loves! I am officially on break so any issues with Patreon or Youtube will be resolved after my two week break. Enjoy!

Files

Previews only

Time Bandits (1981)

Full Reaction You can either stream the Full reaction below using the embedded video player, otherwise you can click the 'Download' button which will take you directly to Google Drive, enabling you to save the video to your computer instead. You must provide your own footage to watch alongside the full reactions.

Comments

Dave Sanders

Bookended with one of George Harrison's best songs in the credits too.

Dean Nolan

OOOO im so excited for this reaction. Hope you have a fab break x

Josef Schiltz

Hope you enjoys the hols! Take care, Jess and see you!

Thomas Corp

Not knowing much if anything about the film going in is about part and parcel with Terry Gilliam. He’s one of those directors who can be off-putting to certain audiences and greatly adored by others such as us who voted for you to react to this film. I quite like his work myself. Monty Python films aside, of his films, Brazil probably remains his singular masterpiece, or at least my favorite of his work, but Time Bandits is a damn fun one. Completely absurd is a fair description for this and any Gilliam film. Yes, for the uninitiated, getting hit by a freight train of absurdity is an apt comparison. For the initiated, you say it’s still silly which summons Graham Chapman in the colonel’s uniform, saying, “Quite agree, quite agree. Silly, silly, silly.” You say that you wouldn’t call it a kid’s film. It’s not, but being the eighties, of course it got advertised as such, or so I am told as I was not even alive during the decade. Ah, the good old days when you could make “kid’s films” with bite to them. Your description: A weirdly wonderful cross between an adventure fantasy with sprinkling of Gilliam’s dark humor leading to a bizarre cult classic romp is perfect. Fellow Python fan here. Lovely reaction you have to John Cleese, with his iconic comedic delivery, as you describe, as Robin Hood. Seems unfair that he just takes our heroes loot, but they are stuck listening to this Robin Hood. Why, you may ask? Because. Unlike some OTHER Robin Hoods, this one can speak with an English accent. He is devilishly difficult to have arguments with, though. Likewise, can’t decipher Merry Man Fenster’s, er, sorry, Redgrave’s accent as even the subtitles don’t help you there. The film needed a lot more Michael Palin. Then again, a lot of films need a lot more of Michael in their films. Could have used more Shelley Duvall who I was sorry to hear of her death earlier this year. The Sean Connery gag is absurdly wonderful in that the part was written for him, even though they knew they could never afford him, and even wrote a note in the script saying the reveal of the actor could be someone similar but cheaper. Sean came across the script, loved it, took the pay cut, and it is fantastic. Amusing how the film perpetuates the myth of Napoleon being a little man, when, as I understand it, historical accounts have him listed as being at or around my height, and I’m 5’7”, which, sure, does make me a little man, but not absurdly so. Then again, Tom Cruise is the same height, and he keeps being quite terribly put out about that, which, well, there’s nothing anyone can do about that. Plus, we get a great scene from Ian Holm which is always lovely. You mention that Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Ogre was the scariest character to you. ...Yeah, Debra’s mom did have an intimidating presence on that show, so that tracks. Peter Vaughan was great as Winston, though. Knew you’d hate the giant getting the needle looking injection. Twas unpleasant, yes. You say that the kid was remarkably calm given the situations that he got dragged into. Maybe. I was a sick kid, so I’m unable to talk all that much. Similarly, you talk about people seeing this when they were little, how the film could be traumatizing. Wouldn’t know, even if I did see this as a little kid, which my parents wouldn’t have let that happen, like I said, I was a sick kid, so I would have been fine. Plus, the kid was happy to get away from his gadget obsessed parents. (And this is 1981, kids.) I confess that I was curious to see more of the Jim Broadbent hosted game show with the Jack Benny title. I think the kid and the Time Bandits only ever got scared when being chased by Zordon who is made far more terrifying when he speaks with the voice of Tony Jay. I had a goddamn stroke hearing and instantly recognizing Tony’s voice; I became very happy. Now to my favorite character of this. David Warner as the Evil Genius is, to the surprise of no one who knows me well, my favorite character of the film. Quite like that you got a laugh out of his line, “Suddenly I feel... very, very good.” and when his minion apologizes, he holds up his hand, saying, “No, it’ll pass, it’ll pass.” One of my favorite lines from this that proves useful from time to time. David is like Tony in that he has a voice that could read the phonebook, and it would be amazing. The man had some FUN in this movie, and I lived for it. He was quite a diva, like you said. Living his best life in the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness which you would not wish to visit as it does not look terribly inviting. I don’t know. Sounds like a most lovely winter home to me. Shame he never does greet Kevin with a good, “Hiya, pal.”, that would have been great. The whole final battle with him and your reactions to it was magnificent, even if in the midst of it he kills Benson, despite you asking very nicely for him not to do that. Thus, my favorite character in this kills a dog, which, yeah, I do apologize about that, Jess. It is at least quick and so over the top that it’s not as horrific as it could have been. Still sorry all the same. And during said final battle of the titular Time Bandits, of course they kill the one played by our dear Kenny Baker, breaking our hearts, making us imitate Anthony Daniels by saying, “Oh, Fidget, why did you have to be so brave?” then upon his resurrection, we say, “I never doubted you for a second! WONDERFUL!” Quite enjoyed your reaction to Ralph Richardson-ex-machina. He and the Time Bandits have a long day’s journey into night ahead of them in fixing everything. (Too easy a joke, and a terrible one at that, I know. Sorry.) Then there was your beyond delightful reaction to the ending which was worth the price of admission. You ask us if we saw the parents explode. Yes, I do believe that I did see that the parents went kablooey after touching the Concentrated Evil™. (They didn’t turn into hermit crabs at any rate.) Leaves you so concerned for the kid. Well, what did you expect from a Gilliam picture? A happy ending? No, seriously, I think in terms of Gilliam pictures, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the film that comes the closest to having a conventional happy ending. I might be wrong on that, though. Thus, between Déjà Q and this, hell of a one-two punch to end things on before break. Those reactions will sustain me in your absence, particularly as despite your concern, your reaction to this film was amazing. It warms the heart to hear you express the appreciation for us fellow film watchers, and the Trekkie audience here on patreon. Means a lot to know that it helps you, and that it means a lot to you. Have pleasant break which I hope goes very well. Take care of yourself, Jess.

