Rumor Mill: TIME BANDITS Being Rebooted?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by J. J. Hunsecker

Maybe it was the "cynical satire" that made people think Time Bandits was a "'cool' 80's kids' film"? You never know what audiences are reacting to. Maybe they were in tune with Gilliam on this one.

Not unless you were sitting in the audience.
One review praised "This is what Raiders of the Lost Ark SHOULD have been!"...A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, in terms of fall-'81 currency, but does emphasize that the audience looked at it as a cleverly plotted kids film, and yes, the Harry Potter Of Its Day.
They liked the opening "dream" fakeout, they liked the cool big head chasing our heroes, they liked John Cleese, they liked Sean Connery

[Show spoiler](and when the three "tall" dancers turned into six short ones, you could hear the "oh, no..." of recognition)

, they liked the escape from Napoleon, and they liked the big battle with David Warner at the end.

While the whole brick-subtle fourth-Monty-Python-season Gilliam Satire gags at the beginning (like the parents talking about 30-second cookers, and wondering if dinner had "gone down yet") just seemed to lay there in a leaden heap, while we wondered just why the heck Terry was so belaboredly beating them into the ground.
Terry, you can do Harry Potter, or you can do Brazil, but you CAN'T DO BOTH...And when you try to, they turn in to "Adventures of Baron Munchhausen", spend more money than they need to baffling their audience, and fall on their face. In this case, 1981 audiences liked the Harry Potter half of it, and wished we could have that director back again.