Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
cinephile-27690
"....if a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate!" This is one of my favorite comedies! It took numerous viewings for me to love it but it was worth it!The movie follows the skit team going through the stages of life to try to find the meaning of life. So they go through birth, religious belief, war, sex ed, Catholic education, aging, gluttony, and other various topics. I have 2 main favorite scenes: The aforementioned "Every Sperm Is Sacred" scene, in which a Catholic man must give up his numerous kids for experiments since he did not use protection. My other is the Mr. Creosote segment, where an extremely obese man orders all of the food on the menu in a restaurant. That's all I will say about that. Just know from my experience that guys love the segment and girls TEND to not like it. The movie is stupid but what else would you expect from Monty Python? The Meaning of Life may offend, but it's so silly that you won't really care if you have my experience. "And may God strike me down otherwise!"
Robert McElwaine
Taking their final bow as a team with this being their final collaborative film project, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life finally hit cinema theaters back in 1983. Dispensing with the the more conventional narrative that they utilized with their previous two movies, they opted for the sketch format that they had become most renowned for with their classic TV series. Given the foreseeable hysteria that had met them with the controversy surrounding their magnum opus, Life of Brian; it might have felt like something of a relief that their last offering was not met with same outraged devour. That's not say there Isn't anything contentious or potentially offensive however as they up the bad taste and vulgarity factor to inspired effect. From challenging Roman Catholic Dogma with their elaborate, showstopping Every Sperm is Sacred musical routine to John Cleese playing a public schoolmaster teaching sexual education to is pupils by having sexual intercourse with his wife in front of them; it has moments of perverse brilliance. Team member Michael Palin himself noted that that it's increased budget of $9 million meant they could afford to be more "daring and dark". Accompanied by Terry Gilliam's short film, The Crimsons Permanent Assurance, a typically surreal prelude to what's to come. Showcasing his aesthetically distinctive style that show was utilized to greater prominence with his first solo directorial work; Time Bandits, and later with 1985's; Brazil. Concerning a group of elderly office clerks who work in a a small accounting firm, they figuratively throw off the shackles of their employment by rebelling against their corporate bosses. Becoming pirates they turn their office building in to one big ship, and pillage financial areas. Gilliam's short would be amusingly woven in to the fabric of the subsequent film due to a interruption, and a voice over apologizing for it "due to an attack by the supporting feature."Director Terry Jones who took sole directorial duties as he did with Life of Brian does a bang up job, and the film does have something of an overall more polished feel than the last two films, largely due to it's larger budget. He still never the less displays his considerable prowess and no more so in the aforementioned musical number. However further musical moments that include Eric Idle's quirky and colourful rendition of The Galaxy Song, which examines the humbling nature of the vastness of the Universe and our relative insignificance is truly inspired. It is complimented by visually magnificent high-tech computer generated sequence, that while dated now would have impressed movie-going audience back then. Arguably most memorable however and for it's vomit inducing bad taste is the sketch entitled "The Autumn of Our Years", which introduces the glutinous and grotesquely overweight Mr. Creosote as portrayed by Jones. A vile, repulsive character who disgustingly stuffs his face in a restaurant (where he is served by John Cleese's caricatured french waiter) to such an extreme that it culminates with a memorable gross out punchline of eye-popping proportions. Amusingly when the The Meaning of Life won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, he joked that it might have been because Orson Welles, who was on the judging panel, identified with Mr. Creosote. Where it fails to completely hang together as a cohesive whole is it suffers although not frequently from self indulgence. It's at times strange for the sake of being strange to some degree, and while it does work at times it results in a scene involving two insanely bizarre characters played by Jones and fellow team member, Graham Chapman in a segment called "Find the Fish". Also the sketch format, which worked well for myself personally as an enthusiastic Python fan would not had the same appeal for a general mainstream audience. With the film just taking under $15 million at the box office as opposed to Life of Brian's $20 million that strikes me as likely being the case. And given that one member of the