Uninspired, mediocre and decent; all of these words can describe Matt Damon and Heath Ledger’s fantasy/comedy, “The Brothers Grimm”. While it has a few entertaining scenes and Damon and Ledger’s on-screen chemistry is apparent, “The Brother’s Grimm doesn’t attach itself to a genre in the worst way; making viewers confused to either be scared at “The Brothers Grimm” or laugh at it.

Damon and Ledger play Will and Jacob Grimm, masters of the unknown … well sort of. The Grimm brothers have a talent for tricking the townspeople they encounter on their journeys into thinking their towns are enchanted with evil spirits and charge large sums of money to get rid of the evil doers. The first 20 minutes of the movie highlight their knack for recreating the unknown, proving the brothers are an 18th century version of Spielberg and Lucas.

It’s not until the French government finds out what their up to when they force the brothers  to catch someone whom they believe is up to the same games as they are. What unfolds is the brothers’ actualization of the unknown things in the world, with Jacob Grimm embracing the unknown to the fullest and saving the day and the life of Angelica, played by Lena Headey (The Cave, The Devils Advocate) who helps Jacob and Will find out the truth about the town and her “cursed” bloodline who are being secretly controlled by a 500-year-old queen, played by the extremely vivacious Monica Bellucci (The Matrix, Tears of the Sun).

Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean, Ronin) and Peter Stormare ( Minority Report, Constantine) provide some laughs as Delatombe and Cavaldi, turning in solid performances, but not even that can shake the confusion this picture creates.

The reason why “The Brothers Grimm” doesn’t strike gold  is simple; it doesn’t do enough to set itself apart from other films in its genre. The special effects aren’t up to par with “Harry Potter,” its production value isn’t anywhere near “Lord of the Rings” and while there are some funny scenes in the movie, there aren’t enough in the film to make the movie a great fantasy/comedy picture.

Taken at the sum of its parts, “The Brothers Grimm” is a decent movie with good on-screen chemistry between its two stars that is worth watching. When compared to the bevy of great Sci-Fi fantasy movies out on DVD right now however, “The Brothers Grimm” doesn’t add anything new to the genre and despite the few smiles it may induce, it isn’t worth the price of admission.

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