Synopsis
Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.
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Cast
- Craig WarnockKevin
- David RappaportRandall
- Kenny BakerFidgit
- Mike EdmondsOg
- Malcolm DixonStrutter
- Tiny RossVermin
- Jack PurvisWally
- Ian HolmNapoleon
- John CleeseRobin Hood
- Sean ConneryKing Agamemnon / Fireman
Recommendations
- 100
Empire
For a kids film this is pleasingly dark with Gilliam delivering as much classical fairy tale as knockabout comedy. - 100
ReelViews
The blend of quick-moving adventure, familiar faces, lowbrow slapstick, highbrow wit, and visual style offers more than one thing to just about everyone. And, with an ending that mocks the idea of happily ever after, Time Bandits concludes perfectly. - 100
Time Out London
An extraordinarily inventive fantasy in which schoolboy Warnock is rescued from a dull suburban existence by a band of renegade dwarfs, who emerge from his wardrobe and whisk him off on an incredible journey through time and space. Sometime Monty Python animator Gilliam fills the screen with bizarre images, and directs with a breathless ingenuity. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
This wild and sometimes woolly fantasy is delivered in the customary chaotic Python style, resulting in an onslaught of witticisms and slapstick. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
First reactions while viewing Time Bandits: It's amazingly well-produced. The historic locations are jammed with character and detail. This is the only live-action movie I've seen that literally looks like pages out of Heavy Metal magazine, with kings and swordsmen and wide-eyed little boys and fearsome beasts. - 75
Slant Magazine
Good as the cameos are, however, the lasting draw of the film is its exceptional aesthetic. Gilliam keeps his camera low in a child’s perspective, and wide-angle lenses only exacerbate the magnified sense of scale that everything has. - 70
The New York Times
Time Bandits is a cheerfully irreverent lark - part fairy tale, part science fiction and part comedy. It's a fantastic though wobbly flight through history and legend in the company of a small boy named Kevin and six dwarfs named Randall, Fidgit, Wally, Og, Stutter and Vermin. - 70
The Dissolve
It’s sloppy and slippery, but for a $5 million movie, it’s remarkable.
