Time Bandits

Time Bandits (1981) starring John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Six dwarves appear one night in the bedroom of a boy named Kevin, and take him on an odyssey through time courtesy of a special map they have in their possession, which shows all the time portals left when the universe was created. In his travels, Kevin encounters Napoleon (Holm), Robin Hood (Cleese), and King Agamemnon (Connery). The movie veers off in some crazy directions, and some are amusing, but ultimately it's not as funny or as entertaining as it should be. The script, by Gilliam and Palin, gives it a nice Monty Python-esque feel, but too many of the jokes fall flat. (Subtitles in English are provided, but not closed captions.) Grade: B