In 1990, Francis Ford Coppola failed miserably in trying to create a adequate third part to the Godfather trilogy.

Last year, Martin Scorsese showed audiences across the country just how boring crime can be when done the same way over and over in his movie Casino ( alias Goodfellas II).

Even Quentin Tarantino’s name has become a buzz-word that is associated with the guns, glam and glory genre movies that he has exploited so well over the past four years and which will inevitably bury his name in movie-goers guide books by the year 2000.

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In a decade that is seeing so many powerhouse directors dying at the hands of their own monsters, what is a director, who relies on one genre for all his movies, to do? In the case of Terry Gilliam, you stick to your guns and to what you know, but just replan and organize. Most importantly, add a couple of new twists to your style.

Gilliam’s newest adventure, 12 Monkeys, follows in the same line as earlier Gilliam movies ( Brazil, The Fisher King, Time Bandits, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Adventures of Baron Munchaunsen). The difference in 12 Monkeys is that Gilliam jumps on the superstar-suspense bandwagon without losing the fantastic-fantasy story line that makes each of his films distinct.

In 12 Monkeys, a deadly virus has killed 5 billion people, leaving only a small percentage of the world’s population alive. With only a few humans left on earth, animals have taken over the world, forcing people to live underground.

In the underground world, a hierarchy is established, and like in other futuristic works, such as Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, it is a totalitarian system.

James Cole (Bruce Willis) is a life-long criminal, and, like many other criminals, he is sent to the topside of the earth to gather specimens in an attempt to find why animals are immune to the virus.

But in a mission in which he can gain a pardon, Willis is sent back in time to track down the virus in order to stop it before it nearly destroys the human race.

Through many failures, he experiences time travel numerous times in a trial-and-error crusade.

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Jumping back and forth in time and space has a history of getting confused or even corny in many blockbuster movies. But Gilliam smoothly crafts the act of time travel by weaving in and out of decades while letting the viewer know where they have landed.

But the key elements that keep the movie from falling into the time-travel trashbin are the performances by the three main characters, Cole (Bruce Willis), Jefferey (Brad Pitt), and Dr. Railly (Madeleine Stowe). Even though Willis’ performance in Pulp Fiction served as a transitional point in his career, his role in 12 Monkeys goes even further. Willis gives his best performance to date as the hardened Cole.

Not knowing whether he is crazy or if he is really traveling through time, Willis creates a constant aura of psychosis that smothers his personae like a blanket.

Though his role is the most dominant, Willis is in good company. Brad Pitt also gives the best ,or at least his most creative, performance of his career. He plays the psychotic Jefferey, whom Cole meets in a mental hospital in the first of his time travels. Gyrating and jumping with a neurotic nervous compulsion, this role will do for Pitt what Born on the Fourth of July did for Tom Cruise. From here on out, no more of the kitty-kat glamour image. Pitt has now stepped into new territory.

Out of all of the roles in the movie, Pitt’s is hardest to pinpoint. Whereas Cole does not know whether he is crazy or not, viewers know Jefferey is crazy, but the extent of his madness is not perceivable because his changing in levels of psychosis portrayed by Pitt throughout the movie. This adds to the whole concept of uncertainty that viewers will feel until the end.

The only part viewers can be certain of is Dr. Railly (Madaleine Stowe) who serves as the only clear-minded, sane personality in the movie. Stowe plays the emotional psychiatrists of Cole and Jefferey. Stowe brings with her the personalities from past suspense movies she has played in (Blink, Unlawful Entry). It is through her role that the movie strays from the typical Gilliam fantasy movie and drops into the suspense-drama realm.

Once again Stowe plays her part well , but her part is partially responsible for a dilemma. Is 12 Monkeys a suspense drama or a futuristic sci-fi movie, or both? And if both, does the mixture work well?

The movie is both. And yes they do work well together. But the movie does jump back and forth between each. Many of the scenes in the mental institution are reminiscent of Brazil. Filled with out-of-tune carousel music, the scenes create a feeling of dissolution in both the characters and the viewer. However, that is Gilliam’s turf, and he somehow always makes it work.

In The Fisher King, Gilliam drops a realistic, humanistic backdrop to a movie (like the suspense-drama backdrop in 12 Monkeys) that has an underlying feeling of psychosis. And in Monkeys, he once again makes it work.

But more than anything, through its twisted loops in time and plot, 12 Monkeys will leave audiences in deep thought as well as in awe for days after they see it.

Grade-h h h h . Four stars on an five point scale.