Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

USA Today
"...Witty....Movie-magical....This is a movie that bludgeons you with dazzle..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars 03/10/1989 p.1D

Variety
"...Fantastically imaginative conceptual and visual aspects..." 01/18/1989

Premiere
"Polley the child actress is spunky..." 04/01/2004 p.98

Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he visuals remain stunning..." -- Grade: B 04/18/2008 p.52

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] weirdly wonderful fantasy..." 05/01/2008 p.159

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]here's enough silliness and spirit to waft the clouds from a rainy Sunday afternoon." 06/01/2008 p.136

Chicago Sun Times 0 of 10
...One of the charms of seeing The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was to see some of the baron's other impossible adventures, looking for all the world as if they had really happened, thanks to extraordinary special effects. For adults, this is a "special effects movie," and we approach it in that spirit, also appreciating the sly wit and satire that sneaks in here and there from director Terry Gilliam and his collaborators, who were mostly forged in the mill of Monty Python. They have not made a "children's movie," but children may find it fascinating, because these adventures involve castles and sultans and horses and knights and the man in the moon - subjects that seem fresh, now that the high-tech hardware of outer space is taken for granted by most kids. Terry Gilliam's film is, in itself, a tribute to the spirit of the good baron. Gilliam must have had to embellish a few war stories himself, to get Columbia Pictures to spend a reported $46 million on this project, which is one of the three or four most expensive films ever made. The special effects are astonishing, but so is the humor with which they are employed. It is not enough that one of the baron's friends is the fastest runner in the world. He must run all the way to Spain and back in an hour, to fetch a bottle of wine and save the baron's neck. And he must be able to outrun a speeding bullet, stop it, and redirect it back toward the man who fired it... Some of the effects in this movie are actually quite wonderful, as when the baron and a friend return from the moon by climbing down two lengths of the same rope again and again, while the markings of a celestial globe apportion the sky behind them. In another scene, a giant feather falls softly onto a vast plain, while the baron tries to understand what strange new world he has found. Neville, a veteran of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, keeps his composure in the midst of these special effects, and seems sensible and matter-of-fact, as anyone would if they had spent a lifetime growing accustomed to the incredible. - Roger Ebert
 
The Washington Post 0 of 10
Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a wondrous feat of imagination. In terms of sheer inventiveness, it makes the other movies around these days look paltry and underfed. The worlds Gilliam has created here are like the ones he created in his animations for Monty Python -- they have a majestic peculiarity. And you're constantly amazed by the freshness and eccentricity of what is pushed in front of your eyes. As a director, Gilliam is a genuine novelty -- a fire-and-brimstone fantasist. His assault on the senses is relentless; he never lets up, never gives us a chance to catch our breath. Visually, the film -- which was shot by Fellini's longtime cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno -- is miraculously, almost perversely dense. The director gives Munchausen the antic personality of a cartoon, but Gilliam's fantasies aren't light. His dream universe has gravity. If it's a place where men ride through the sky on cannonballs and sail to the moon, it's also one where the flesh sags. - Hal Hinson