(12A, 118mins): Starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Monica Bellucci and Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Terry Gilliam

Talk about setting yourself up for a fall.

Take a patchy (albeit occasionally brilliant) director, chuck in some woefully miscast actors, edit the thing together so plot holes pop up like craters in the moon and then give the critics an opportunity to capitalise on it all with a gift of a title - not a great idea.

Grimm stuff indeed as Terry Gilliam misses a great opportunity, presenting as he does a gorgeous-looking folly which manages to miss the mark at every possible turn.

Jacob (Ledger) and Will (Damon) Grimm are a pair of enterprising con men who prey on the superstitious villagers of Napoleonic-era Germany by creating hoax exorcisms of fake witches, trolls and all manner of folkloric beasties.

Making a mint out of the pea-brained peasants, the siblings' scam, however, is soon discovered by the maniacal French nobleman Delatombe (Pryce).

Threatened with execution, the brothers are offered an out if they can solve the mystery of missing girls who have been vanishing in an enchanted forest.

Thinking it's an elaborate scam similar to their own oeuvre, the Grimms discover that something wicked (and witchy) their way comes.

What should have been a delightfully twisted fairy tale unfortunately is a complete mess as the cast battles to find sense in the senseless while the plot jumps from one scene to another without any acceptable resolution.

Another Gilliam could-have-been has apparently slipped through the net - unhappily ever after, it seems.

Showing at cinemas across Sussex from today.