

It took God six days to create the heavens and the earth...and Monty Python ninety minutes to screw it up.
Comedy1h 47m
7.3
TMDB
Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.

The Meaning of Life (1983) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HQ]
Budget
$9M
Revenue
$42.7M
Studios
Where to watch(NG)
JustWatch ↗Stream
Rent / Buy
5 reviews · 4 fans
3 fresh · 1 rotten
**I expected much more: this film is a shadow of what it should have been.** I think it's redundant to say what everyone already knows: the Monty Python represents the pinnacle of British humor, and if each of those comedians is excellent alone, seeing them together is always an added bonus. This film, however, is a late work by the group, when each of them was starting to have a solo career and the group's notoriety was consolidated. There are incredible partnerships in the artistic world, and if we think about it, we will think of huge music bands, television series or troupes of actors that worked incredibly well and were successful for a certain time. The issue is that many of them did not know how to harmonize a joint existence with the growing commitments of individual agendas. And I think that's what happened with Python, and that helped complicate this project. The film makes us laugh, it has some good moments, but it is a shadow if we try to compare it to “The Holy Grail”, for example. That's the crux of the matter: it's not bad, but it should have been much better, considering the talent of those involved! For me, a good part of the problem comes from the fact that it is a succession of humorous sketches with almost no obvious correlation between them. We can admit that in a TV comedy show, it is done routinely, and it works very well. In a film, greater cohesion, u…
Well, I suppose if anyone was ever going to be able to get to grips with the meaning of life, it was going to be the “Monty Python” lads but for me their brand of comedy never really worked. This starts with it’s equivalent of a B-reel: a bunch of geriatric insurance processors who react with unexpected violence when one of their number is fired. Next thing their building is a weapon of war wreaking havoc on the glittering world of a-personal commercialism! It’s quite entertaining how these folks intermingle “Spartacus” into the plot as they cannibalise everything from the ceiling fan to the filing cabinet to arm themselves. Thence to the main feature - and that starts with a stinging swing at the monetisation of life, right from the process of birth followed by a sarcastic critique on the attitudes to family planning of Roman Catholics with their sacred sperm! That sticky wicket starts us off through a cycle of education and onto the thing man does best: make war. This is maybe the funniest part as they have to cart around an officer who has a bit of a sore leg! Thereafter it begins to strain a little and descends too much into the realms of the vulgar. Perhaps songs about the penis raised a titter in the 1960s but in 1983 they are less potent, as is the sight of a large gent over-indulging then spewing all over the place. Finally, the man with the scythe turns up to herald th…
## **Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) Review: A Glorious, Unflinching 10/10 Finale** If *Holy Grail* was a medieval romp and *Life of Brian* a pointed satire, then *The Meaning of Life* is Monty Python's grand, chaotic, and philosophically unhinged thesis statement. It is their most ambitious, most visually stunning, and most brazenly offensive film — a series of sketches loosely tied to the seven ages of man that asks the biggest question of all and answers it with a song-and-dance number, a torrent of vomit, and a talking fish. It is, in short, a perfect 10/10 and the most Python-esque film they ever made. ### The Main Feature: From Birth to Death and Everything Absurd The film is a return to their sketch-show roots, but with a Hollywood-sized budget and a directorial confidence from Terry Jones that allows each segment to be a self-contained masterpiece of style and substance. The tone swings wildly from musical extravaganza to bleak existential horror, often within the same scene, and it is this fearless commitment to the bit that makes it so brilliant. **Highlights of a Universe of Genius:** * **The Miracle of Birth (and the Machine that Goes 'Ping!'):** The film opens with one of its most legendary sketches. In a sterile, futuristic hospital, a husband is ushered into a delivery room that resembles a factory floor. The doctors are more concerned with the h…
Title
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Released
Mar 31, 1983
Rated
R
Region of Origin
United Kingdom
Original Audio
English
Runtime
1h 47m
Status
Released
Studios
Celandine Films, The Monty Python Partnership