team stated that the main theme and concept of the film was so they could weave together a series of unrelated sketches, you feel as if they weren't quite as committed to their endeavour and the impetus behind the movie was a shallow attempt to profit off of their success. Even so, looking at the end product as it stands, they still invested much creative effort even if it doesn't quite reaching the dizzying heights their first two proper movies. (And Now For Something Completely Different was nothing more than a collection of their sketches from the TV series which were re-shot for American film audiences in an attempt to introduce their brand of comedy to the U.S. market) Inventive and more polished due to less financial constraints which still doesn't guarantee high quality, it's an outing that I still enjoy revisiting when I get the chance, and still gains a stamp of approval from dedicated fans
guedesnino
Directed in 1983, by Terry Jones co-creator and member of the comedy company Monty Python, the English group employs to the film a division in "sketches" somewhat common the television humorous series, and that during the film is explained through the acid humor , Its division is due to the inability of the public to follow a long and continuous history without commercial breaks or that does not introduce throughout history violence, sex explicit or anything else stupid to the point of being censored and provoke controversy enough to take people Of the screen of a TV and to arouse the interest of going to see a movie in the cinema.This sour, debauched, witty and playful tone will be present in all divisions and sub-divisions of "The Meaning of Life," yet the script will be careful enough to create connections between stories which is done very simply and Effective, and with great humor.The film is divided into about eight chapters: The Miracle of Birth; Growth and Learning; Fighting each other; Middle-age; Liver organ transplants; The Autumn Years; The meaning of life; Death - and when these frames connect the effect is even more fun.At the same time, the use of "sketches" allows a dynamic and propensity to encourage the audience to stick with moments and images that interest them the most, the opposite is also true if we have a brilliant opening with metaphors and that today (2017) envisions traces of foresight of our future, where the world abolishes the labor system through labor (like the old slaves of the building that sails in the economic sea), to live a financial economy and actions. If this opening frame is mastered and will be device for linking to another chapter, stories like the English army, are ineffective for any analysis of the film. They do not corroborate in any way, and the impression that it causes, is to be an instrument of relief for a previous joke more complex, intellectualized and consequently respire for those who do not understand or for those who are still reflecting. This gap between intellectual laughter and easy laughter will be presented at other times with the same effect.A memorable moment appears in the chapter, the autumn years, specifically in the "sketche": "The Autumn Years," in which a monstrously fat Mr. Creosote eats wildly and when he receives a small piece of chocolate, he explodes. Something that for us Brazilians is very familiar when we remember Mrs. Redonda, emblematic character created by Dias Gomes for the telenovela "Saramandaia", whose end of the character is the same as that of Mr. Creosote.There are many good moments in the 1983 film, my favorite is that of a group of pompous dinner guests who are interrupted by the visit of the "Death" (Grim Reaper), in short, everyone who is there will die and when asked why Of so many deaths at a dinner, behold the answer is due to a simple salmon mousse, and the climax comes from the comment of a lady (Michael Palin), who with his unpretentiousness says: "I did not even eat the mousse." This speech is supposed to have been improvised, and because it is so well used it provokes laughter, carries a subtlety that assists in the inquiry not only of the motive of death, but also in the sense of life, where there is no apparent meaning, everything is mere Conditions that are mostly caused by the desire of man.In the quest to answer the philosophical title which is also the main argument of "The Meaning of Life," we realize that in the end the answer is less interesting compared to the pleasurable process in attempting to answer it. Perhaps the answer of some sense, is the way of the (eternal) search.
SnoopyStyle
The comedy troupe Monty Python takes on the biggest question of all, the Meaning of Life, or do they? The group includes Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It starts off with life insurance pirates. The set design and imagination is the impressive aspect for that one. Ultimately, the movie is uneven but brilliant at times. There are sections that are utterly memorable and superior. My favorite is the song 'Every Sperm Is Sacred'. The surreal creatures are weird. The fat vomiting diner is brilliant. Not every section works. The movie is uneven but that are some really unforgettable bits.
