Not their best effort
While this movie has some notable moments, all very dark, it is not as funny as earlier efforts like the Holy Grail and the original TV show. It's worth watching, but not as many laughs.
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > The Meaning of Life (1983) Discussion > Not their best effort
I agree, Holy Grail & Life of Brian were very funny & clever, I found this to be pretentious nonsense for the most part.
"Sister, when I've raised hell you'll know it"
Can you please elaborate on what was 'pretentious' about the movie?
I find that to be a very overused and abused word. Much like 'manipulative' and 'sentimental'.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds
It was painfully unfunny, un-clever and sophomoric.
share[deleted]
Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one. This had to be one of the worst films I've ever seen in any genre. Having already watched And Now for Something Completely Different, Holy Grail, and Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life has to be the weakest film from Monty Python, which is unfortunate. I was hoping for this movie to be good, but damn, I was wrong. I thought the short film in the beginning was as stupid as you can get.
So much for capitalism! That was the feeling I had after watching the short film at the beginning of The Meaning of Life which felt like a movie about a bunch of old men trying so hard to channel Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Why the hell was the Ben-Hur reference necessary?
The sperm song and dance number felt like the equivalent to a really bad SNL sketch. The dialogue and the humor was forced. After a while, the cross dressing got relentless and super annoying.
Also, I’m not a prude or anything, and I don’t mind nudity in films depending on the content in the film or the reason for it, but if I had wanted this much nudity in the film to begin with, I would have just watched porn. Ironically, I don’t even like porn and find it disgusting, so I rest my case.
I maybe laughed two or three times at the most throughout the whole movie and that was it. The rest of the humor was nothing to write home about.
The restaurant scene with the severally obese man who kind of reminded me of Charlie Chaplin if he had an excessive weight problem was so sick and disgusting. The relentless vomiting wasn’t funny either. It made me wonder how anyone can find this crap funny. Sadly, I probably wanted to stop watching this movie about halfway through but somehow, I had to persist in the hopes that it would get funny towards the end. Alas, that wasn’t the case either.
It was interesting to see that there were no special features on the DVD. Maybe because it had something to do with the fact that the cast of the film were so embarrassed by the final product, they figured, “Screw it!”
If you’re going to market this as a comedy, it better be a damn good comedy! That is the reaction I had after viewing The Meaning of Life. Instead, this movie felt more like an excuse for a comedy and some group trying so hard to make a Monty Python movie, but forgot to realize that they did, except that it was a really atrocious one.
1/10
I agree that this isn't their best production, but it still manages to be funny and thought provoking.
This movie in more dark and political than any of their other works. It has a lot of unsettling and rather sad moments, and the lighthearted silliness we are used to, has turned more serious and dark. I understand that some people don't like this.
The movie is uneven, and some of the scenes are in surplus, but as I grow older I actually prefer this one over "The Life of Brian".
Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one. This had to be one of the worst films I've ever seen in any genre. Having already watched And Now for Something Completely Different, Holy Grail, and Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life has to be the weakest film from Monty Python, which is unfortunate. I was hoping for this movie to be good, but damn, I was wrong. I thought the short film in the beginning was as stupid as you can get.
Really? One of the worst films you've ever seen? I can name dozens of films off the top of my head that are way worse than this. I agree it's the weakest film, but it doesn't belong in the trash bin.
So much for capitalism! That was the feeling I had after watching the short film at the beginning of The Meaning of Life which felt like a movie about a bunch of old men trying so hard to channel Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Why the hell was the Ben-Hur reference necessary?
It was originally supposed to be a part of the movie itself, I believe, but became such a long sketch that they separated it from the rest.
The sperm song and dance number felt like the equivalent to a really bad SNL sketch. The dialogue and the humor was forced. After a while, the cross dressing got relentless and super annoying.
It's not my favorite part either, but they were poking fun at Catholicism. If you Much of what Python did was to satirize a wide variety of things, so you have to expect that. As far as cross dressing, you do realize that that was the type of thing that the Python's did? All Python shows and films have them dressing up as women. They played nearly all middle aged to older women in all their stuff.
Also, I’m not a prude or anything, and I don’t mind nudity in films depending on the content in the film or the reason for it, but if I had wanted this much nudity in the film to begin with, I would have just watched porn. Ironically, I don’t even like porn and find it disgusting, so I rest my case.
There's some PG-13 movies nowadays that have nearly as much nudity in it than this film.
I maybe laughed two or three times at the most throughout the whole movie and that was it. The rest of the humor was nothing to write home about.
The restaurant scene with the severally obese man who kind of reminded me of Charlie Chaplin if he had an excessive weight problem was so sick and disgusting. The relentless vomiting wasn’t funny either. It made me wonder how anyone can find this crap funny. Sadly, I probably wanted to stop watching this movie about halfway through but somehow, I had to persist in the hopes that it would get funny towards the end. Alas, that wasn’t the case either.
It was interesting to see that there were no special features on the DVD. Maybe because it had something to do with the fact that the cast of the film were so embarrassed by the final product, they figured, “Screw it!”
If you’re going to market this as a comedy, it better be a damn good comedy! That is the reaction I had after viewing The Meaning of Life. Instead, this movie felt more like an excuse for a comedy and some group trying so hard to make a Monty Python movie, but forgot to realize that they did, except that it was a really atrocious one.
1/10
Maybe you don't get all of what was funny about Python? From some of what you said here, I'm not sure if you're all that familiar with them. share
The OP didn't say it sucked.
shareThere was a recent Monty Python documentary where John Cleeese said that he was hoping that they would do another full length movie (like Holy Grail and Brian) but they ended up dong a number of skits.
I think they kept on having meetings and breaks from work but couldnot come up with a concept for a full length movie and ended up doing what we see.
[deleted]
Perhaps not their best or funniest film but the most outrageous and wackiest of all the films.
shareThey had a few problems with this movie.
1- After Life of Brian, the team was very eager to start working on a new movie, but got stuck trying to identify a plot. "Monty Python's World War 3" was initially chosen, but abandoned due to difficulty of coming up with consistent material. They even took some time out and did live performances in late 1980 to attempt to clean up the slate and come up with good material.
2- The Pythons then focused on writing unfocused comedy material, but they had trouble finding a way to link them. Their best material for standalone sketches was past them (ending the TV series 8 years prior), so their best shot was finding a "meaning of life" theme, with no plot or central characters. This hurt the comedy consistency and drama needed, and did not give them a guideline to focus the comedy on.
3- As writing progressed, John Cleese was not very interested in working with the Pythons again, and grew impatient with the writing process, which took over two and a half years. He decided to go on with what they thought was a work in progress draft. Eric Idle has stated they were to write a final draft, adding up a main character, and we would focus on all of his life (most likely the waiter Eric Idle plays on the Mr Creosote sketch, that later talks about his life). Cleese, however, did not want to spend more time in the writing phase, and stated they would either film what they had, or abort the whole thing.
4- They had access to too much money, allocated in the wrong places.
5- The Pythonesque humor was out of fashion in the early 80s, in favor of a more acid, edgy cringe comedy, and their writing decisions show this.
I think the additional draft would have helped, but not solved every problem.
"You keep him in here, and make sure HE dosen't leave!"
Hilarious. Period.
shareYeah, unfortunately the Pythons' emotions got in the way of this one. Apparently, there was a lot of tension behind the scenes because they all kind of knew this would be their last film together and they'd become so attached to the group some handled it worse than others, it affected their ability to do the thing as well as it could have been done.
~NW~