Not Blasphemous, Just Insipid

Rating: 3/10 (23 May 2011)

Except for the funny stoning scene toward the beginning, and the song at the end, everything else in the movie misfires. Yes, the idea is that another man (Brian) is mistaken for the Messiah-but the story's big flaw is that the real Messiah is already present, briefly shown giving a sermon to a crowd. On top of that, there is nothing about Brian that would convince anyone he was the Messiah; he doesn't even pretend to be one. This gives the whole movie a contrived atmosphere.
The other scenes are hardly funny either. The Jews who plot against the Romans ask what the Roman occupiers have done for them, and as the scene goes on, the speaker amasses a list of benefits brought by the Romans. In a way, this glorifies colonialism and fails to explain why natives invariably come to despise their occupiers. There were plenty of reasons for the Jews to hate the Romans, but that is hardly brought up. Also, other jokes such as "Biggus Dickus" and Pontius Pilate not being able to say the letter "R" are juvenile without being funny.
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was much better because it was clever; this movie perhaps tried to be meaningful and simply blew it.