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Brian is a baby born on the original Christmas. First, the three Wise Men accidentally go into his house, instead of Jesus’. Fast forward to the year 33 A.D., where Brian (Graham Chapman) is a regular Jew, who hates the Romans who take over and lives with his overbearing mother (Terry Jones). He falls into the hands of the People’s Front of Judea and is fighting against the Romans. Soon he becomes mistaken for the Messiah. Well, at least it has more of a plot than The Meaning of Life.
Better than Meaning of Life, not as funny as Holy Grail. During the first two thirds of the movie, the laughs came steadily. During the last part of the film, the laughs teetered off a little. And, since most of the plot is about Brian being mistaken for the Messiah, it came surprisingly late in the film, maybe around halfway. Of course, it couldn’t be considered a Monty Python film if it didn’t have the trademark animation. The opening credits (which also sported a better song than Meaning of Life) had kooky animation, as with the animation/claymation halfway through, where Brian gets “rescued” by a spaceship.
Being a Latin student myself, I cracked up when Brian was writing graffiti and was corrected by a soldier about his grammar. I could actually understand what they were talking about! Something else that made me laugh out loud was when Brian went to buy something but was hounded to haggle. There were other funny scenes, and most of the movie was hit instead of miss…though a couple points didn’t strike me as funny.
During the interview I mentioned earlier, they ended by singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, and I didn’t know that it came from this movie. It was a humorous ending to the movie.
Of course, all of the Monty Pythoners were in top condition, not showing any signs of weakness yet. I particularly like John Cleese and Eric Idle the most, with Idle seeming to come off best. The six main actors altogether had 40 parts! Beat that, Eddie Murphy! Other “regulars”, such as Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes, did well also.
Not the best, not the worst of the Monty Python movies, but Life of Brian isn’t one to be missed.
Rated R for nudity, religious themes, and language.
Review Date: February 8, 2003