Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is a terrible, terrible movie

[DS1]

[GCP]

1. What don't you like about it?

[DS1]

2. Everything.

[IntravenousDemilo]

3. I'd say the second half is pretty dull, but the first half up to and including Mr Creosote...

...is great. And the "Crimson Personal Assurance" trailer at the beginning is truly inspired and imaginative filmmaking.

[jobycom]

4. You probably got the Idiot's Version, that they give out to dumb people who don't know good stuff

I got the good version. :)

And Highlander kicked ass!

[DS1]

5. uh huh

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Not my favorite MP, but...

...I'm a sucker for Eric Idle sitting in the tent with his leg chewed off by the tiger, asking "It'll grow back...won't it?"

:rofl:

[DS1]

7. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood

:shrug:

[Mrs.Matcom]

8. "if" you were sober...

you were in the wrong mood!! :D

[DS1]

11. I was

x(

[Amerigo Vespucci]

31. No, that one line's pretty much the only thing I like in the movie.

Too bad it couldn't have been in another movie, because Idle's timing, facial expression and tone of voice on that one line is definitely one of his greatest hits.

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. It's just terribly uneven

The good bits are very, very good, but the rest is slow and often seems rather forced.



Maybe you watched the version that doesn't go *ping!*

[DS1]

12. I heard the 'ping' now and then

I'd seen most of the bits a number of times, and perhaps I was hoping for some new bit I miraculously hadn't yet seen. Still, I was sadly disappointed by the whole thing, and found myself skipping through the heavily worn areas of the movie.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. I do that too

I skip through "Crimson Permanent Assurance" and "The Adventures of Martin Luther." After that, it's good until that stupid bit with Idle and Palin in tiger suits, right after Perkins gets his leg bitten sort of... off. After that, it's downhill except for Mr. Creosote.



Oh — and, of course, the topless women in football helmets chasing Graham Chapman.

(Irony?)

[DS1]

16. Irony?

Indeed. I did rewind that bit, brunette in front is very cute.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Yeah, I guess there's no irony

in a gay man running from half-nekkid women — although he chose that method of execution, so... :shrug:

Oh, btw — in the bit with Chapman singing "It's Christmas in Heaven," one of the chorus girls is Jane Leeves, who was Daphne in "Frasier."

[DS1]

18. Yeah, I got that

:)

[Orsino]

20. That "leg bitten, well, sort of...off" is my favorite line...

...along with the doctor's skeptical "let's have a look at this 'one leg' of yours." All you need to know about British understatement right there.

The movie is Python writ large, with a budget (finally) large enough to follow where they lead. It's fundamentally different from anything else they'd done, and was unfortunately made when they were no longer consistently hilarious.

I find it intermittently brilliant, with some dull stretches. "What's wrong with a kiss, boy?"

[YellowRubberDuckie]

10. YEs.

Especially the part where the guy is vomiting in the restaurant and then explodes. WTF was the point?
Of course I sort of thought the same thing about the other MP movies.
Duckie

[DS1]

13. That part was funny as hell when I was a kid

Cleese's French accent was great, and Terry Jones played a good pig, but this time watching was just meh

[pokerfan]

15. Oh Lord, Please Don't Burn Us!

I will admit that it was hit and miss (as is all sketch comedy) but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-z-0gBqXVQ">this number was vicious satire on the Catholics and Protestants. Then there's the brilliant (and accurate) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbjXFS8Zag">Galaxy Song.

[vixengrl]

23. The Galaxy Song is like, the main psalm of my

personal nonreligion.

And on another, unrelated note, like Jobycom said, Highlander did kick ass. Both movies impacted my life-- I made out with a major crush of my high school junior year to a Monty Python soundtrack.(Seriously. Ever french-kissed to the Lumberjack Song? Cherished, albeit weird memory.) I have a sumurai sword and a Highlander website. Um--I may have said too much. Actually, even though I've hit the "Post Message" button, I'm sure I have.

Oh well.

[pokerfan]

25. Ever see the final sword fight in Rob Roy?

http://www.youtube.com/v/SVaslN1NiT0&hl=en

[vixengrl]

28. I hadn't, but I'm glad you linked it.

It was like, the difference between the art of the sword as an athletic exercise, and war. Quite dramatic and well done.

[pokerfan]

29. It's considered one of the best

and it was choreographed by Bill Hobbs, one of the best in the business.

Note the contrast in styles between the rapier and the broadsword. And of course, it was the villain's own arrogance and pride that leads to his demise, when he could have dispatched Liam Neeson at pretty much any point in the match.

[nomorenomore08]

19. "Every sperm is sacred"? The hands-on sex ed lesson? The racist restaurant manager?

How does that add up to a terrible movie? Honestly, as revered as "The Holy Grail" is by some, "The Meaning of Life" might be my favorite Python movie.

[pokerfan]

27. The hands-on sex ed lesson

Everyone knows that the woman is Patricia Quinn, right? AKA Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[Iggo]

21. "But I didn't touch the mousse!"

Death's a dick!:rofl:

[Aristus]

24. I AM DEATH! I HAVE COME FOR YOU!!

...







...







..."Well, that puts a bit of a spot on the evening, doesn't it?"


Beautiful British understatement.

[Fenris]

22. Oh yes BUT it has enough breasts in it to justify its existence.

When I was in the seventh grade I bought a copy on VHS from the Costco in Simi Valley. I ended up passing it around to various boys I knew, whom I had enticed with descriptions of sex lessons and being chased to your death by naked women. For a brief period of time, I was the coolest kid at Chaparral Middle School. Ah, the glory days before default Internet access - you took what you could get.

As a film, though, its an incomprehensible mess. Plus, it provided the world with the "Penis Song."

[jus_the_facts]

26. You're just WRONG.

:silly:

[asthmaticeog]

30. I respectfully disagree. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. I thought parts of it were inspired.

The only part I would have thrown out was the exploding man. That was just too gross.

The Galaxy Song is fabulous, as is Every Sperm is Sacred.

"It's medical experiments for the lot of you!"

[loveangelc]

33. I have never watched a Mony Python movie.

i tried watching one and fell asleep

[MrSlayer]

34. Have to disagree with you entirely on this one bud.

Meaning of Life is hilarious.

[Richard Steele]

35. Yes it is. If Monty Python was your awesome Grandfather who INSPIRED you when you were a kid...

...watching that movie was like visiting him in the nursing home
when you're 35.

He's still recognizable and has occasional moments of lucidity....
but, all in all, he's a pale ghost of his former self for most of the visit.

[Up2Late]

36. Sorry, I think it was one of their best...

...but then again, I hated "Life of Brian," yet I know a lot of people think that it was one is their best ever, I just didn't find it funny (Life of Brian, that is).

[JVS]

37. I grew up watching that movie.

[Blue_Tires]

38. no...no it isn't

every sperm is sacred
hands-on sex ed
the kids getting their asses kicked in rugby
the zulu war
christmas in heaven
the dude running off the cliff being chased by the bouncing titten

not saying it's the best, but it has some great moments