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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition)

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a damn brilliant and addictive comedy.
Review: by far the best comedy period on my list. I laughed my love handles off watching this movie. my friends were right and I thank them for letting me see it. it's really, really great with awesome charcters like The Knights who say "nee!", Tim the Enchanter, The Killer Bunny, The old man at the bridge of death.

favorite part in that whole movie is when they meet the killer bunny. There are some other hilarious and memoriable parts like the Castle Anthrax with all the horned up maidens who want spankings and oral sex and the holy hand grnade of antioch. If anyone doesnt like this movie they ought to be shot.

French man- " I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of eldeberries!"

a damn addictive movie. LOVE IT

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Movie, Bad Packaging
Review: This is a great movie preformed by the legendary comedy troupe Monty Python. I have nothing to say about the movie, other than everyone should watch it at least once even if you're not a Python fan. This review is to serve as a warning to potential purchasers. I purchased this movie only to find the discs were scratched due to a poor packaging design. This 2 disc set stacks both discs one on top of the other on a single bracket, without a separator. If you are unlucky like me the bracket was rather lose allowing the DVD's to rotate independently of one another, resulting in many tiny scratches rendering the feature DVD unreadable. You can find the exact same features on the Special Edition (Wide Screen Edition) but without the movie cel and script, not to mention saving yourself some 20 bucks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Everything A DVD Should Be
Review: The very mention of this comedic masterpiece should be enough to bring a smile to your face. Widely regarded as the very peak of sketch comedy troupe Monty Python's career, The Holy Grail has nearly become as much of a religious establishment as the dark-aged deities it spoofs. There exist lunatics around the world who are able to not only directly quote lines from this film, but to recite the entirety of the script, from start to finish, without err. And, after just a single viewing, it's easy to find yourself tempted to join their ranks.

The story is simple enough, and yet manages to become intertwined and entangled within itself throughout the course of the brisk 89 minute run time. King Arthur, best known for his acquisition of the sword in the stone and subsequent leadership of the knights of the round table, is featured here as a blunt, modest man... oblivious to everything going on around him, and painstakingly patient through the most bizarre of circumstances. As the story unfolds, Arthur slowly gathers his knights, briefly visits Camelot and is charged by god to retrieve the infamous Holy Grail. The troupe embarks directly on their quest, without the slightest idea of where they're headed, and eventually runs into dozens of almost unrelated hurdles along the way.

In print, the premise sounds painfully unfunny... almost a joke unto itself. And, perhaps if they'd stuck to their guns about the whole "knights in shining armor" thing, that early judgment may have been partially right. But a great deal of what makes this so fun to watch is the way the characters interact with one another, address their environments and simply carry themselves. The Knights of the Round Table chat amongst each other in a very modern, almost twentieth century style. Formalities are few and far between, and supporting characters whose entire role in any other period piece would have been limited to "Yes, sire, I'll retrieve my master this very moment" are here given the chance to argue the finer points of foreign birds and migratory patterns. Unimportant lackeys dive into in-depth dissertations at the drop of a hat, spiraling off into a tangent with little or no provocation. Literally hundreds of medieval cliches are addressed and promptly disposed of throughout the course of the film, while simple, obvious visual puns are thrown out like darts at every moment. It's a film that anyone can enjoy, regardless of intelligence, age or demeanor. There's literally something for everyone.

Immediately, only seconds after popping this DVD into your hardware and hitting the "play" button, something is going to strike you as a little bit odd. Something's different about this classic, but it's tough to put your finger on it until the murky opening scenes are in the past. Bluntly enough, this new restoration looks BREATHTAKING. One of the toughest things to endure about the film's earlier VHS incarnations was the god-awful quality of the video, the way everything had been overtaken by a sort of yellowish-brown hue, darkened and muddied. However, this most recent DVD release cleans up those long-standing visual stains with uncanny precision, revealing in its wake an entirely new motion picture. Wide shots of the infamous "Trojan rabbit" scene are awesome sights, now that the original color saturation is in place. It's honestly as though someone took a cloth and some Windex to my television screen and wiped away thirty years' worth of dust and muck. The restoration alone is worth upgrading the copy of Holy Grail in your collection from VHS to DVD.

