Fractured Fantasy

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2014)

The King Arthur legend is no doubt one of my favorite fantasies and throughout the years there have been multiple interpretations of the legend in the visual medium, so good and some bad but all the same that legend like so many other stories has lived on even to this day. I was even fascinated with the concept of lost/undiscovered relics and the Holy Grail of course is one of them, let alone on a side note I'm a Christian. Parodies comedies are another thing I really love and when I heard that there was a parody on this legend, I had to check it out and I wasn't disappointed. This film is one of my favorite comedies, parodies in the sub genre, but also one of my favorite films in general. On a side note this was the film that got me into the "Monty Python Flying Circus" skit show which at the time I never heard about.
There's really not much to say, this is one of those parodies that are done right like in most parodies it takes a story and turns it upside down and on it's head, while the characters all play it straight all unaware their in a parody. The whole flying circus ensemble are all in the film and they all as usual do a great job at making us laugh let alone, the fact they all play multiple roles in the movie.
Both the verbal and visual jokes are just fraking hilarious. Though I wouldn't say everyone of them are hits, like that whole verbal joke on swallows I always thought was boring but that's me. But that's what you get with most comedies and parodies, it's the ones that hit that count the most. Like in their skit show, each of the jokes are hilarious because of how smart or strange they really are; let alone how the film isn't afraid to go the extra mile sometimes with it's blood and violence which was revolutionary for it's time, it's now common in shows like "South Park".
There are so many scenes that are just memorable that I don't want to give them all away. From the introduction of the Holy Hand Grenade it's pretty much a verbal and visual joke going together, from the fact the item has a biblical passage, let alone it even exists in the Christian faith at all. But of course my favorite scene is The Tale of Sir Lancelot, where we see Lancelot battling. Well OK, I wouldn't really call it a battle, it was more of a slaughter as we see Lance is just constantly killing everyone in the castle not even stopping to take a breath, what makes it really hilarious is the fact that no one is putting up any resistance they've all practically set themselves up to be killed. I even love that swashbucking music which makes the sequence both exciting and all the more hilarious because it reflects just how crazy things really are.
I love how in a way the film itself is a character, from it's fourth wall breaking to just how aware of how low budget the film is made. Like the whole pretend horse thing which is hilarious because you easily see the person making the film is a complete money grubber that he didn't want to shell the money to buy real horses. Though all the same it's just hilarious how the actors for pretend horses still perform really well, as if they really are on horses. Let alone the ending which cracks me up because it's a payoff to a really strange subplot that's been going on, the subplot seemed like another episode from some procedural show. You could say it's if the procedural shows like "CSI", "NCIS", or any other you can think of ever crossed over with a fantasy story which when you think about is kinda a crazy but cool concept.
This film like the legend of the grail is ageless.
Rating: 4 stars