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Originally Posted by iank  Monty Python's Meaning of Life. The weakest of the three MP movies, given it's basically just an extended episode of the sketch show rather than an actual film/story, but amusing enough. |
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Originally Posted by nosferatu42 Brian is my favourite,so many classic scenes and the added enjoyment of winding up devout christians. 
Meaning of life comes next because its so off the wall, love the fishes and the surreal moments, also the grim reaper part is brilliant, the penis song, the liver/ universe song, wafer thin mint etc..., i love it more because it's subversive and more like a great episode of flying circus.
Holy grail has great scenes but it just doesn't do it for me, the ending doesn't help either, just seems they couldn't be arsed to finish it properly.  |
Monty Python and The Holy Grail is easily my favourite and, I think, the best of the Python's films. It has the tightest script, most issued direction, and probably best performances from the comedy ensemble, which is remarkable given how badly Graham Chapman was struggling with his alcohol addiction at the time. In terms of the ending and cutting between the adventures of King Arthur and his knights and the 'historian', it's probably the first 'film within a film', with the historical elements as fantasy – deliberately so – when contrasted with the present-day setting of the historian, his wife, and the police.
Monty Python's Life of Brian is the next best to do a brilliantly satirical take on petty party politics (the many references to anti-Roman factions) and surprisingly well judged commentary on the life of Jews and resistance movements opposed to the Roman Empire. It is clever enough to know that isn't sufficient for a film to have longevity, so both sides of the argument need to be told, hence why the 'what have the Romans ever done for us?' scene is so relevant when applied to more contemporary things, such as the European Convention on Human Rights.
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is one of my favourite musicals, a smart and silly film which is at its best when songs by Eric idle are coupled with superbly directed song and dance routines, or pointing out the stupidity of war for blindly following religious dogma to the detriment of your family, or sending up British institutions like public school and the army.
And Now for Something Completely Different is an extension of the TV show, a greatest hits compilation extended to a feature length film, something always worth watching, but without the careful construction of the two films which followed, or enjoying the almost limitless creative freedom of their last film.