Fortunately enough, though, the crews in charge of this new DVD didn't stop there. With a full two discs in the set, almost every base is covered... in addition to several spots in between. The discs come fully equipped with two feature-length commentary tracks; one from directors Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and another from John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin. The commentary tracks are both thoroughly interesting, with the directors' chat a little more insightful and the actors' track more disjointed. Jones and Gilliam reveal a lot of obscure facts about the creation of the film that I hadn't realized, such as the involvement of rock bands Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin in the production, and is generally a much better listen than its partner track. It's strange, it almost feels like Cleese, Idle and Palin weren't even in the same room together when they recorded these audio tracks, and that various comments from each were merely spliced together at appropriate points throughout the film.

The Special Features section is overflowing with options, including but not limited to three sing-alongs (featuring full lyrics to the film's three notable song-and-dance numbers... if you ever wondered what they were trying to say during the incomprehensible verses of "We're Knights of the Round Table," today is your lucky day), a short film titled "How to Use Your Coconuts" (which comes off as very, very forced and very, very stupid), a cast directory (which shows just how many hats the actors wore throughout the course of the film; Michael Palin alone played nearly a dozen characters), photos and more. In addition, the second disc showcases two unique featurettes about the film; one which was shot on set in 1974 for the BBC, and another which reunites Gilliam and Jones in the year 2000, on the location of the main castle used throughout filming.

Without exaggeration, I seriously cannot recommend this DVD any higher. It's not humanly possible. Whether you're a devoted, lifelong Python fan or merely someone with a passing interest in comedy in general, this is a worthwhile purchase. You won't find a better transfer of the film in your life, the list of features is almost overwhelming, the original team is represented nearly in full, through dual commentary tracks and several featurettes, and it's very affordable at the same time. Go out and buy this now, before you forget.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the most addictive movies ever
Review: this movie is just plane silly but everyone loves it becuase of the fact my favorite knights would have to be brave sir richard and gallahad when he is in the castle anthrax

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There was much rejoicing
Review: I could yammer on about the great quotes in this film, and they are legion, but it is much more than that. Drink in the editing and beautiful cinematography, accomplished on a relative shoestring. A strange film that immerses you in the 9th century and beats you over the head with the 20th century. Brilliant throughout, mostly. Not recommended for lagophobes but a hearty romp for all others. OK, a few quotes. "Not the curtains!" and ummm...."I'm not old...I'm thirty-seven..". I'd include more quotes but I'd probably die while carving them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: A real classic. You won't stop laughing. Gotta have it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Low on budget, high on imagination!
Review: I remember one of the M.P. guys saying they didn't have much money to make this film. Well, maybe that's the best way to do it...let your humor lead the way! How many big-budget Hollywood films have looked so fantastic, then had an empty plot or what-have-you? This film will always be on my video shelf. Michael Palin with his falsetto voice as the Head Knight of Nee cracks me up every time. And then the ending when they're about to storm the castle and the cops pull up, arrest everyone, and block the camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Comedy doesn't get much better than this
Review: This is my favorite album of all time. From Bring Out Your Dead, to the castle anthrax, this dvd will keep you laughing the whole time. The features are sweet too. check out the LEGO version of the song "Camelot". I reccomend this to any comedy fan

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must be on a top 10 list somewhere...
Review: I was first introduced to Holy Grail when I was a young child, and, though I never really absorbed the meanings of any word in the film, was seen "horse riding" around my kindergarden playground yelling, "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" Since then, I have come to understand and love this movie, along with all other Monty Python works. I have also used many Python philosophies in my every day life. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a timeless masterpiece that cannot and will not die in the anals of comedy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant
Review: It takes a genious to write something so completely and hilariously random. I absolutely LOVE Monty Python And The Holy Grail! It is most likely my favorite movie! If you have never seen it i urge you to watch it right now and join in the writers' and actors' wonderful masterpiece.


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