Good not great Brooks... That means you get slightly more kitsch, vulgarity and old gags to the dollar than you can take but for every old-as-Methuselah gag (he even gets the old "Walk this way" staple in there), there are enough compensatory puns and sight gags present, with more than a few in-jokes at the expense of past Hollywood historical blockbusters along the way. Me, I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a line like "Judea Judea Judea" delivered in knowing Cary Grant style and there are plenty more where that came from. The extended scenes in Ancient Rome and Revolutionary France work best (and are cinematographically well rendered too, something people often overlook with Brooks) as his stereotypically skewered band of characters have fun with more double-entendres than even Sid James would cackle at. Of the cameos, Pamela Stephenson (Mrs Billy Connolly now) thrusts her chest about wo - manfully and Gregory Hines does something similar with an equally libidinous part of his anatomy. I enjoyed the film, a funny romp and one senses the players did so too.
Review of History of the World: Part I
