Sure, it's great madcap comedy, but it doesn't quite hold up

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2003)

As another reviewer so aptly stated, this film used to appear to be the funniest movie ever. And maybe that was because I was younger and dumber (not to say that the true fans of this movie are dumb), but as I watched it again recently, I could appreciate it, and yet never found myself doubling over with laughter. This is a classic example of comedy- that's a given, but somehow after several viewings and a lifetime of people continuously repeating the dialogue, it has lost something. Recently, I have found the comedies I enjoy the most are more subtler and not as broad (with the exception of the ZAZ team comedies, which manage with ease to be both), like "Annie Hall," "Waiting for Guffman," etc. More than any genre of film, comedy is the most subjective, and when the AFI released it's list of the 100 Greatest Comedies, I knew that regardless of the talent surveyed, the list would hardly please anyone entirely. Some people cannot stand black and white comedies, some cannot stand gross-out comedies, some hate slapstick, some hate puns, but no one can agree on one type of comedy that is universal. And before this turns completely into an essay on film comedy, I will close by saying that "Monty Python" should be seen by film comedy fans and if they don't like it, it's no big deal. While it may not bring the huge laughs for me that it once did, it has become a staple of our film culture, like it or not, and at the very least when I watch it, I can clearly see why.