monty python | the m0vie blog

318. The Life of Brian – Christmas 2022 (#245)

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guest Richard Newby, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, a Christmas treat, Terry Jones’ Life of Brian.

Brian Cohen is a young Jewish man living in Jerusalum at the same time as Jesus Christ. Desperate to impress a girl and reeling from revelations about his heritage, Brian commits to join a local revolutionary paramilitary to resist Roman rule. However, nothing is quite as simple as it may initially seem, and Brian finds himself swept up in a messianic fervour well beyond his control.

At time of recording, it was ranked 245th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: belief, comedy, controversy, Eric Idle, graham chapman, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Cleese, Michael Palin, monty python, religion, space, te life of brian, terry gilliam, terry jones, The 250 | Leave a comment »

A Month on the BBC Global iPlayer

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Darren

The kind folks over at the BBC were nice enough to give me access to the iPlayer for a month in order to review it. So I’ve spent to past month watching various BBC productions on my iPhone in a variety of circumstances. I’ve streamed them at home, I’ve downloaded and watched them on the bus; I’ve used the iPhone’s speakers and I’ve listened with my headphones; I’ve tried old and new and various types of programmes and shows. I have to admit to being quite impressed with the product, even if I do have some slight reservations.

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Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: bbc, BBC iPlayer, Damian Lewis, Dennis Potter, Handhelds, iphone, iPlayer, Kinect, Michael Palin, Microsoft, monty python, Smartphones, Stephen Poliakoff | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Darren

Surviving Life, from director Jan Svankmajer, is a strange beast. It opens with an introduction from the director, in which – using an animation style that looks like a bizarre and strangely compelling blend of Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python and South Park – he apologises to the audience for the presentation. I can’t tell if he’s being serious or not, and if his somewhat bitter complaints about his inability to find proper financing are a post-modern twist on the cliché of the misunderstood arthouse director, or a straight example of it. “Sadly, our civilisation has no time for dreams,” he claims with dour seriousness, and an uncomfortable confidence. “There’s no money in them.” Stating that he intended to produce the film as a live-action piece of cinema, he repeatedly states that this is not how he imagined the film. “So this is not a formal experiment,” he tells us, “just a poor imperfect substitute for a live action film.”It’s a shame, because the animation is the best thing about the film.

The direct approach...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Jan Švankmajer, monty python, non-review review, Oedipus complex, review, South Park, Surviving Life, Surviving Life (Theory and Practice), Svankmajer, terry gilliam | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Buried

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Darren

Buried is a great high-concept thriller, with one hell of a hook and a fascinating premise. Basically the story of kidnap victim Paul Conroy, who is kidnapped by “insurgents” (or “criminals” or “terrorists”, depending on who you ask) and buried alive in Iraq. With only a limited source of light, and even less time, the truck driver is given mere hours to come up with a ridiculously large ransom or he’ll be left in the ground to rot forever.

It's a dirty job...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: buried, colin farrell, film, iraq, monty python, Movie, non-review review, Paul Conroy, review, ryan reynolds, Truck driver | 6 Comments »

Pygmalion at the Abbey Theatre (Review)

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Darren

I think it’s safe to say that George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion has had quite the impact on popular culture. Even those unfamiliar with the original 1912 play written by the great Irish playwright will know the basic structure of the story, filtered down through countless reruns of My Fair Lady and She’s All That. It’s hard to argue that anything in Shaw’s impressive back catalogue is quite as crowd-pleasing, but never at the expense of being sharp and provocative. The fact that it’s turning out to be next-to-impossible to get a seat at the Abbey’s run of the play indicates that the work has lost none of its appeal.

Doolittle doctored?

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, abbey theatre, Basil Fawlty, charlie murphy, dublin, eliza doolittle, george bernard shaw, Henry Sweet, John Cleese, monty python, professor higgins, pygmalion, review, Risteárd Cooper, the abbey theatre, theatre review | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: From Paris, With Love

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Darren

Mister Morel, I watched Taken, I knew Taken, Taken was a film of mine. Mister Morel, this is no Taken.

No can do, apparently...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action, arts, bond, from paris with love, From Russia With Love, john travolta, jonathan rhys-myers, luc besson, monty python, Movies, non-review review, paris, pierre mortel, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, spies | 4 Comments »

Gotta Get a Gilliam…

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Darren

Apparently Terry Gilliam wants to work at Pixar. How incredibly awesome would that be? Even the concept is intriguing. I’m not as head-over-heels in love with Gilliam as most film fans seem to be (his output tends to fluctuate wildly in quality), but Brazil is quite possibly my favourite science fiction film ever. And I love science fiction. Anyway, I would have thought a major studio that is a subsidiary of possibly the largest and most influential entertainment conglomerate in the world would be the last place an auteur like Gilliam would be found.

Evidently, I was wrong.