The best thing ever originating from Great Britain is definetly Monty Python. It's getting rerun after rerun all around the world as you are reading this on various TV stations and channels. You can remember a monty python sketch about a dead parrot everytime you walk into a pet store. Feeling alone and tired in your small cubicle? Be a lumberjack! Monty Python is definetly part of the education in this harsh, cold world and The Criterion Collection, continuing series of important classic and contemporary films has done a king feat by bringing together the five remaining pythons and gathered this disc chock full of extras and most importantly, the python's audio commentaries recorded in '97 for the laserdisc.

Judas AD 33... About teatime

Did you actually know that when you saw the above text in the movie and when the camera was shooting at the people walking in the hills that they were actually leaving the sets to make tea for their family and it wasn't a planned shot? Well, now you know. Buy this disc and learn even more :)

Everyone knows the story of Life of Brian and if you don't, then buy this disc. That's all there is to it. Now let's look at this great disc. First of all, Criterion has done the most important thing, which is the anamorphic transfer. There are few scratches and hairs among the print, but generally the picture is very good and lightyears ahead of the crappy VHS. Even Gilliam (or was it Jones?) raises this point during the commentary by comparing the laserdisc picture to a crappy VHS version he saw couple of years ago. Anyway, you know by now that Criterion does it's best with the transfers and this is generally as good as it gets. It's an old film too ;)

"Alms for an ex-leper"

The extras on the disc just kick ass. First of all, there's a documentary film, running about 45 minutes which gives very in-depth views about the whole cast with very good questions (for example, asking each member what they think about eric idle and terry jones etc.), deals with the issue of two directors that were on Holy Grail and why they settled for one in Life of Brian. This documentary is more than just a behind-the-scenes of Life of Brian. It more or less shows the atmosphere behind this great bunch of people discussing their problems and issues with the series and how they feel about it.

Also included is the original theatrical trailer ... and I just remembered that I haven't watched it yet. Four hilarious British Radio Ads also accompany the disc and all of them just show the evil wickedness of the Monty Python group and everyone should think back the time when this film was first released and imagine that the world wa s a very conservative place back then and what the Pythons did with this movie and their series was definetly groundbreaking and pioneer work. There are also two audio commentaries, one with Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones which I found a tiny small little bit interesting than the second one with John Cleese and Michael Palin. Both of them are very fine indeed and I was a bit scared by the idea that Gilliam as a veteran of other audio commentaries would rule the talks, but generally the first commentary was very solid and interesting ride with everyone speaking and laughing of memories past. The second commentary clearly showed at first that Palin felt a bit odd about the idea of talking to an 'invicible' audience, but quickly accustomed to it and contributed like a good boy. Cleese also shares his thoughts about the film and is a bit laid back perhaps (but that's the image I've gotten about Cleese as a person too). Last thing is the four very rare snippets from Terry Jones's personal library which include deleted sketches that were cut from the film with audio commentaries from different pythons + the original audio track. The picture quality on these isn't too good, but I don't wonder ;->

He's not a messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

The sound isn't anything spectacular. It's a stereo and I'd probably feel it raped if there'd be some Dolby EX 9.9 DTS THX mixmaxmatrixed extragavanzasurround. This is a monty python film and god forbit if they ever get their hands on sound equipment :) The voices are clear enough ;)

Anyway, with this disc, you are definitely looking towards the bright side of life. I don't know the status of the Grail Special edition of wheter or not it is even planned for, but I think it should be. Of all the Monty Python movies, this one is probably the most consistent and movie-like one. Where Grail was still a bit of jumping from sketch to another and Meaning of Life being a sort-of "the life and death of mr. X" this one has a definite beginning, middle and the end with a clear plot. Even if you hate this film, but love monty python otherwise (are there such people?) you should definetly get this disc because of the valuable extra material it gives about the group as a whole.

Reko Nokkanen