Time Bandits (1981)

Ever since it came out, Time Bandits has been one of my all-time favorite movies. Its Pythonesque DNA is evident throughout, which makes for encounters with fun and whimsy around every corner. Our story begins as Kevin (Craig Warnock) endures life as a child in suburban London, where his parents ignore him or send him to bed early as they stare vacuously at TV game shows and prattle on about the latest domestic appliances. Meanwhile, Kevin's bedroom poster of a knight on a horse comes sinuously alive and gallops into a forest that used to be (and then again is) his closet door. The next night, prepared with a flashlight and pack of supplies, he surprises a ragamuffin band of little people (on the run from the Supreme Being after tiring of their bit parts in maintaining Creation) and joins them on their adventure. They are enterprising vagabonds who have "borrowed" the Supreme Being's map of all time-space portals so they can go hop-skipping across fable and history looking for unstoried treasure. Their episodic antics are droll and hilarious -- imdb.com lists pages of memorable quotes -- as if The Princess Bride met Robin Hood: Little People in Tights. Eventually, the band runs afoul of the maleficent Evil (David Warner), who desperately wants the map so he can dominate the universe. Evil is admittedly cartoonish in his soundstage-sized lair with his doddering assistant Benson (whom he briefly turns into a dog) but that's part of his appeal -- his patter is a stitch. During the ultimate confrontation, Evil sneers, "If I were the Supreme Being, I wouldn't have wasted my time creating flowers and butterflies! I would have invented computers and digital watches!" Kevin and friends make their stand (in mawkish fashion with huns and barbarians, hootin'-an'-hollerin' cowboys, and bobbing starfighters) until the final resolution, thanks to the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson). Time Bandits is a fantasy tale to beat the band that pleasingly takes in, over the centuries, Sean Connery as Alexander the Great, John Cleese as Robin Hood, Ian Holm as Napoleon, and much more. Even the ending blurs the line between fantasy and suburbia as Kevin warns his parents "Don't touch it! It's Evil!" before the story comes full-circle to leave us looking down at Earth from the heavens. All the soundtrack needs to close is Monty Python tune "The Galaxy Song (Lighten Up)"! 5 stars. (4-8-09 posted 7-31-09)