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!"

Osmosis Iron Basically a glorified sketch show, but if so then glorious it is indeed! Fantastic musical numbers and memorable characters in a twisted madness of pure genius that is Monty Python!

l_rawjalaurence In some ways MONTY PYHTON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE has dated badly since its original release in 1983. Many of its attitudes, especially towards sex and gender, are needlessly sexist, reminiscent of the days when Benny Hill dominated British television screens with his plethora of half-clad ladies. One could argue that the Pythons are making fun of such attitudes, but when one sketch includes a scene of a male fugitive (Michael Palin) being pursued by a bevy of topless totties, we do begin to wonder about the film's stance.Structurally speaking THE MEANING OF LIFE is a mess, a ragbag collection of sketches stitched together under an umbrella title, rather like one of the Pythons' television shows. There is even less plot-line than LIFE OF BRIAN or MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL; what we soon realize is that the film is not going to explore the meaning of life, but rather provide a showcase for the Pythons' idiosyncratic brand of humor. Some of the sketches are just plain puerile, reflecting the writers' experiences of the British public school (read private in the US) system. As an educator, John Cleese makes love to his wife in front of a class of bored male learners; once the joke has been established, the sketch soon wears thin. The staff take on the learners at rugby and use the occasion as an excuse to beat the learners up: we are left thinking "so what?"On the other hand the Pythons manage to land some telling satirical blows. They satirize a Health Service more concerned with impressing administrators than looking after patients; and deflate the often archaic brand of muscular Christianity that prevails at many of Britain's educational institutions. The scene involving Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones) is strong meat for anyone, but reminds us of how our penchant for rich food often leads us to over-eat. In a culture apparently dedicated to the celebrity chef, the thrust of this sketch is more pertinent now than it was over three decades ago.For Python addicts there are familiar milestones such as Eric Idle- themed songs, directly aimed to replicate the success of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in LIFE OF BRIAN. Terry Gilliam's animations continue to fascinate for their sheer surrealistic inventiveness, while it is fun to see the late lamented Graham Chapman in a variety of roles. All in all there is something in this film for everyone -- provided you look hard enough.

brando647 I am only recently converted to join the massive fan base for the Monty Python team. I fell in love with MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL and I've kept my eye out for another chance to enjoy their particular brand of insanity. I finally stumbled across THE MEANING OF LIFE, of which I'd only seen bits, in the local Target and grabbed an anniversary edition, settling in for some off-kilter hilarity. In the end, it was…hard to nail down. I didn't dislike the movie but it sure wasn't at the level of laughs of HOLY GRAIL. No doubt it has some great moments but there was a lot that fell short and sort of leaves my final overall impression as less than memorable. The Python troupe (Eric Idle, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, & Terry Gilliam) has chosen the topic of their final film to be the most important, all- encompassing theme: the meaning of life. The British comedy legends will lead us from the miracle of birth, where modern hospitals seem more interested in machines that go "ping!" than the beauty of new life, to death and the Christmas paradise that awaits once we cross the pearly gates. Along the way, we'll be treated to singing, dancing, surrealism, philosophy, fish, and violent organ removal. THE MEANING OF LIFE is more sketch film than traditional narrative and the individual parts are mostly entertaining, with some lulls that wreak havoc on the pacing of the film as a whole.I'll approach this movie as I would an anthology film by comparing what worked against what failed. The less-than-stellar stuff first: the short feature before the actual film, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", wasn't the greatest way of kicking it all off. It's an amusing premise. We've got a crew of old man working for an insurance company that has recently been bought out by the Very Big Corporation of America, and they stage a mutiny reminiscent of classic pirate adventure films. My issue is that it runs on way too long, going a full 15 minutes before we ever actually get to the real film. It wouldn't be so aggravating if the premise weren't so thin. Old men in makeshift pirate garb using accountant instruments as weaponry is funny for a few minutes, not a quarter hour. "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is the film's largest weakness but a nearly two-hour film loaded with skits is bound to have some dips in quality. I didn't care for the segment where Palin and Idle are a middle-aged couple in a dungeon-themed restaurant struggling through a conversation on philosophy while Cleese puts on an ear-punishing Texan accent as their waiter. It occurs somewhere around the middle of the film and ruins the pacing of an otherwise funny film. The end suffers similarly with the "Christmas in Heaven" musical sequence that hopes to elicit some chuckles with Graham Chapman doing his best Tony Bennett impression while surrounded by women in weird plastic breasts.THE MEANING OF LIFE might have severe pacing issues and it's share of lulls but there's still some real great material that keeps the movie fun. Once we get through the Permanent Assurance stuff in the beginning, it all kicks off with some hilarious stuff regarding birth. The film's first (and possibly best) musical number kicks off with Palin as a destitute father in Yorkshire, England with "Every Sperm is Sacred", but my personal favorite occurs later in the film with Eric Idle and his "Galaxy Song" dropped in the middle of the inexplicable segment on live organ transplants. What have live organ transplants got to do with the meaning of life? No idea, it's just another fun bit of absurdity from the men who've mastered it. THE MEANING OF LIFE is at it's best when the Python team are at their weirdest: Mr. Creosote, the Find the Fish segment, and the strange bit during the Anglo-Zulu War when some British officers must handle an emergency situation where one of their own suffered a rather severe bite over the course of the night. It's stuff like this that makes any weak points forgivable over the course of THE MEANING OF LIFE and, despite finding myself frustrated or bored at times, it's still funny enough and origin to some iconic hilarious bits to be considered classic. It's far from the level of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL but even the worst Monty Python is above and beyond most of the "comedies" we get now.