Faction Paradox

Watching Time Bandits is like trying to explain a dream you had and realising that it makes no sense (in the best possible way)

Lucas

I loved this film as a kid, it's such a weird fever dream of a film

Ryan

Time flies. Time bandits. Time wounds all heals. I am not Kirk, Buck, Luke, Flash, or Arthur frelling Dent. I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas. I'd never seen this film before, and I have no explanation for that given I adore Monty Python, and several of Terry Gilliam's other films. Though for the last decade or so it's been harder to work up the energy for it with how both him and John Cleese are now these sad old men desperately shouting any vaguely offensive thing that pops into their heads because it's the only way they can get attention, and I've never wished more that Graham Chapman was still here because I'm pretty sure he could have kept them from getting this way. But I'm very glad this gave me the push to finally do it. On the downside, the movie starts out at its lowest point, with the whole Napoleon sequence feeling like a sketch idea Gilliam kept tossing out for Monty Python with all the others rejecting it, so now he was taking this chance to show how genius it was. But except for the Me and My Shadow routine which is reminiscent of The Muppet Show at its chaotic best, it's just repeating that one joke until someone laughs, and which despite my not being born yet I'm pretty sure was already a huge cliche. Hell, Bill and Ted made way more creative use of him! And it's especially sad to see someone of Ian Holm's caliber stuck with this material; I'm just starting to get over his awkward CGI face in Alien Romulus and this isn't helping. Luckily, things improve tremendously from there, with my one note being that it feels like the whole thing with Michael Palin and Shelley Duvall was meant to be a much bigger running gag through a bunch of time periods, and cutting it down to two just makes it confusing. Of course, a big highlight is the always awesome David Warner, getting to show some rarely deployed comedy skills while still being a legit menacing guy who won't let you go until you say there are five lights. Also a real kick in ultimate evil being a guy who thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea. In fact, the only actors I knew going in were him and Sean Connery, so the opening credits alone were a delight where I had basically the same look on my face as Jess. Especially unexpected was Maester Aemon as an ogre; that's certainly a different context for "Kill the boy." And it was a real treat to see Dragonslayer wasn't the only fantasy movie Ralph Richardson did in 1981. I'll take this opportunity to plug what I find is a tragically underdiscussed movie these days, The Heiress, where he plays the emotionally abusive father to an Oscar-winning Olivia De Haviland, and the climax of their story is a magnificent catharsis where you can't take your eyes off either one of them. He was also apparently a total whackjob in real life in stark contrast to his dignified acting roles, and luckily not in any kind of offensive or destructive way but just in a fun, bizarre way. Just look up some stories about him, I won't dare spoil them. Then we get to the ending, and I'd gotten some advance warning that no one to this day has any idea what to make of it. I've even seen several reviews of Brazil that comment its ending feels like Gilliam successfully pulling off what he failed to do here. Having grown up on a steady diet of Roald Dahl, I didn't find it quite as shocking as you're apparently supposed to, and even got a bit of a laugh at the way they do the exact opposite of what their kid is shouting with zero hesitation. It does raise my interest in what Taika Waititi's recent TV series remake does with the material, which I've been avoiding due to discomfort with its erasure of some of the few fully realized characters out there specifically for dwarf actors. For now, I'll just bask in this pure creativity a while longer.

