Nuns on the Run
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
After their boss is killed during a bank heist, London gangsters Brian Hope (Idle) and Charlie McManus (Coltrane) desire to lead more peaceful lives in Brazil, disapproving of their new younger and more brash boss, Casey (Patterson). While planning to rob a local Triad gang of their ill-gotten drug money, Brian meets and falls in love with a waitress, Faith (Coduri). During the robbery, Brian and Charlie betray their crew, steal the money and flee, but are forced to abandon their car when it runs out of petrol and seek refuge in a nearby nunnery during the ensuing gunfight. Faith, who had tried to warn Brian beforehand, is shot in the wrist, while one of the triads is shot and hospitalised. Casey places a bounty on Brian and Charlie's heads.
Disguising themselves as nuns, Brian and Charlie introduce themselves to the Sister Superior, Liz, as Sisters Inviolata and Euphemia, respectively. Faith, having witnessed the gunfight and Brian and Charlie fleeing into the nunnery, follows them and poses as a mature student to get inside. Her gunshot wound is exposed and she is taken to the infirmary. Brian pays her a secret visit and claims he is married in order to end their relationship for her safety. When Faith intends to go to church and confess, Charlie distracts the priest, Father Seamus, while Brian poses as him. Faith admits she still loves Brian, but Brian convinces Faith to keep silent. On her way out, she is abducted by the Triads and interrogated. She directs them to Casey and they set her free, but bumps into a lamppost and hits her head on the road, ending up in the hospital, where one Triad has infiltrated the staff as a janitor. Brian and Charlie acquire tickets to Brazil, despite Brian's desire to take Faith with them.
Brian decides to tell Faith the truth, but discovers she has not returned to the nunnery. They go to her apartment and only barely escape their former fellow gangsters. They sneak back into the nunnery and manage to slip into their spare habits after accidentally waking up an eccentric nun, Sister Mary. In conversation, Brian learns that Faith is in the hospital, with her father and brother who have vowed revenge on Brian. He visits her, but she is heartbroken, believing that Brian no longer loves her. They attempt to flee for the airport the next morning, but are caught and exposed by Sister Mary. In desperation, they steal a truck and head for the airport, pursued by their comrades and Sisters Liz and Mary. Brian forces Charlie to go to the hospital, where Brian tells Faith the truth while Charlie stalls the gangsters. They manage to escape the hospital with Faith, while Casey and the others are arrested, though one briefcase of money is lost during the chase. Sister Liz and Sister Mary find the lost case of drug money and decide to use it to fund a drug rehabilitation clinic.
Brian, Charlie and Faith reach the airport, where security guards demand to speak with Brian and Charlie. They board the flight disguised as attendants and successfully escape the UK for Brazil.

Review: Handmade films started off by making the phenomenal Monty Python's Life of Brian, made several fantastic films to follow that, and just 11 years later wound down their production with this hidden gem.
Nuns on the Run is a truly British comedy.
No other country in the world can do comedy as well as the British, and this movie represents when they got just about everything right.
This was really one of the last great films comedies, with only Fierce Creatures and Chicken Run coming close since.
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane are two good-nature low-level mobsters, who are becoming rapidly obsolete in the increasingly violent modern underworld.
A convent, obviously.A very funny and very sweet film, a good-natured and sneakily  intelligent farce.
Idle is fine, and Camille Courdi as his near-sighted love interest is hysterical, but Coltrane has the best role as a lapsed Catholic who finds that pretending to be "Sister Euphemia Of The Five Wounds" has awakened a lot of feelings that are inconvenient for a professional criminal.Warning:  Some people might be offended by gentle humor about the Catholic religion, but I saw it with a very devout Catholic and she was laughing just as hard as I was..
This is the kind of movie where two guys (Idle and Coltrane) are only trying to get out of a job they hate (running jobs for a local gangster) and end up in a steadily escalating series of disasters that make things worse than before.
It just so happens that they are dressed like nuns through most of it.Of course, I thought that the whole cross-dressing thing was funny as far back as when Benny Hill and Monty Python (Idle's old troupe) brought this facet of humor over to us Yanks, and it still works.
Good.Director/writer Lynn has done better and worse but this is one to think of when it's a rainy day and you just want a good laugh that doesn't require TOO much thought.Eight stars for "Nuns on the Run" and remember: Jesus is small, green and split four ways..
Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle are "Nuns on the Run" in this 1990 British comedy also starring Janet Suzman and Camille Coduri.
Coltrane and Idle play Charlie and Brian, who commit robberies for the big boss, whose cover is a health club.
Charlie and Brian, meanwhile, have decided to rob the drug lord all right, keep the money for themselves and escape to Rio. When they arrive at the scene, their would-be killers are already there.
Nuns who always carry black briefcases.This is a very entertaining, if often low comedy with good performances.
Idle is funny as the lovesick Brian whose girlfriend Faith (Coduri) keeps losing her glasses and can't see anything.
Coltrane plays the more pragmatic, tougher Charlie who can't help going into the girls' shower after teaching gym.
Janet Suzman does a good job as the Mother Superior, who finds the new nuns odd to say the least.
But she has some other problems, one of which is dealing with an older, alcoholic, compulsive gambler nun who stole 50,000 pounds from the drug rehabilitation program run by the sisters.If you're Catholic, you'll get a kick out of this film or hate it.
British gangsters dressing up as nuns -- now that's comedy!.
That, and it's funny as hell (or heaven, as the case may be).There are lots of memorable quotes ("God is like a shamrock -- small, green and split three ways.") and hilarious performances.
And the music -- by Yello and Hidden Faces -- is perfect.As comedies go there have been funnier ones than "Nuns on the Run," but it works more often than not, and that's what really matters..
Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle perfectly fit the bill of bungling villains and they spark off each other from the start.
Nuns on the Run has to be one of the funniest british movies ever made.
I have been a big fan of Eric Idle for years due to The Monty Python films,sketches etc and in Nuns on the Run is comic standard is definitely up to scratch.
Sort of an updated "Some Like It Hot", "Nuns on the Run" casts Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies) as a pair of bumbling gangsters who have to pose as nuns to hide from their employers, a rival gang, and the cops.
It's one movie that's guaranteed to restore anyone's faith...in slapstick humor, that is.Yes, it's nice, brainless fun, complete with a scene whose target audience is probably 14-year-old boys.
I particularly liked the scene with the gutter, but the truth is that the whole movie is a good time.
If you have a comedy starring two of England's best, Eric Idle (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid in the harry Potter movies), then you just have to watch.
This was a charming little comedy about two guys trying to go straight, but pulling one last job and ending up in a nunnery.Of course, you have the Catholic jokes, and the guys in a girls dorm jokes, some Oscar-nominated talent, an MBE, and a nude girl in a shower, but that's all icing on the cake.British comedy is just fin to watch.
Brian Hope (Eric Idle) and Charlie McManus (Robbie Coltrane) are thieves working for gangster Casey.
Soon, Casey's thugs, the Triad, the police and Faith are all chasing after them with two suitcases full of cash as they disguise themselves as nuns hiding in a nun training college.This movie relies on the audience to laugh at two homely guys cross-dressing as nuns.
Cross-dressing nuns are not that funny without better writing.
Idle and Coltrane make a splendid team as the posing nuns.
Coltrane is especially funny, when his disguise, like when his eyes eat up a young teen nun, bare in a shower block, or when he snatches Idle's fries, before all the chaos begins.
Nuns On The Run is a deliciously funny comedy, one of a few mishaps, as only the Brits could deliver.
Every few years someone thinks it would be a funny idea to have guys running around in girl's clothing or vice versa.
(Occasionally a Wayans brother (or two) think it would be even funnier if they were also a different race as well as a different gender, but that's another, sadder story.) Nuns on the Run is most definitely a one-note premise milked dry, but it has enough jokes along the way to make it a worthwhile 90 minutes.Brian (Eric Idle) and Charlie (Robbie Coltrane) are reluctant robbers who lament the old classy days where violence wasn't necessary.
