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MONTY
PYTHON'S
THE MEANING OF LIFE |
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"The Meaning Of
Life? 42. Oh, Wait.
Wrong Movie." |
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Directed by Terry
Gilliam, Terry Jones -
Written by Graham
Chapman, John Cleese
Starring Terry Gilliam,
Terry Jones, Graham
Chapman, John Cleese,
Eric Idle
Distributed by Universal -
1983- 107mins - Rated R |
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It took God six days to create the Earth, and Monty Python just 90
minutes to screw it up. |
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It's
very hard to review "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" because it is
such a mixed bag. The first half is incredibly strong and hilarious,
while the second half is truly hit and miss, with a few more hits than
misses.
The film really has no plot. It's just a series of sketches that
attempt to explain the meaning of life. The first half has a hilarious
look at birth, education and war. The second half just seems to
abandon the format and become random and weak.
Firs, the good things. As usual, the animation by Terry Gilliam is
great, and many of the sketches are drop-dead hilarious. The Zulu
attack on a British fort, the Find the Fish sequence, the birth
sequence...
The best part of the film is the music. The songs here are some of the
best the troupe ever created. "The Meaning of Life," "Every Sperm is
Sacred," "The Galaxy Song" and even the brief "Penis Song" are all
wonderfully realized pieces of comedy. When the film was over, I
re-watched the scenes that they were performed in.
Now, the tidal wave of negatives. The dumbing-down of the second half,
too much obvious gross out humor, a lackluster final song and dance
number that is plain boring...if you haven't guessed by now, that
second half really is a let down.
Monty Python fans will enjoy this, but don't look for the comic
perfection of "Holy Grail." |
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
Email
Me! |
TC Candler's Comment
I laughed
quite a lot... As I always do with Monty Python
efforts. However, I've started to tire of
them a little.
Richard Propes' Comment
n/a
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