And Now For Something Completely Different

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)
• John Cleese: How to Irritate People
• The Personal Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Do Not Adjust Your Set
• Fawlty Towers - The Complete Series
• At Last the 1948 Show
• The Life of Python
• Young Frankenstein
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Jabberwocky

Well the movie is based on the best of monty python so thats why it is such a good movie. I hope if you buy this movie you will enjoy it. My personal favorite skit is upper class twit of the year. It ends the movie perfectly. No kids under ten. In this first monty python movie there are a lot of famous skits. I recommend it to people 11 years old and up.

I also see these as a true best of because like other skit shows, Flying Circus was also a little hit and miss sometimes. Get it now, "wink wink, nudge nudge". They were actually redone. Any Python fan out there probably already has or at least has seen these. If you watch the originals from FC you'll see that they don't just look and sound better than the originals, but they're actually funnier.

These are truly the best of the best skits as far as Monty Python's Flying Circus goes. So it's just good comedy and doesn't require you to remember the time to get the jokes like the other shows. Meaning they aren't just ripped from the original broadcasts and slapped on a dvd as a best of disc. After seeing this, you'll want to see the FC volumes and think that all the skits are gonna be like these, but they're not. For those curious or interested, don't hesitate.

You'll quickly identify your favorite skits and find yourself rehearsing them again and again with others. Still though, these skits really hold up well as they aren't so based on political leaders and social trends of the time like SNL and MAD. It can be disappointing. There are many more and this whole set is great, but those are just a few that come to mind first. Good times. The timing and delivery of each skit is perfectly done. For casual fans and the curious, this disc will do. Pick up one of the FC volumes and you'll see that some just really aren't all that funny, which is why I'm so glad they made this compilation.

I think the skits really benefitted from the repeated performances that allowed them to find the right rythyms of what works best and what doesn't. This compilation features timeless classics that'll have you in stitches everytime you see them. An interesting note though is that these aren't the originally, first aired skits. The best that SNL and MAD have to offer can't even touch the best of Python, hands down. This is true, classic comedy that you can enjoy watching over and over. Personal favorites of mine are, "Dead Parrot", "Hungarian Translation Book", "Dirty Fork" and "Self Defense with Fresh Fruit". There really is no comparison in terms of comedy skit shows, Python rules them all. I think only the truly, most die hard Python fans can really enjoy those.

If you're in the mood for sublimely goofy humor, this is your movie. Silly, madcap, and irrepressibly fun, Ian MacNoughton's celluloid reprise of the very best Python sketches is a nonstop gauntlet of guffaws for die-hard fans and a hilarious introduction to the troupe's surreal, anarchic brand of British humor for newcomers. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and animator Terry Gilliam are all on hand here, lending their mercurial blend of manic energy and brainy, off-kilter banter to this big-screen affair.

There was something about the audience laughter in the original series that made the skits that much funnier. Also at that time Michael Palin appeared on the Metromedia Sunday morning kids program WONDERAMA (which was actually taped during the week) and presented a short clip from the movie. Still it is a valuable transition film between the televised show and the later film attempts.

It was not until a couple years ago that I realized that AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was a stand-alone film. The network heavily censored the episodes and edited the shows together as a sort of television movie. Alas, when it was originally released AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was poorly advertised and distributed. That is probably the only drawback about having the film on DVD in that you also miss out on the cinema audience participation. A classmate went to see the movie at an obscure theater and reported back, incorrectly as it turned out, that SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was nothing more than selected segments of the BBC program blown up for 35mm projection. The only thing I miss is the laugh track. It was not until almost 30 years later that I caught the whole film on a cable movie channel on a much larger color television screen and realized that SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT was not simply an edited version of television footage.

Back in the 1970s I was already a fan of the television show and suprised to have heard very little about the film version. Even dedictated PBS Python fans had difficulty in finding the movie in theaters. Originally conceived as film to introduce United States audiences to the Monty Python brand of humor, the movie was granted a generous budget and the Python members re-created many of their (now) famous skits in front of a 35mm camera. A limited network attempt to premier the show ended as a dismal failure.

At that time that I also bought the official Monty Python biography THE PYTHONS BY THE PYTHONS and read the story behind AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. The movie was quickly overshadowed by the Python breakthrough film MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Remember at that time that Monty Python's Flying Circus was limited to television airings on PBS. A great collection of skits by the Monty Python gang for wide screen. On my 12-inch black and white television the film clip looked exactly like the original television skit with the laugh track missing.