Their boss Case is a hard nut who favours the new ways – guns n stuff – and the boys are dropped in the sh*t when he discovers that they want out.So out of desperation the duo decide to 'heist the heisters', keep the ill gotten gains for themselves and zippedy-skidoo off to Brazil for the remainder of their lives.Things get complicated when 1/ Brian falls for a ditzy waitress named Faith, and 2/ the re-heist goes awry and they must lie low in the nearest safe place.Of course this is a nunnery, and despite looking like guys with horrible make up and sounding like guys doing women's voices badly none of the nuns are nun the wiser or something like that.What ensues is obvious and formulaic – but funny nonetheless.We get to see these obvious non-nuns teaching impressionable young girls about religion, (and after phys-ed joining them in the showers!), hear confession, and watch ugly Brian ward off the local horny priest and keep his cover a secret from Faith who has managed to show up at the nunnery.As the police, the triads and Case's gang all search for the boys and their stolen cash even the nuns start getting a little suss as to their true identities.Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane are both very strong comedic actors, though it must be said some of the bit parts were cast in haste, as some of the acting is quite atrocious.All that said the banter is light and humorous and there are some genuine laughs at times.
It's hard not to like Nuns on the Run, it isn't blasphemous or too racy and for the most part realises it is little more than an innocent flick with no delusions of grandeur.Final Rating – 6 / 10.
This movie did have some proper comics doing the leads- Idle and Coltrane, and some of the other main characters did a good job in their roles.
Faith and the two Sister Marys were great, as was the mature presence and good acting of Mother SuperiorDidn't like the casting of the two gangsters boss (Mr Casey)though- he was too young, softly spoken, and without the real look of a hard crime boss.The story took some time to get going, but ultimately had its moments.
Some excellent and well delivered lines.Most of the comedy worked well, though I didn't appreciate Faith's near blind state without glasses.The version I saw was only on DVD made 4x3 for some reason, so it looked more like a TV movie.It's a low budget British comedy.
Nuns On the Run is the funniest movie of the early '90's!
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane explode onto the screen like never before!
English humor, especially Monty Python is generally too silly for my American tastes, but Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle together are as good as Laurel and Hardy.
It takes a natural timing that Eric and Robbie have developed over many years in the comedy business.
Written and directed with gusto by Jonathan Lynn, "Nuns on the Run" is very engaging, very British comedy that keeps the men-in-drag staple alive and kicking.
It's energetic, breezy, snappy stuff with some great lines, some gentle digs at Catholicism, and spirited performances, especially from stars Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane.
Produced by George Harrison's Handmade Films company, it follows Idle, as Brian, and Coltrane, as Charlie, two small time criminals sick and tired of working for a thuggish young boss, "Case" Casey (Robert Patterson).
What follows is predictable enough but still entertaining farce as Brian and Charlie go about their nuns' duties, while the mobsters they double crossed try to track them down, and Brians' love interest Faith (the adorable Camille Coduri) does the same.
The film overall doesn't work as well when the focus is off Brian and Charlie, but it still entertains solidly and agreeably for its 93 minute duration.
Among the highlights are Charlie's take on sinning and religion as he explains it to a horn dog priest, Father Seamus (Tom Hickey), his basketball game with the girls, and Brian's predicament as he attempts to visit Faith while still trying to pull the wool over the real nuns' eyes.
Punctuated by a typically amusing score by the group Yello (those guys who will likely always be best remembered for their "Oh Yeah" tune), "Nuns on the Run" is a good, fun flick from start to finish, and it comes up with a fine punchline at the end.
Eric Idle, Robbie Coltraine, Janet Suzman - it should have been almost impossible to go wrong.
Of course it has some funny moments - the scene in the showers when Robbie Coltraine echoes Lon Chaney Jr's ghastly werewolf line "I can't help myself" is hilarious.
The other weekend I got out about 10 movies out which featured my love, Eric Idle.
True, Idle and Coltrane do their best, but sadly it isn't enough to keep this Titanic of a movie afloat.
If, like me, you're an Eric fan, stick to his better movies.
And all the throwaway lines ("Got any booze?"), all the little stuff you miss first time round, that's what makes this film a classic.Definitely a fine effort..
I just don't believe that this movie does comedic justice for the talented Eric Idle & Robbie Coltrane.
They are better than this and seem to fall flat in their portrayal as two cross-dressing nuns on the run from the law.
Nostalgic for the days when crime didn't involve so much violence, Brian and Charlie want to quit "Case" Casey's gang and make a fresh start but they know better than anyone else that there is only one way to leave and that is in a body bag.
Case plans to let Brian and Charlie do the robbery but then kill them  but luckily Brian's girlfriend Faith overheads the plan and they manage to pull theirs off first.A product of its time and, for all its popularity in the States, a sad indictment of the "best" that Britain had to offer in the way of cinema at one point (just one point?).
