Not Half So Funny As Some Appear To Think

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2012)

By the time of this movie's release, the Python team had already passed from being new and experimental, and into mainstream comedy. But in doing so, they re-defined humour for a whole generation.
Therefore, one might have expected this production to have been a little more polished than it is, even allowing for the spontaneous anarchy that was part of their style. However, this is not the case. At times it seems quite sloppy, and indeed rather boring.
I can recollect, in my youth, finding many things to laugh at when I first saw this production nearly 40 years ago. It had the great Python team going like stokers and lots of silly and surreal moments. Today, with my older, and perhaps drier, humour; things seem very different. I recently purchased (second-hand) the double-DVD special edition, and wanted desperately to rekindle that original spark, if only for 'old time's sake'. Sadly; it just wasn't there.
Occasional smirk-worthy moments could still be found - like the time when Arthur inadvertently 'oppresses' an opinionated surf, or the knight who never accepts defeat even when his limbs have been hacked off - but for the most part it seems pretty lame. Such is the resonance of 'Python' humour, even worldwide, that I found myself making-up excuses for its lack of appeal. For many, Monty Python has itself become the Holy Grail of comedy. Well, it isn't. And this work has more the amateurish appearance of a hastily cobbled together piece of footlights hokum. Something to engage the smug self-righteousness of drunken under-graduates.
Many things the Monty Python team created have indeed become standard-bearers of comedy greatness. But not everything was good. Objective and critical scrutiny must admit that some of their stuff could be pretty lousy. That's inevitable. The later, much more polished, 'Life Of Brian' was not only ground-breaking in its assault upon flatulent institutions, it's still downright funny, and remains an insightful analysis of human foibles.
'Brian' has stood the test of time, but 'The Holy Grail' is no more than what it represents itself to be - a failed search.