lasagnacrudswirl Reviews

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Who Need Plot? This is Monty Python!

[8/10 · 13 April 2010]

There really is no story to this movie. Which normally, would be a very bad thing. But here, it isn't. Why? It's a Monty Python movie.

From the opening scene (Please Wait a Moment While the Operator Changes Reels) and the opening credits (mind you, moose bites can be nasti) you can tell that this is a movie that delights in zany randomness. It's a movie that knows it's stupid, and that revels in its stupidity.

And it's a good thing.

So instead of complaining that this movie has too much plot, I'm going to complain about the opposite thing--the one reason I didn't give this movie 10 out of 10: it has too much plot. And the storyline there is seems forced and...well, yes, stupid. But not in a good way this time. Instead, it seems like a poor attempt to restrain the strange humor of Monty Python.

So my advice is, watch the movie. But don't concentrate on the plot. Don't concentrate on what's going on. Ignore it. Watch the movie like a series of Monty Python skits--some of the funniest ones out there too, although it's tough to beat the dead parrot--because really, that's what it is.

Oh, and don't look for historical accuracy either. You might find some. And that would ruin all the fun.

G-Force (2009)

Had Me Laughing, But Not At The Jokes

[3/10 · 22 March 2010]

Take every movie you've ever seen, watched the trailer for, or even just heard of. Take the good ones. The bad ones. The in-between ones.

Mush them all together. Add guinea pigs. Wait--make it...guinea pig spies. Oh, and while your at it, throw a couple top 40s songs in to play at inappropriate moments.

There! You have just created something similar to the movie G-Force.

This movie had me cracking up laughing, but not at the halfhearted fart jokes. I simply could not believe it was possible to shove so many clichés, pointless allusions, and plain old corniness into one movie. I half expected the "bad guy" (who actually calls himself the bad guy, more corniness) to be Darwin's father.

We watched this movie out of Redbox, so we only wasted a dollar on it. That's probably the reason that I could take this horrible movie so lightheartedly. I spent most of the first half in disbelief and most of the second half making fairly accurate guesses of what cliché was going to come next. (Here comes the monologue...here comes the Disney moment).

I guess Disney thought that they should stick to stories about fuzzy animals based off of action movies after their success with Bolt. But what really made Bolt, or a lot of the older Disney movies, or the new Pixar movies, successful is that they have heart. G-Force doesn't, just a couple of cute guinea pigs and some random moments that were so stupid they were funny. And that's not enough to save a movie.