My rating: Imaginative, fun, entertaining.

I've always been a big fan of director Terry Gilliam's. His movies have always been quirky. He's one of those guys that's just so creative it's... you know, bizarre. 12 Monkeys, Brazil, Baron Munchausen... and The Brothers Grimm.

This movie doesn't hinge on being bizarre, luckily. It's also terribly clever. Gilliam has taken a story that takes a little tap from well-known fairy tales and created a vision that's very much more.

Heath and Matt play Jake and Will Grimm, respectively, two brothers who make their living off creating fake supernatural events in small villages and then claiming to drive the spirits away. They get caught by the governor, Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce) and make a deal that they'll help him catch some unknown villains who are running the same game, in exchange for their lives. Of course, the unknowns they are chasing after turn out not to exist, and they find themselves up against genuine magic in the form of an ancient queen who's a combination of Rapunzel and Snow White's queen (Bellucci). The game is that young girls have been disappearing. What was thought to be a foolish game turns serious when the brothers discover she's gathering them to make herself young again under the Blood Moon.

The story, as I said, is quite clever. Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, the big bad wolf, gingerbread man, the frog prince... all these get their tiny mentions or cameos. Those are stories already known. What makes this flick original is the superb characters given to the Brothers themselves (and, I have to say, great acting by Damon and Ledger) as well as Gilliam-signature characters surrounding them. Perhaps greatest among these is the always-entertaining Peter Stormare (who, among many other things, played the nutty Russian cosmonaut in Armageddon) who brings to life a knife-throwing government official named Cavaldi. Lena Headey as the woods-smart Angelika is a nice add-in as well. (Was she billed as starring? I don't remember. Not much was done with her character.)

I should say, Heather got a little scared at a couple parts. There were a few things put in there to make you jump, not to mention the overall creepiness that will be familiar to those who have seen 12 Monkeys. Totally worth it, though. It keeps the heartbeat up as you find yourself wondering who's gonna pop up next. And in the end, everyone may indeed live happily ever after.

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