The fine line between the reasonable and the absurd is at the center of this flawed but gripping story about apocalypses and time-travel.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 1, 2024

Their aesthetic production is taken at face value, their delusion is validated by the collective imagination...

| Nov 8, 2023

The movie contemplates the circularities of time, apocalypse culture, and movies themselves... That shouldn't seem like some kind of pop miracle, but it does.

| Dec 27, 2022

Soothing in its inevitability, Melancholia without the really heavy devastation...

| Dec 1, 2022

It is only the latest in a parade of movie downers intent on convincing us that the future will be a bleak world that is either devoid of water and gas, or one in which we've blown ourselves up with atomic power. Enough.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 1, 2022

The great Terry Gilliam's dystopic (of course!) vision of a future where we can't tell what's real or not seems disturbingly prescient.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 27, 2021

The received wisdom is that science fiction is always, when you get right down to it, about the period in which it is written, but in the grim Spring of 2020... 12 Monkeys looks startlingly prescient, even if the dates are wide by a decade or two.

| Jul 14, 2021

...12 Monkeys looks back fondly to a cleaner air world, before the virus wars began and societal norms collapsed, and can't help but strike a chord now...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 2, 2021

The fact that we, the audience, begin to question whether or not Cole is a time traveler at all, whether the apocalyptic future he claims to be from is real within the scope of the film, speaks to the talented screenwriters, direction, and editing.

| May 19, 2021

I didn't care largely because of the lack of authenticity that Willis brings to the character of James Cole.

| Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 24, 2020

A fascinating journey, topped off with an unforgettable conclusion, made even more compelling with repeated viewings.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 9, 2020

Prevention, not time travel, is the key to halting a viral contagion.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 13, 2020

Gilliam seems to stick pretty intently to the script, but his visual genius comes through repeatedly. He is also perhaps one of the best filmmakers at creating dreamscapes which threaten to crack apart, become sentient, and then turn murderous.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 30, 2019

if there is something that stands out above everything else is the hypnotic production design that Gilliam and his team creates for the future in which the action starts. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 24, 2019

A heady, harrowing and heartbreaking sci-fi thriller that rarely stops tossing red herrings into the gaping mouths of viewers trying to piece it all together.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 21, 2018

Not only does it bear the mark of the erratic filmmaking genius, Terry Gilliam. It gives fans of the sci-fi genre something to love: An intelligent film on time travel that begs a second viewing.

| Original Score: A | Oct 26, 2018

This dystopian time-travelling sci-fi is a reminder that the director can make films that are visually inventive, intellectually engaging and downright exciting.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2018

Terry Gilliam always had a unique spin on dystopian fantasy

| Nov 29, 2017

Constantly surprising and consistently unsettling.

| Aug 6, 2014

One of the best-looking and smartest sci-fi films of the modern era.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 19, 2012