Holy Flying Circus (2011)

A Masterpiece!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

What if you wanted to recreate a small slice of cinematic history by depicting the real-life members of a troupe of performers — for example, Monty Python's John Cleese — as the most famous of their fictional selves (in his case, Basil Fawlty)? Or wanted to depict another member of that same troupe — say, Michael Palin — as the all-round nice guy, decent chap and jolly good bloke that the public has in decades since gotten to know through his travel programmes and chat show appearances? Or wanted to depict secondary real-life characters — say Michael Palin's wife — who are largely unknown to the general public, as common comic characters from Monty Python's Flying Circus (in her case, as Terry Jones's working class housewife)? Or if you wanted to make commentary on modern-day Britain by getting the characters in 1979 to (funnily enough) spectacularly accurately speculate about what a modern-day Britain some 32 years hence might look like? And then throw in for good measure what God Himself might have to say about "Life of Brian"?Well, what you'd get is the wonderfully funny and delightful "Holy Flying Circus" — a film in the style of a Monty Python film about a particular chapter in the history of the Monty Python comedy group. Most of the actors are immediately recognisable as their Monty Python member and Darren Boyd should have won something for his portrayal/impression of John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. It was quite a phenomenal performance.After I watched it, the whole show made me wonder if in fact 1979 wasn't the very height of civilisation and that since then we've been drawn back into the mud of barbarism. I'm still thinking about that...

This pythonesque drama about the subsequent controversy of the Monty Python film, Life Of Brian breaks out of the usual docudrama route and instead goes for the surreal, re-imagined route and even downright silly. The opening scene features Stephen Fry as God. Only the Spanish Inquisition is missing.The cinema release of Life of Brian aroused a lot of controversy and the film depicts the threats the actors received and the subsequent showdown that had on a television debate with the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge.Of course tensions surrounding the event are heightened and parodied. The Python team are exaggerated persona's of themselves, with Palin being too nice, Idle the money grabber, Cleese being Basil Fawlty even doing the funny walk at one point, Terry Jones appears in drag as Palin's wife.It does show the effect the controversy had on the actors especially Palin who is shown as the reasonable everyman, frightened with the protesters outside his door. It very much captures the absurd spirit of Python and the actors playing Palin and Cleese come out of it best.

I was too young to know about the controversy surrounding "The Life Of Brian" when it was first released, but in my adult years I discovered that not everyone felt the same way I did about the film - their loss.Casting of the actors playing Monty Python cast was just about perfect from a visual point of view. The only issue I had was with the actor portraying Terry Gilliam not being able to fake an American accent effectively.There are so many shout outs to the way the Flying Circus series was made in this film to make it almost seem like the original cast had made it in the early '80's and it had gotten lost somewhere and recently found and broadcast.The irony of Stephen Fry portraying his particular character is outstanding.I laughed out loud a lot while watching this "mockudramedy" and I would have given it a 10 star rating if not for the aforementioned bad American accent.

I really enjoyed this film, more than I thought I would. I expected something worthy and literal, instead I got an episode of latter day Monty Python, one which I found funnier than many of the originals. I think my one disappointment was the opening scene where Jesus is seen behaving in an unexpected way with "Eric Idle". This will without doubt have caused many adventurous Christians, who might have decided to give it a go, to turn off, which is a shame as I think they would have benefited from and even enjoyed the remainder of the film. Any opportunity to make those of faith actually think about what they have faith in should not be missed. A little patchy in places, and a little flat at the end, but overall I really enjoyed it. Especially the performances of Michael Palin and John "Basil Fawlty" Cleese.