The silliness, spontaneity, and general comedic difference
of Monty Python is deconstructed, dissected and compressed into an hour and a
half of random, questionable, and silly sketches that will have you laughing
one moment and then staring blankly at your screen the next. Such is the
humour, such is the style; such is life really.
It’s been thrown into sharp relief that I only like Monty
Python when it’s the movies: Life of Brian and Holy Grail. Don’t get
me wrong, some of sketches are very clever, witty, and very funny, but there is
randomness and there is randomness and for me, this quirkily jagged collection
of the ‘best bits’ of Monty Python’s
Flying Circus just doesn’t make me laugh as much as when I was younger. I
remember watching this once before and really liking it and the second time
around was a bit of a let down really. It’s a shame but it’s true and remember
this is only one person’s opinion who, it’s fair to say, has no qualifications
or credits to her name as a film critic or writer. I’m just a movie fan writing
what I think and feel. That is all.
The silliness, spontaneity, and general
comedic difference of Monty Python is deconstructed, dissected and compressed
into an hour and a half of random, questionable, and silly sketches that will have
you laughing one moment and then staring blankly at your screen the next. Such
is the humour, such is the style; such is life really.
Amongst the plethora of
sketches that make up this 90-minute feature are some real classics and gems.
Sketches such as the ‘Lumberjack song’, the ‘mountain expedition’ sketch, and
the ‘dead parrot’ sketch are particular favourites within the Monty Python
repertoire, so it’s fun to have them on the screen.
In everything Monty Python
the use of animation plays a certain role, but in this film it serves as more
than a mere interlude between scenes or character segments or chapters. The
little animations tell stories of their own and for both the vintage and the
modern viewer the animation is particularly fascinating because it’s a montage
of different animations styles that are blended together to create something
that’s really one-of-a-kind. Monty Python animation blends claymation,
stop-motion, and cartoon and comes out with something entirely its own that has
never been seen again on any other film or feature.
Starring John Cleese,
Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Carol
Cleveland, and Connie Booth, Monty
Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different is an enjoyable
collection of sketches: some of which are highly entertaining and some of which
are just there with a question mark. Filled with romance, drama, war, action,
explosions, gender bending, irony, sincerity, and plenty of comedy, I enjoyed
it just fine, but I can’t bring myself to love it like I do Holy Grail and Life of Brian.
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