Monty Python And The Holy Grail DVD > Reviews > oh my god

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Advantages:	inventive, funny, absurd
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A foggy hill. The sound of horseshoes hitting the ground. Suddenly, you see the horse. Or rather, you see everything but the horse. King Arthur and his follower appear, the first waves his arm in front of him , as if he were running a lead, the second carries a big bag, and holds 2 halves of a coconut, which imitate the sound of a horse.

At the very begining of the film, you get incredibly surprised, and you can't but laugh. Actually, you already laugh before the start. When you see the presentation, there are some sentences, under the actors'names which are funny. You learn for instance that cariboos have sharp teeth :-)

Arthur's quest is to gather knights, and then to get the Holy Grail. It is a common, usula, casual story, but in fact it is very inventive.
Arthur is in trouble, it is quite hard to find some knights, they don't want to follow him to Camelot. One of them is too interested in coconuts and birds, an other doesn't want to leave his bridge, some damned french people throw everything they find on Arthur - chickens, vegetables, and even a cow.

Once he's formed his group, Arthur sees God, and that is a great moment. After this sacred meeting, each knight has to follow his own way, and each of them is confronted to a dangerous test.
Sir Robin fails and shows his cowardice, Galahad is trapped in a castle where there are dozens of maiden who asks for oral sex, and who want to get spank, Lancelot who is too nervous kills many people who gathered for a weddind, and Arthur is in a difficult path ; the Knights-who-say-Ni! give him a choice - Arthur must find a shrubbery or otherwise they will kill him.

Finally all of them gather again, to fight new ennemies, such as a cute little rabbit, or a strange wizzard who asks 3 questions. If one hesitates, one is lots. And his questions are particularly hazardous. For instance, "what is your quest ? what is your name ? what is your favourite colour ?" These questions are too hard for some of the knights but Arthur, thanks to his bright spirit gets rid of the wizzard.

They are about to get the Holy Grail when... The End.

This movie is completely absurd ; Arthur rides no horse; a white rabbit is a sharp killer... Every references are turned upside down; the Trojan rabbit, God, Camelot, Vivian the fairy...
It is a typically British sense of humour and it is surely one of the best British movies. recently "4 weddings a funeral", and "shooting fish" were funny too, but still less inventive, and certainly less free of speech.