Foul

Rating: 1/10 (5 August 2014)

Whenever I say this film revolted me, people look knowingly, or smugly, or even pityingly at me, and say, ah, it offended your religious beliefs, you thought it blasphemy. No, I say, I don't have any religious beliefs and it was something far worse than blasphemous. It was inhuman. For the record, this film is a blatant and obvious con-trick, and was always meant to be that. By making schoolboy jokes about supposed Christianity, and the clichÃ©s of Biblical epic movies, the Monty Python gang could pretend that they were being terribly daring, that they were prepared to risk their reputations by taking on the might of the Church. They did nothing of the sort. The jokes are just stupid, and often very nasty, demeaning to common humanity; they're not in the least satirical or brave or savage. They're also not funny. But, because jokes about religious matters were uncommon in dumb comedies in 1979, the brain-dead idolaters of the team could tell themselves that it was real cutting-edge stuff, and then the Pythons could add to their unmerited lustre by pretending they were somehow "more than merely funny". More than funny? Come off it. I smiled momentarily maybe four times, mostly thanks to the uncredited Spike Milligan, who, in a few seconds of screen-time, was better value than the whole of the rest of the cast. The film reeks of contempt for its own fans; you will find this hilarious, it commands us, because we tell you it is, and you will be grateful that we have condescended to entertain you. It is, in fact, vulgar swill which cheapens us all, and its admirers should be ashamed of themselves.