The Meaning of Life (1983)

[Movie 110 / Day 76]


The Meaning of Life is not really a movie in the traditional sense, but more a collection of Monty Python's surreal sketches loosely gathered together to follow the journey from birth to death.

The movie opens with a movie-within-the-movie, which is a bizarre pirate parody based in an insurance company - the building weighs anchor and sails off onto the 'accountant sea'. After this 16-minute short, we get to the movie proper and take a trip through the minds of some of the greatest comedians this country has ever produced.

My favourite bits include not just the infamous Mr Creosote scene and Eric Idle singing The Galaxy Song (the lyrics are brilliant) but also the fantastic animated title sequence (just brilliant) and even some of the transitions between sketches are genius.

It's not the best Python movie, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

My rating: 6.9 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.4 / 10
Running time: 107 mins
IMDB link

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

[Movie 91 / Day 54]


Terry Gilliam fantasy about Baron Munchausen, who sets off on a voyage to gather his servants in order to save a town from invading Turks. Lots and lots of 'names' in it, lots and lots of crazy imagery (a trip to the moon in a hot air balloon to see the King of Everything, a fish the size of an island, a flying horse, etc)...

Even though it's pretty surreal, it's also fun to watch and I enjoyed it a fair amount. Except for the appearance of another abysmal Jonathan Pryce accent.

My rating: 7.1 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.0 / 10
Running time: 126 mins
IMDB link