Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
Heath Ledger and Matt Damon star as the two famous brothers and storytellers: In this cinematic version they travel the countryside during the early 1800s pretending to rid -- for a fee -- remote villages of imaginary demons, generated by superstition and credulity. However, when they are forced by Napoleon's army to investigate a forest where girls have been disappearing, what they discover leads them to a real sorceress. Also with Monica Bellucci, Jonathan Pryce and Lena Headey. Directed by Terry Gilliam. [1:58]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man kisses a woman who's presumably dead (she's in a crypt), and she awakens and touches his face. A woman holds a man around the waist, caresses his shoulder and face and kisses his ear. A man and a woman kiss, a woman kisses two men, and a man and a woman nearly kiss. When a man licks the back of a toad, the toad turns over on its back revealing its belly. ► Women in a bar scene wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage, and a woman wears low-cut dresses in a few scenes that reveal cleavage. ► A man in a bar takes two women to an upstairs room, and we see the three of them in bed together, in period nightclothes. ► Men and women dance together.
the review continues below...
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man who's cut in half falls from a tree and crashes onto the ground (we see only the man's torso with blood, bones and tissue at the waist). A man holds the severed heads of two men and we see blood and matter around the throats, and their faces have a tortured expression. ► A cat is kicked by a man, it is thrown into a spinning blade, blood splatters and sprays on the man's face and he eats a piece of flesh that stuck to his cheek. ► A child floats to the surface of a pond (presumably dead), the child is placed in a crypt, her finger is pierced, a drop of blood forms, and beetles swarm into the crypt and the lid is closed on top of her. A woman is placed in a crypt, the top is closed, and beetles scamper across the top. ► A woman pulls a metal stake out of a man's chest and pushes it into another man's chest (we hear crunching both times). A man is struck in the back with an axe, and a man is stabbed through the chest (it happens fast and there's no evident gore). A man pulls a metal stake from a man's chest. Two men with knives are forced to fight each other: one man is stabbed through the chest (we see blood on his shirt), and the other tries to pull the blade out and we hear a crunch when he manages to remove it. ► Men set up equipment in a barn and put on armored vests, they hear cackling, they arm themselves with swords, and we see a figure in a flowing dress circling around the ceiling (the figure has green tinged skin, decomposing facial features, blackened teeth and long finger nails); the figure then gains control of two of the men's weapons forcing them to turn on each other, but one man breaks free and shoots the figure in the chest, whereupon it smolders and smokes and leaves a pile of snakes on the floor, which a man hacks in half. ► A child hears a horse whimpering and whinnying, and the horse spits spider webs out of its mouth covering her; it then picks her up and swallows her, and we see the horse's distended stomach. ► A little girl walks through dark woods, the trees creak from the wind, she pricks her finger on a thorn and we see a drop of blood; we hear something howling, the trees begin to move -- we see their roots walking across the ground, the roots try to grab the girl, she runs, she falls and screams and we see her red cloak dangling from a branch. ► A crow falls into a deep well, it comes back up and splatters a boy with mud, and the boy wipes the mud from his face but wipes the features off his face at the same time -- we see the boy's eyeballs in a blob of mud and the blob becomes animated and charges toward a woman; she slashes at the mud blob, the blob grabs the boy and shoves him inside its muddy belly, he changes into a gingerbread man and he takes a bite of his own hand. ► A man with an axe raises it over the head of a woman, she falls in a pond, it freezes, she scratches at the ice from underneath the surface and a man tries to get her out. A man with an axe throws it at another man, who jumps out the window of a tall tower, and uses a woman's long hair to break his fall (we hear a rip and the woman screams). ► A boy and a girl walk through dark woods, they are separated, the girl chases after her scarf, follows it into a dark cave, we see the shadow of a large person with an axe approaching her, and many beetles pour out of a hole in the cave wall while the girl screams. Soldiers prepare to burn a large forest (two men are in the forest, tied to ladders); the soldiers fire cannons and light fires, and the men struggle and yell but manage to escape. ► People on horseback chase a horse through a dark forest, one person is knocked off, she is wrapped in the roots of a tree, a wolf approaches her, it lunges at her, she