Amazon.com Essentials:
Could this be the funniest movie ever made? By any rational
measure of comedy, this medieval romp from the Monty Python
troupe certainly belongs on the short list of candidates. According to
Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, it's "recommended for
fans only," but we say hogwash to that--you could be a complete
newcomer to the Python phenomenon and still find this send-up
of the Arthurian legend to be wet-your-pants hilarious. It's basically
a series of sketches woven together as King Arthur's quest for the
Holy Grail, with Graham Chapman as the King, Terry Gilliam as his
simpleton sidekick Patsy, and the rest of the Python gang filling out
a variety of outrageous roles. The comedy highlights are too numerous
to mention, but once you've seen Arthur's outrageously bloody
encounter with the ominous Black Knight (John Cleese), you'll know
that nothing's sacred in the Python school of comedy. From holy
hand grenades to killer bunnies to the absurdity of the three-headed
knights who say "Ni--!," this is the kind of movie that will strike
you as fantastically funny or just plain silly, but why stop there?
It's all over the map, and the pace lags a bit here and there, but for
every throwaway gag the Pythons have invented, there's a bit of subtle
business or grand-scale insanity that's utterly inspired. The sum of
this madness is a movie that's beloved by anyone with a pulse and an
irreverent sense of humor. If this movie doesn't make you laugh,
you're almost certainly dead. --Jeff Shannon
