Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
A Monkey's Tale (1999)
Director: Jean-François Laguionie
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Centuries ago, a once happy tribe of monkeys was split asunder by a cataclysmic flood. Today, one half - the Woonkos - live in the jungle canopy, and other half - the Laankos - on terra firma. They despise each other. Then a gregarious young whippersnapper called Kom falls from the Woonkos' tree-top world into the hands of their arch enemy, charms the pants off them, and begins to sow a few seeds of peace, love and understanding. A happy reunion is inevitable. You can't knock the message - communication, racial harmony, interaction, oneness - but it's all so glaringly obvious, so contrived, so PC. Brits Hurt and Mayall do their darndest to inject some character into their parts, but truth is, the makers of this Euro production could have hired anyone. As for the naff animation, characters look like they're sketched in crayon, backgrounds like bleached-out watercolours. Even Westlife get a look in with an unappealing song called 'We Are One'.Author: DA
Cast & crew
Director: Jean-François Laguionie
Producer: Steve Walsh, Patrick Moine, Gerd Hecker
Cast: Matt Hill, John Hurt, Michael York, Sally-Anne Marsh, Rik Mayall, Michael Gambon, Shirley Anne Field, Diana Quick full cast
Duration: 79 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A holiday guide to movie dystopias
‘Going anywhere nice this summer, sir?’ To celebrate the release of Pixar’s sublime post-apocalyptic robo-romance ‘Wall-E’, Time Out offers a tour guide of the best future worlds in film
Eddie Murphy's Crimes Against Cinema
We all remember the comic highs of 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Bowfinger', but Eddie Murphy has been in a fair few stinkers as well. Time Out to presents a handy rundown of his ten darkest cinematic hours...
Olly Blackburn meets Nic Roeg
Nic Roeg is the director of ‘Performance’, ‘Don’t Look Now’ and, most recently, ‘Puffball’. Olly Blackburn is the man behind ‘Donkey Punch’, a thriller about a holiday gone wrong. We sent Olly to meet his legendary colleague
The nine rules of ’80s fantasy
Unpack the VCR and fire up the soda stream as Time Out celebrates a golden age of Hollywood family filmmaking






What do you think?
Post your review now