The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the story of an outrageous and mendacious storyteller unbelievably based on an actual person, was a hugely popular novel in the first part of the twentieth century though is now largely forgotten.

But, this so tall it has snow on the top tale of a 17th century aristocrat and his band of fantastically gifted cohorts and a little girl, and their attempts to repel the invading Turk army from her city, is a glorious, undisciplined riot from beginning to end.

Gathering up his band of merry men means journeying to the Moon, into the depths of Hades and the belly of a sea monster, all vividly brought to life in Gilliam's inimitable style.

Popular opinion on Gilliam's supposed inability to tell a coherent story may have stemmed from Baron Munchausen. Brazil, The Fisher King and Twelve Monkeys are all perfectly sustained and Gilliam even managed to impose some order on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

But, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is all over the place and probably best viewed as a string of dazzlingly realised short stories rather than a whole movie.

The film takes a long time to get going as it attempts to set the scene, but once the Baron embarks on his quest Gilliam lets his imagination run free and is ably assisted by a starry cast of cameos including an uncredited Robin Williams as the King of the Moon, Oliver Reed as a Lucifer figure and Uma Thurman as the Goddess Venus.

John Neville is perfect casting as the Baron, and it's nice to see Eric Idle as the world's fastest man, a reminder that he once acted and did not just provide voiceovers. The then eight year old Sarah Polley matches Neville beat for beat, and would later become the Indy flick queen of choice, thanks to turns in The Sweet Hereafter and Go.

The set-pieces may seem quaint by current CGI augmented standards, but are a glorious combination of vast sets and imaginative model works, all done for real and shot with a visual abracadabra.

The climactic beach battle between the Baron's eccentric crew and the Turkish army has a strong man throwing three galleons into the marauding hordes, Eric Idle's Billy Whizz character outrunning a bullet and redirecting it back to the sniper who fired it, plus the best tracking shot of modern times (when the Baron is about to have his head chopped off).

The late Dawn Steel, then heading up Columbia Pictures, buried the film on initial release and consigned Gilliam largely to director for hire status.

But, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is endlessly watchable and continues to take on a new life long after Steel shuffled off.

Somewhere you can hear Terry giggling.

Rob Daniel