Ryan
>>156284974

My favorite comedy Robin Hood is still Rik Mayal, with his merry band of freedom fighters who have good muscle tone and aren't gay. My favorite part of this one is that "Marian" is a huge deep-voiced guy, not so much for the joke itself but for how it's just thrown out and not even Kevin comments on it. The typical thinking these days is that Napoleon (and is anyone else weirded out that we're all on a first name basis with him, unlike just about every other historical figure after last names came around?) was a perfectly average height for the time, but it just happened that quite a few of his close allies who he was typically seen in public with were all incredibly tall.

Thomas Corp
>>156284974

Good note on how the Marian gag goes completely unacknowledged, not even by Kevin. Now you mention it, yeah, it is odd how we maintain a first name basis with Napoleon. I imagine the height difference with him and his allies is like the one between Crowley and Sam in Supernatural. Or the Emperor and either Darth Vader or Count Dooku.

Thomas Corp
>>156305236

Well, there are the films that feel like you should have seen them long before you have. Highlander felt like that two years ago, as that was one that slipped through the cracks for years for me. Shared adoration for Monty Python and Gilliam’s work. True, he and John Cleese have been saying very troubling things in the last decade. You try to hold onto the good memories and times, though that’s easier said than done. There is the strong wish that we did not lose Graham as young as we did. His loss is felt. Comparatively speaking, yeah, the Napoleon scenes are the least funny. Certainly, the least creative. Still haven’t seen Alien Romulus, though I already got spoiled on the business with Ian Holm, though thankfully I’ve not seen any images yet. I don’t doubt it being jarring. I also got the feeling that Michael and Shelley were supposed to recur more than they did, and in the manner you suggest. You say, “always awesome David Warner”, I was mulling over that same thing earlier as I don’t recall him ever being bad in anything. His whole five lights shtick would actually fit his character here. He would be intrigued with digital watches considering he is the Master Control Program. Said intrigue in digital watches would also endear the younger generations who can’t even read an analog clock anymore. I’ve had co-workers mention it, and I still wear an analog watch. David, Sean Connery, John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Ian Holm I knew were in this before I first saw it. The other names in the credits were a delight. Tony Jay as the voice of the Zordon looking face was the biggest, delightful shock. I may have had a Jess style scream at that part. Figured you’d catch Peter Vaughan whose scenes here does give new context to “kill the boy” even if my default image of him is his role in The Remains of the Day. The Heiress is very tragically overlooked, especially these days. My mom adores it. Olivia’s Oscar win for it is beyond well deserved. Would say it’s my favorite film of 1949 were it not for The Third Man being the same year. Then again, The Heiress was the one up for best picture, and of the nominees for that year, that’s the one I’d have voted for if I could. I’ve heard tidbits of Ralph Richardson being a nut. Being a Monty Python fan, familiar with Gilliam’s films, and having also had the diet of Dahl, yeah, the ending isn’t exactly shocking. It’s honestly hilarious, especially how the parents didn’t even hesitate to touch that which Kevin told them not to. Gets a huge laugh. The new show’s on Apple, so I don’t have access to it. Haven’t even really heard much about it, other than it has apparently been cancelled. Goddamn shame to hear about the erasure of some of the few fully realized characters out there specifically for dwarf actors, because the titular characters stood out to me in that regard, and it was awesome to see. Basking in the pure creativity does sound nice, yes.

Ryan
>>156305236

I found Romulus to be mostly a really great movie, saddled with just a couple incredibly bad creative decisions that come close to derailing the whole thing.

Andrew Vignaux
>>156262642

I love watching sesskasays' post-reaction comments. But this time, they got put on pause while I let the movie credits to run to listen to "Dream Away"

Matthew Beckford

Out of the movies in the polls you put up, the only ones I've seen I don't think you'd like, but I still vote for them. Like this one which blew my mind when it was first shown on TV. I was too young for Monty Python but my Dad was big into Sci-Fi and Sean Connery movies. I love that you called it a "parody of a kids movie", I feel like it's an "up yours" to Disney. I didn't realize how absurd it was having grown up watching cartoons. But ever since this i've been obsessed with everything in the fantasy genre.