shoots several arrows, and pulls her knife but drops it. People are surrounded by trees in a dark forest, one tree grabs a man and his horse, the horse is dropped to the ground, and the man is taken inside the tree. Another man is grabbed by a tree, he is covered by scampering beetles, and one of the tree's roots pops out of the man's mouth and we hear the man screaming. ► A man is thrown into a dark cell, where we see several people tied around the waist and hanging from the ceiling: one of the people is beaten with a cane, a woman is restrained in a large wooden barrel, and a spinning blade is lowered from the ceiling toward her. Two men chained to chairs and with glass cages filled with snails over their heads are hung upside down over a boiling cauldron. Many beetles scamper through a dark forest, and many crows gather around people who have stopped to rest. ► A man is catapulted into a tall tower, he struggles with a man, and he is pinned against a wall. A man with a gun hits another man and then punches him. A man's legs are wrapped by tree vines, he tries to shoot the vines, another man tackles him, and they fight with a sword and a pole. ► A man holding guns is ordered to execute two men (he does not), and then he is shot. A man shoots two soldiers. A man holds gun on two people. Two men are held at gunpoint by many people in a village. ► A wolf changes into a man in a few scenes and we hear crunching and cracking during the transition. A crow drops a pearl into the mouth of a dead woman and she begins to move. We see a horse being fed many spiders and it becomes agitated. Horses' tails are set on fire and the horses gallop pulling two men who are tied with ropes around their ankles; the ropes are cut and the two men restrain the horses. ► A man shoves another man, then grabs a woman and pushes her against a wall with a pronged stick held to her throat. Soldiers come into a bar and shove a man (nothing more happens). A boy shoves another boy to the floor and pounces on him. Two men jump from a tall tower and land on the ground. Two men run through a dark forest while the trees try to grab them. A man grabs another man by the ear and pulls him out of a bar. A man climbs the side of a tall tower, nearly falls, and then reaches the top. ► A woman skins a rabbit and blood drains out, while two men watch and appear ill. A decrepit-looking woman drinks a cup of blood, a decrepit-looking woman holds a man around the waist, caresses his shoulder and face, and a crow lifts a man into the air and takes him to the top of a tall tower and gives a vial of blood to a decrepit-looking woman. We see a dead woman lying on a bed, her face is shriveled and the skin is gray, and her hair is very long and white. We see an elderly woman with darkened skin and one eye is shut. A man has very bloody hands. A man has a bloody cut on his forehead. ► A strong wind blows through a forest putting out a raging fire and blowing many men through the air. We see many crypts and are told that children are in each one. A woman's image crumbles when a mirror is broken. A man throws knives at a picture. A man is catapulted into the side of a high stone tower and falls to the ground (it turns out he is a dummy). A man and several horses are frightened by noises in a dark forest and the movement of trees. Armed soldiers march through a village and two men argue in many scenes. ► We hear about a woman contracting a disease that caused her flesh to rot away. A woman talks about forest people having been killed and burned in caves. A man talks about slaughtering innocent people. A man talks about being the "master of the torturing arts" and he throws a knife toward a woman but it strikes a rabbit pelt hanging on a wall. A woman talks about her sister being taken away and a woman talks about her father disappearing and that, "the wolves took him." People talk about a bridge troll, people talk about many children having disappeared from a village, people talk about a witch haunting a village by screeching and howling, and people talk about a woman who was suspected of being a witch and was burned at the stake. ► A woman licks the back of a large toad, and a man licks the back of a large toad. Birds defecate on a man's face. A man flatulates loudly. People talk about blood sausage and a man eats from a plate of food, which gurgles and slurps. A man spits on a woman and people spit on a floor.
PROFANITY 4 - 6 scatological terms (including 1 in French and 2 in German), 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (idiot), 5 religious exclamations. [profanity glossary]
SUBSTANCE USE - Many people drink in a bar scene and several of the people appear drunk; a man drinks alcohol to try to calm himself.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Superstition, poverty, fairy tales, love, brothers, exorcism, curses, greed, demons, vanity, true love, fantasy vs. reality, solar eclipses.
MESSAGE - Truth can be more terrible than fiction.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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