Nobody notices that they are men and to point this out is to miss the spirit of the film, which has no time for real life when fantasy has so much fun to be had from Charlie playing basketball and Brian being hit upon by a priest.
Coduri is average at best while supporting is consistently "blah" from Patterson, Suzman, Hare, Kaye and others.Overall then a very broad and basic farce that requires you to find men dressed as woman hilarious if you are going to enjoy this.
Being a Monty Python fan, the appeal of Idle was first to draw me in...the adorable lewdness and shrewdness of Coltrane's Charlie McManis left me begging for more.
Idle and Coltrane exude comic genius throughout the film..
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane put on a riot in this movie.
When Charlie(Coltrane) informs Brian(Idle) about what the girls would see of him will blow the cover.
Most of all, when Brian and Charlie ditched the nuns attire for the nurses', I know the sergeant will have a big one from internal affairs when this situation hits the fan!
This movie is great, lots of fun is what "Nuns on the Run" got.
I saw Nuns on the Run for the first time this past week.
The storyline of Nuns On The Run isn't itself unique, as there have been other films where someone is "on the lam", doing their best to 'blend in'.
The thing that sets this film apart is the humour, especially Eric Idle, trying to teach a roomful of girls about the Trinity: "God is like a shamrock: small, green and split three ways." I'm not Catholic, so I hope nobody took offense to that, but it was hilarious.
All in all, it was as if this movie didn't miss a single trick, the ending was a perfect wrap-up for Charlie and Brian bringing along Faith for good measure on a wide body 747!!
This is a real untarnished getaway English mob flick with a little Catholic confusion, at confession time and mayhem along the way, thrown in for good measure.
Personally I think it is more like those movies where we laugh at men in dresses, and characters pretending to be something else.
In fact, this style of comedy comes from Shakespeare's As You Like It (which is turn came from a completely different play).What we have with these plots is that somebody must disguise themselves as somebody else, and in that new persona, they start to do things that they normally wouldn't do.
It is not exactly a good movie, but it is enjoyable and I would recommend people to watch it, simply for the farce that it creates.
The fact that Idle's love-interest is played by the very cute Camille Coduri isn't a negligible bonus either.
Idle is funny-looking at the best of times, but the real problem lies in the ridiculous age-gap.
This film has been compared to the hilarious British comedy "A Fish Called Wanda", although I can't see why.
The only connection I can find is the Monty Python one (Eric Idle in "Nuns", John Cleese and Michael Palin in "Wanda").
Otherwise the two are incomparable.Idle and Robbie Coltrane are two gangsters who want to get out of the business before they end up dead, so they decide to rip off their boss and make for Rio. When the getaway goes wrong, the two are forced to take refuge in a convent, as nuns.What at first promises to be a riot soon becomes a predictable, average movie with the usual tasteless sex jokes and bland humour.
All it ever set out to do was make people laugh, and that's exactly what it did.Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane play Brian Hope and Charlie McManus, two small-time crooks who have grown disillusioned with their life of crime since their firm was taken over by the brash Mr. Casey.
With a top production team and the pairing of a former 'Monty Python' star with a cast member of 'The Comic Strip Presents', 'Nuns On The Run' ought to be funny, and is.
Also hilarious was Charlie teaching the students of the convent how to play basketball, Brian and Charlie attempting to apply make-up for the first time and a high-speed car chase involving Brian, Charlie, Abbot, Morley and Sister Liz. The soundtrack is something else too ( the late George Harrison's underrated 'Blow Away' springs to mind ).Robbie Coltrane stayed within the religious theme for his next movie - Peter Richardson's excellent 'The Pope Must Die' while Eric Idle's next big film role was as Paul 'Dibbs' Plutzker in 'Casper'.
Frail though she was at the time of filming, she was still able to steal what scenes she appeared in.Both Coltrane and Idle may have went on to do other things but this, for me, was them at their best.Funniest moment - Brian and Charlie escaping from Faith's flat by clambering down a drainpipe, only for the pipe to dislodge itself from the building!Second funniest moment - At the hospital, Charlie displays to one of the Triads ( who is posing as a hospital janitor ) the use for a bedpan.