Jabberwocky
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Movie Reviews of Jabberwocky
Movie Review: Monty Python and the Holy Potato
Summary: 3 Stars
The cover of the DVD says "From the director of THE FISHER KING and BRAZIL." This isn't like those films. I've read the reviews that treat it as brilliant, even deep post-Python humor. Humor is notoriously subjective, so I won't say the reviews are wrong about whether it's funny, only that all I saw was minor Monty Python with a coherent story. The story is overwhelmed, as even Gilliam and Palin acknowledge in the audio commentary (though it takes Gilliam a while to come around to it), by the Pythonish gags. I love The Fisher King and quite enjoy Brazil and some of Gilliam's other work, but this film left me stone cold.
For what it's worth, the audio commentary with Gilliam and Palin is full of behind-the-scenes stories (some true) and Gilliam's explanations of the many allusions and ideas, for those seeking the well hidden depths of this film.
Movie Review: Python-Lite
Summary: 3 Stars
Essentially, Director Terry Gilliam is trying to tackle the same territory the Pythons did In "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", however, this movie captures the mood of that film but not the spirit. Ostensibly, the plot involves a cooper (Michael Palin) trying to impress his beloved by slaying a beast that is terrorizing the kingdom. However, director Gilliam has bigger fish to fry. He wants to demonstrate that medieval times were rotten. This theme is repeated over and over again, ad nauseum. He does this through various sight gags some involving body functions. This is not a bad movie, it just pales in comparison to "The Holy Grail". If you are a fan of Python then I give it a marginal recommendation.Movie Review: Not a Monty Python Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is not a Monty Python movie and fans of Holy Grail may be very disappointed. This movie is very uneven. It seems like Terry Gilliam wanted to do this movie w/o the comedy but felt obligated to throw in Monty Pythonesque type humor because thats what the movie would be associated with. I did not find the movie to be funny. Most of the jokes and gags I thought were not up to par of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's not a bad movie but if you are a fan of Python maybe you should stick with the Holy Grail.Movie Review: What is it?
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm a great fan of the Pythons, and this was the first "independent" film of theirs that I've seen. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I also found it confusing. It has some wonderfully funny moments, but it also has some serious moments. It is a comedy, and it is dark, but it is not a dark comedy. It's as if the movie can't decide which to be. The result is that you want to care about the characters, but you also want bad things to happen to them, because it would be funny. This is confusing, and ulimately annoying.Movie Review: Beamish boy
Summary: 2 Stars
Anyone who has read Lewis Carroll's classic children's tales will remember "Jabberwocky," the screwball poem about a young man slaying the fearsome Jabberwock. While there are some likable moments in "Jabberwocky," it never really pulls itself together.
Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin) is disinherited by his about-to-die father, penniless, and inexplicably in love with the obese, potato-crunching, none-too-pleasant Griselda Fishfinger. So Dennis heads off to the city, only to learn that the fearsome Jabberwock, a horrendous monster that devours everything except the head and bones of its victims, is attacking the city.
King Bruno (Max Wall) has promised his romantic-minded daughter's hand to the one who slays the Jabberwock, and the princess duly falls in love with the hapless Dennis. So somehow this "beamish boy" ends up being sent out against the Jabberwock in a horrific wasteland.
It's hard to tell what the vision behind "Jabberwocky" was, but it came across as a limp spinoff of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It has the same grimy, icky medieval look, klunky knights and abundance of filthy beggars, but it doesn't manage to be similarly hilarious. Is it a farce? A dark fairy-tale? The evil twin of "Holy Grail"? I was never really sure, and sometimes I wasn't sure if Gilliam was either. He flipflops through all three.
The Jabberwock is pretty good; though nobody could say it looks real, it's entertaining. The jokes are often either stretched out to the breaking point, or repeated over and over (like the urination joke). And while the tale of Dennis is engaging, there's no twist or offbeat quirk to make it really engaging. It proceeds and ends just as you'd expect it to.
Michael Palin is the saving grace of the movie. He's wonderfully bewildered as events spin out of his control, especially when the princess greets him stark naked. Max Wall gives a pleasantly offbeat performance as King Bruno,
So take up your vorpal blade, head off through the Tulgey Wood, and burble your way over to one of Gilliam's more cohesive works. This isn't one of them, unless you're a die-hard fan of Palin.