The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)

Why so much hype?

It is a performances centric movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In the bleak days of 1983, the Crimson Permanent Assurance, an accountancy staffed by elderly workers much like a slave ship, has been taken over by efficiency-minded corporate types. When they sack an employee, there's an uprising, and the building is unleashed from its moorings to sail across the (dry) ocean and take on the financial centers of the world, starting with an all-out attack on the large skyscraper housing The Very Big Corporation of America, complete with filing-cabinet cannons, ceiling-fan broadswords, and paper-spindle short-swords. This Was The Only Part Of MPTMOL That I Enjoyed I Was Almost About To Give It A 2 Because Of This Until I Found Out That This & MPTMOL Were Accounted As Separate Movies On IMDb Then I Gave MPTMOL A 1. This Is The Only Reason I Have A MPTMOL DVD & Its The Only Reason Why I Watch It. Monty Python Is Great When Its Good But When Its Bad Its Horrible. All In All A Great Movie.

Monty Python's film, "The Meaning of Life" was a major misfire for the group. While it had some very funny bits (such as the Angel of Death scene and the song "Every Sperm is Sacred"), many more parts of the film were terribly unfunny. It just showed that the team's long absence from films as a group was detrimental to their chemistry--they just couldn't capture the magic from such work as "The Holy Grail".However, despite my major disappointment with the film, there was actually a short pre-film that was released with "The Meaning of Life"--though some friends told me that when they saw it the theater did NOT show "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" film! This is so sad because this wonderful film was by far the best aspect of "The Meaning of Life" and may just have been the best moment from any Python film--it's THAT good! The film was written and directed by Terry Gilliam and the other Pythons are not readily apparent in the film (several do appear very briefly and heavily made up). Instead, it stars a wonderful cast of elderly men--all who are working a horribly boring job. Showing the scenes of them working and comparing it to a galley ship was brilliant, but what happened next nearly had me falling on the floor laughing. I really can't say more because it would spoil the fun--let's just say that the film becomes very, very surreal...and funny.Brilliantly written, directed and performed--this is a must-see for anyone who has a sense of humor. A wonderful little film in every possible way.

It's funny & imaginative, as everyone else has mentioned. However almost no-one else has mentioned that the film was intensely satirical when it came out - practically everything in it captured the zeitgeist in London at the start of the 80s, from the flapping sacking around office buildings being refurbished to the wholesale layoffs/business closures. Maybe irrelevant to the casual viewer but IMO it's the most political Gilliam film that I've seen. Incidentally I believe that the building used in the exterior shots is Loundes House - still standing just north of Finsbury Square in the City of London.

Originally intended to be part of the body of "The Meaning of Life," Gilliam's loony story about pirate accountants was found to go on too long and tended to overpower the rest of the film, so it was excised and made into a separate short subject. This was probably for the best since it has a strikingly different tone from what the rest of the Pythons were doing.Gilliam's visual sense, as always, is a marvel to watch, and his attention to detail is stunning. Watch for his cameo -- along with Michael Palin -- when the CPA attacks its first competitor. And Gilliam regular Myrtle Devenish -- who was Beryl in "Time Bandits" and Jack Lint's secretary in "Brazil" -- also puts in a welcome appearance."Weigh the anchor."