It lacks the mad surrealism of "Holy Grail" and "Flying Circus," but it has its moments

Rating: 4/10 (19 January 2014)

The Pythons' 1979 movie has its moments but doesn't replicate the mix of intellectualism and absurdity that defined "Flying Circus" and "Holy Grail." "Brian" is altogether too linear and grounded for the Pythons. One notable exception, an alien abduction, feels a bit strained, like a conscious attempt to do something random. It would have been one of the most pedestrian segues on an episode of "Flying Circus."
Moreover, religious fundamentalism seems far too easy a target for the Pythons. Satire was always an important part of their act, and there are some very funny instances of it here at the expense of the People's Front of Judea (PFJ) and its similarly-named but much-despised splinter groups, but nothing quite as sharply-written as the exchange with the anarcho-syndicalist peasant in "Holy Grail." Moreover, the scenes never seem to end quickly enough after the points have been scored. The same wells, whether PFJ infighting or crowds slavishly following (and misunderstanding) prophets, are visited so often that the movie becomes predictable and stale, adjectives not often heard in reference to the most influential sketch comedy troupe of all time.
The best bits here are more low-brow: Romans with sophomoric names that send the centurions into uncontrollable giggling fits, and straight- faced full-frontal nudity. Even in these cases, though, incredibly slow pacing saps some of the humor. A gag about speech impediments, for example, takes ages to play out to its conclusion. The film ends well, though, with a perfectly earnest Eric Idle singing the hilarious earworm "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."
Some religious groups and even entire nations (Ireland and Norway) took the Pythons' bait and reacted with great offense to the release of "Brian," a fact that says a lot more about the time period than it does about the movie, which hardly justifies such a response. From a contemporary perspective "Flying Circus" seems far more subversive than "Brian" in the sense that it forged new comedic ground and tested the limits of the television format. "Brian" doesn't reach beyond what the Pythons had already achieved, and, in failing to succeed at anything different, compares unfavorably.