BuzzFlash Reviews
BuzzFlash.com
The Monty Python Box Set (Monty Python & The Holy Grail/ And Now For Something Completly Different/ The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Monty Python

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Premium Image
For Monty Python lovers, 3 DVDs of hilarious fun.

307 minutes of vintage Monty Python humor.

An online reviewer:

If you are a fan of Monty Python, this is a must have. The Holy Grail is quite possibly the funniest movie ever made and Something Completely Different is a collection of skits that includes the Funniest Joke Ever Told, Hell's Grannies, and the famous Parrot skit. The three movies are all on separate discs in the thinner DVD cases so it isn't even as bulky as most boxed sets. Overall, no Monty Python fan's library is complete without this set.

From BlogCritics Magazine:

Is there anything left that can be said about Monty Python and the Holy Grail that hasn't been said elsewhere? Even if your one of 20 or so people on this continent who have never actually sat down to see this laugh-riot of a movie, you still know it. The quotes are many, the fans insane, and it's effect on pop-culture is immeasurable. This is most likely what will be the definitive version of this film on DVD and the version to own for the die-hard fans of Python classic.

Is there any need to delve deep into an explanation of this films story? It's doubtful. Let's leave it at this: King Arthur goes on his quest to retrieve the Holy Grail and find brave knights who will join his court in Camelot. That's pretty much it. Along the way, the story will take on indescribable twists and turns so bizarre you'll be completely baffled by their inclusion. The only problem is that you'll be laughing to hard to even try and think about them.

In all honesty, this is easily one of the single greatest comedies of all time. British humor is something that not quite everyone will "get," and that's probably the only reason why this film doesn't have the large American audience of a Mel Brooks comedy (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein). Still, those who do are literally engulfed by this films charm...and violence. Nothing beats the Black Knight sequence. Well, maybe the killer rabbit...or maybe the bridge scene...or the witch...or maybe the "bring out the dead" segment....though those credits have alot going for them...

All Movie Guide:

Director Terry Gilliam adroitly applies his Monty Python sensibilities upon the "career" of famed German prevaricator Baron von Munchausen. Played herein by John Neville, the baron is seen quelling a war that he himself started, flying into the stratosphere on the back of a cannonball, ballooning to the moon, exploring the innards of a volcano, being swallowed by a whale....In short, all of Munchausen's fabulous lies are here presented as "truth," played out in full view of nonplussed witnesses Eric Idle, Charles McKeown, Jack Purvis, and Sarah Polley. Fringe benefits include several loving medium shots of jaybird-naked Uma Thurman as Boticelli's Venus and an extended unbilled cameo by Robin Williams -- that is, by the head of Robin Williams -- as the King of the Moon. Filmed under considerable duress on a budget eventually exceeding 45 million dollars, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen never quite caught on with moviegoers, though it has enjoyed a lucrative afterlife on videocassette. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide:

Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different was first released in the US in 1973, but didn't really take off as a midnight-movie fixture until after the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series began making the PBS rounds. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam are the Pythonites in attendance, together with semiregulars Carol Cleveland and Connie Booth. The sketches presented include such classics as "The Lumberjack Song," "Hell's Grannies," "The Upperclass Twit of the Year Race," and, of course, "The Dead Parrot." Additionally, Terry Gilliam's animated-cartoon interpolations act as buffers between sketches. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide:

From its opening multi-language titles (that sure looks like Swedish) to the closing arrest of the entire Dark Ages cast by modern-day bobbies, Monty Python & the Holy Grail has "comedy cult classic" written all over it. This time the Pythonites savage the legend of King Arthur, juxtaposing some excellently selected exterior locations with an unending stream of anachronistic one-liners, non sequiturs, and slapstick set pieces. The Knights of the Round Table set off in search of the Holy Grail on foot, as their lackeys make clippety-clop sounds with coconut shells. A plague-ridden community, ringing with the cry of "bring out your dead," offers its hale and hearty citizens to the body piles. A wedding of convenience is attacked by Arthur's minions while the pasty-faced groom continually attempts to burst into song. The good guys are nearly thwarted by the dreaded, tree-shaped "Knights who Say Ni!" A feisty enemy warrior, bloodily shorn of his arms and legs in the thick of battle, threatens to bite off his opponent's kneecap. A French military officer shouts such taunts as "I fart in your general direction" and "I wave my private parts at your aunties." Rabbits are a particular obsession of the writers this time around, ranging from the huge Trojan Rabbit to the "killer bunny" that decapitates one of the knights. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin collaborated on the script and assumed most of the onscreen roles, while Gilliam and Jones served as co-directors. Hal Erickson


BUZZFLASH REVIEWS