Rating: 
Summary: Crude, Irreverent and Spasmodically Brilliant
Review: If you've come to "The Meaning of Life" via "The Life of Brian", be warned - it isn't nearly as good. Not only do the Pythons revert to the sketch format of their TV series and (the excellent) "Holy Grail", they do so at a time when they could barely stand the sight of each other.Apparently the shoot was not a happy one, but much of that doesn't show on screen. You should also be warned that the movie is irreverent and crude - at times very crude. If however, you are familiar with the sketch-based Python malarkies and don't mind the crudity, then "Meaning of Life" has a good deal to recommend it. It is at times brilliantly funny (The Mr Creosote sketch in which an obese man explodes because he eats one wafer too many.); the "Every Sperm is Sacred" musical routine;and "The Universe Song" ("Can we... er... 'ave your liver?") are classic Python moments. There's a little too much padding. I'm not convinced the appearance of the Grim Reaper at a middle-class dinner party (They all ate the pate) is up there with the most memorable Python moments, and there's a segment where we needlessly follow a French waiter (Eric Idle with an outrageous accent) for several minutes with no real pay-off at the end. I would certainly recommend it as your last Monty Python movie purchase after "And Now For Something Completely Different", "The Holy Grail" and (the funniest film ever made)"The Life of Brian", but I would also certainly recommend that if you're into slightly surreal, slightly satirical, totally daft, restless comedy, you should watch this.
Rating: 
Summary: You Won't Find a Holy Grail Here
Review: MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE missed the mark. The usual Python comic formula was abandoned in favor shock-value vignettes. No argument that in 1983 it was great to see the Python crew together again on the wide screen. Unfortunately they chose the wrong cinematic vehicle. This volume of Python antics is robust in terms of potty humor, foul language, token nudity, and too many gory scenes.
Despite a generous budget and innumerable talents of the original Python gang, the movie wallows in its own self pity. Even the Monty Python autobiographical work notes that THE MEANING OF LIFE had no real direction. Prior to the movie's release, several test screenings confounded audiences. More importantly, the overall impression of the film is that none of the stars appears to be having any fun.
Terry Jones once again took the helm as director. Jones is very talented, but in the early 1980s he was better at directing short comic segments than whole movies. The chemistry of Jones and Gilliam is noticeably absent from THE MEANING OF LIFE.
American Terry Gilliam restricted his directorial skills to the short urban pirate feature preceding the main body of the film. Sadly, Gilliam's exceedingly high quality segment, THE CRIMSON PERMANENT ASSURANCE, made the rest of the movie seem rather shoddy in comparison. Gilliam had several non-Python films (though many of his cohorts ended up as co-stars)to his credit. To that end, he opted to focus on the animated segments of the film. Even so, as acknowledged in the Python autobiography, he hired animators to complete the work.
The Pythons reached their cinematic peak with MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. Their two later films paled in comparison. Not too many years ago, Terry Jones, who was deeply involved in a documentary about the Crusades, drafted a treatment for a sequel to HOLY GRAIL. Unfortunately, it appears as though this project will not reach fruition with the original Pythons. However, we might see a version of this concept when Eric Idle's SPAMALOT premiers on Broadway.
Despite its shortcomings, THE MEANING OF LIFE (SPECIAL EDITION) has a very attractive price. Even though I remembered my disappointment with the film when I first saw it at a Tucson shopping mall cinema, I was compelled to add the DVD to my Monty Python collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Their absolute best.
Review: A long time Python fan, I first saw this movie when it came out in 1983. Just in my early 20's, I was disappointed on first viewing. It seemed bleak, extreme, and not at all in the old Pythonesque spirit of madcap satire. I just got the DVD, and upon reviewing, now at the age of 42, I think this was their most brilliant work by far. They started by taking on the Arthurian, Christian myths. Then, in the life of Brian, they took on Christianity itself. They concluded by taking on the Meaning of Life in its entirety. There are some weak moments but, as is written, if ever you start feeling very small and insecure, just remember how unlikely is your birth! That last statement is, I think the most most congealing and comedic comment ever made.
Rating:
Summary: jeez. i didn't know a movie could be so...!
Review: i just recently watched this, last night, as my mother purchased it for me. it's basically my first monty python experience, ever. except for some sketches d/l online. but seriously, this is too awesome not to watch.
..
unless of course you are VERY easily offended. apparently my mother hadn't seen this movie either...and she's not easily offended, but my grandmother, however is. the "sperm is sacred" song made my grandma burst out with "this is DIRTY FILTH!" and she walked over and turned the dvd player off completely when the school scene came on - the teacher is apparently teaching sex ed in a very graphic way. his wife comes in and proceeds to have sex with him as he explains everything to the students and asks them questions while doing it.
really, besides major swearing which has become basically mundane and boringly common over the past few years, there is no really graphic scenes. (...).
some of the humor is very dry, and you may have to think about it before you laugh. which in itself can be amusing. well, to me at least.
i'd never seen this before, and knew nothing about possible deleted scenes and all, and so therefore was intrigued at all the possibilities on the second disk. very good, from my point of view. and my fathers, who loves monty python and laughed through the entire thing.
so basically i'm saying, "Go out and rent it, see what you think. And if you can't rent it, take a chance if you've got the extra cash, and buy it!"
(...).
not a bad deal, i assure you.
Rating: 
Summary: okay movie; crappy DVD
Review: This DVD is of poor quality. I have a newer, nice DVD player, and it plays but plays VERY poorly. What is worse is that I cannot return it at all, and if I exchange it I will have the same problem. I'd boycott Universal, but my copies of "The Mummy" and "Bring it On" are just fine. DO NOT buy this DVD, it really sucks. I' stuck with a crappy, worthless DVD. Talk about an example of the MPAA taking advantage of the consumer!
