Movie Reviews

Just like Monty Python's first feature-film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, their 1979 film Life of Brian uses its plot mainly just to advance from one more-or-less self-contained skit to the next. The plot (such as it is) involves a young Jewish man named Brian who lives a simple life in Roman-occupied Judea. Like all the other Jews at the time, Brian is very resentful of the Roman occupiers, and so he joins an undergrand anti-Roman movement. Soon after, a series of bizarre circumstances causes him to be mistaken for a messiah, and he spends the short remainder of his life trying to avoid his 'followers'.

If you enjoy Monty Python-style humour, I can't really think of much of a reason why you wouldn't also enjoy Life of Brian. It is basically a series of skits, any of which would've fit just as well in an episode of Flying Circus. I suppose one other unifying thread among them, though, is a subtle, cynical sense of satire (woah) with respect to certain religious types. See, for example, the part in which Brian's followers are over-willingly able to construe a series of coincidences as 'miracles' performed by Brian, their messiah. Funny stuff.

Life of Brian isn't quite up there with The Holy Grail (few other comedies are, in my opinion), but it's still pretty good.