Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail Movie Review
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. It is one of the most acclaimed and to me most overrated comedies.
The reason why I didn’t like it that much lies in its uneven nature. The film is definitely very good at times, but also sometimes very bad and unfunny. Those funny moments can’t compensate for those which are not funny and are frankly annoying.
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“Your mother was a hamster
and your father smelt of elderberries!“
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Whenever the film focused on the parody and satire of the Dark Ages, it was very good. Some of the dialogue there was quite clever and some lines did make me laugh. However, the film decided to focus way too much on slapstick and absurdist humor later on. The slapstick was juvenile and the absurd comedy is my least favorite type of comedy.
The film is also very unfortunate in its second half. The first half is pretty solid, but the second one is so ridiculous and unfunny that it ruined the entire movie. A very uneven work for sure. I just wished that it focused more on the humor that was present in its first couple of scenes, but it went into absurdist, ridiculous territory which I do not appreciate.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is well directed and solidly edited. It is also very well acted and some of the dialogue is great. Terry Gilliam did a great job with the animation as those animated segments were some of the highlights here – extremely well done, authentic to its time period and even artistic.
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But unfortunately the film is otherwise visually bland. The imagery is forgettable and it features some quite mediocre costumes with not that great attention to detail. The plot is barely there and the entire quest for the titular grail is really uninspired and basically the story here is non-existent. The same goes for the characters who are all forgettable. The film was still better than I expected, but it remains extremely overrated nevertheless.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail has its moments in the first half with some pretty solid humor, but the second half is disappointing and the film focused way too much on absurdist humor and slapstick which I dislike. It is also visually uninspired despite its very good animated segments and the lack of any strong plot is troublesome. This is an extremely overrated film.
My Rating – 3
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