Rating:
Summary: A classic of British humour
Review: Up to their old tricks again, the Pythons finally brought their sketch comedy to the big screen. Putting together a series of unconnected skits with a common theme, they actually pulled it off, though most said it could never be done. As with all of their work, this movie contains several lines that fans will repeat over and over. "Every sperm is sacred!" Most of the skits went down as some of their greatest work, from Cleese teaching Sex in a private school by demonstrating it with his wife in front of the class, to the grossest scene ever performed in cinema, "Mr. Creosote." Absolutely a must-see for anyone with even the faintest of senses of humor.
This DVD presentation is also very solid, including a Making Of feature that lets the personalities of the individuals show through, including Cleese's disdain for doing this film. Some of the extras can be ignored, but I still found myself sitting down for over two hours to check them all out, and I was not disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: My First Python Experience, and Still My Favorite!
Review: Don't get me wrong... I love GRAIL and BRIAN. I love the show, and I even love most of the post-Python stuff that's come out. But this is and will always be my favorite Python experience. Where GRAIL and BRIAN found the troupe stretching out their legs with strong stories (understandable, since their show had been sketch-based), I really do feel that they were at their best with the sketch-comedy format. One reviewer on this site suggested that a feature film is not the best place to try on a sketch comedy; though he may be right, I think Python do an admirable job, and I also think that this is definitely a structurally interesting film, as well as being their darkest, weirdest, and most provocative statement. And besides, though it is episodic in structure, there is a narrative flow to it; Python takes us from birth to death, beginning to end, and has us laughing all the way. Tellingly, Cleese, who once poo-pooed this film as the least successful at their efforts, says on the commentary track that he'd never realized how good MEANING OF LIFE is, and that it contains some of their very best material. I agree. "Every Sperm is Sacred", "Mr. Creosote", "Death", "Live Organ Transplants", "Birth", the entire "Growth and Learning" segment, and of course "Find the Fish", without a doubt the single WEIRDEST thing Python ever did, and actually one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in a movie, bar none (seriously, I want to emphasize further... even if you don't really like this movie, "Find the Fish" is PRIME PYTHON... one of their defining moments, along with the "Fish Slapping Dance"). The only thing I see wrong with the film is the "Fighting Each Other" segment, which is only funny for a couple of minutes (the search for the missing leg gets old quickly, and the skit about the platoon throwing a party for their captain is amusing, but simply not good enough to be included here). The production values are higher, the direction slicker, and the material better-written than in all their previous work, and for every bad joke there are least three or four good ones. It's also a musical, containing more song-and-dance numbers than before. The "Death" segment marks the last time all six Pythons would appear onscreen together, and it's a little sad in that respect. Oh yeah... Terry Gilliam's short film "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", which appears before the film proper, is wonderfully funny and creative, as Gilliam's films can be expected to be. About the extras: very good documentary, though I always hate to see Cleese bad-mouthing this production (he's always been the hardest to please); alot of junk, some of it amusing, some of it quite useless; but most interestingly, deleted skits. For the most part it's easy to see why they left these out of the movie (and the DVD has an option where you can watch the movie with these scenes where they would've been in the final cut): though I found the "Martin Luther" segment uproariously funny, it simply doesn't have enough appeal to those who aren't up on church history (and there are many)... and of course, the other excluded segments are pretty hit-or-miss, but it's still interesting to see them. So in conclusion (goodness, what a messy review this is!), here's how I rank the works of Python: #1: MEANING OF LIFE; #2) "Monty Python's Flying Circus"; #3) MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL; #4) LIFE OF BRIAN (I always felt it was slightly overrated, though I do still love it). And the other stuff -- concert movies, along with the first film, AND NOW FOR SOMETHING... don't count!!! Sorry for the chaos of my review, hope you enjoy this movie!
Rating:
Summary: SEE THIS!!!
Review: No one has reviewed this film in here yet? Geesh...WAAAKE UP PEOPLE!!! The slam dunk finale to the series of Python features that had us rolling in the aisles from the 70's into the 80's, "Meaning of Life" does exactly what the orignal tag line suggests..takes God's six days of work and screws it all up in ninety minutes. From bizarre leg stealing lunatics dressed as a tiger (IN AFRICA?), to gargantuan exploding gluttons, this film proves once and for all that no cow is too sacred for the insanely brilliant Pythons to thoroughly mock, trounce, carve into quiche and serve to the pompous as humble pie. With an intelligent (though savage) wit and a healthy respect for fish of all creeds, "The Meaning of Life" scores as possibly the crowning achievement in the Python pantheon (try saying THAT five times fast). Bully for the Pythons, and bully for you if you heed my advice and buy this movie. A total blast, one that will have tears (of pain-inducing laughter) in your eyes before it is done. THIS, friends and neighbors, is a true comedy classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Ahh, hilarity...
Review: Even though I wasn't born into the era which appreciates movies like this, I bought this DVD for my Dad. I watched it with him and just about wet myself laughing at it.
It was so original and I have to say that I've never seen anything quite like the Monty Python movies or tv series before... Lots of people don't seem to see the humour but if you're into sort of alternative humour this is for you.
I have to say my favourite section is the 'Death' section which says it all...
Give this a go. It's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Live Organ Transplants
Review: At least I know now what Monty Python's version of the meaning of life is.....good movie to learn from.
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