Not as good as Life of Brian, but worth watching

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2004)

This Monty Python film is great, partly because it works on several levels; it works as a straight up typical Monty Python movie(which in itself ensures hilarity) and as a spoof of many of the old "medieval times" based films. The plot is pretty good, and less disjointed than that of other Monty Python creations, so if you're looking for a linear time line based film, then this might interest you. The plot does move along a little slowly, though, even for a Monty Python film(slower than Life of Brian, for example), and the film suffers a little under that. The jokes and sight gags make up for it, but it still does seem a little slow, especially on repeated viewings. The acting is good, as it typically is with Monty Python films. I can't really comment on the characters, but I guess they pretty much stay in character all through the film. The humor is good, but not as great as it is in Life of Brian, though that may be because I've seen it too many times. I don't know, I just wasn't really laughing at any point when I saw this. I knew that it was funny, and a few of the gags do stick in my mind as amusing, but when watching it I couldn't even muster up a slight chuckle. In fact, about an hour into the film, I was getting tired with the film, and hoped that it would end soon. I don't dislike the film, nor do I have anything against the humor, I just think I've grown tired with it. When it's not new and in-your-face anymore, it just loses impact, I guess. The film has plenty of entertaining sequences, and the gags and jokes are mostly quite good. It even has a few very memorable scenes, such as the the Black Knight scene, and the witch scene. The dialog is as sharp as the Python's dialog usually are, and there is more good dialog than there is in Life of Brian. All in all, a good Monty Python film, but just slightly inferior to Life of Brian. I recommend it to any fan of Monty Python, and fans of dark and silly humor in general. 8/10