A Liar’s Autobiography (2012)

I love the hell out of Monty Python, the shows, the movies. I can’t get enough, even on repeat viewings. A wildly animated F.U. to the whole biopic genre, “A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman” wants to be the M.P. version of the group’s founding member and leader’s life story, but it’s a pile of random tid-bits that don’t say much. Crazy fact: I learned more trivia about Chapman’s life and comedy impact in the “Making of…” documentary on this film than the film itself. That’s sounds like a Python satirical sketch. (Skip the movie! Watch the extras!) “Liar’s” never boring and much of the animation stuns – dig the section that represents Chapman kicking booze -- but there’s so little context I never got a hook on the man. A scene big on Python gore has toddler Chapman looking at the bodies of soldiers killed in a WWII plane crash. Why? Did he recall this a haunting memory? Who can tell when we’re told it’s fake? A letdown from a film I expected much from. C+

Fierce Creatures (1997)

From the makers of wickedly-dark British crime satire “A Fish Called Wanda” – one of my favorites – comes “Fierce Creatures,” a surprisingly tame comedy despite the title. The entire cast of “Wanda” returns for this not-quite sequel, behind and in front of the camera. John Cleese plays the button-down ex-cop suddenly put in charge of a financially strapped zoo, purchased by a Murdoch-type corporate clown (Kevin Kline) with an obnoxious sex-obsessed son (Kline, again). As Wanda, sorry Willa, Jamie Lee Curtis is the smart, go-getter stuck in the middle, falling for Cleese, but tied to Kline’s weasel. It’s all the same, with gags repeated from not just “Wanda,” but Monty Python as well. (“It’s just a flesh wound!”) I constantly felt reminded of a far-better film I could easily re-watch, and a comedy troupe that will never be topped. Fierce? No. C+

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

God bless each and every member of the Monty Python. After taking on the Holy Grail in 1975 and giving us one of the greatest comedy of all time, the British (and one American) lads take on a most holy target – Christianity and religious fanatics of all kinds – in “Life of Brian.” The results are wicked hilarious, every bit equal to “Grail.” I don’t care a whit if it’s blasphemous, it only makes me love it more. (It isn't by the way.) The Brian (Graham Chapman) of the title is a chap born in a stable two over from the one holding the Son of God. Brian is no savior, though. He spends his life running from his iron-will mother and smack into the path of crazy prophets drunk on their own loud voices, crazier followers who think him the Savior, and the Romans, and a cross. By God, the scene involving separatists (led by John Cleese) denouncing Rome (”What have they ever given us?”) had me crying. Chapman is brilliant as the straight man, while Michael Palin again proves he can play more than a dozen characters in one film and hit a homer every one. Christ is treated with revered awe. Graham Chapman is poor Brian, hung out to sing. A miracle of satire. A+

Brazil (1985)

"Brazil" is George Orwell to the max, with sickly twisted Monty Python humor and a shocking bit of violence, smash-mixed for an extra sharp jab at a futuristic life under a corporate/government microscope. It is the hands-down best Terry Gilliam time warp/mind screw, and the man likes to screw with minds. Jonathan Pryce is the hero -- a cubicle cog battling and yet loyal to his incompetent boss (Ian Holm) and his rich mother (Katherine Helmond) -- who finds himself falling in love with (or is stalking) a beautiful woman (Kim Geist) who may be a terrorist. The supporting cast includes Jim Broadbent, Robert De Niro, Michael Palin, and a creepy/funny Bob Hoskins. The film is a delirious and literal fever dream, where fantasy sequences meld into the "reality" going on in the mad world where all is gray, and life is one paperwork form after the other, and the world is soulless. If Gilliam's long 140-odd minute version is a mess (repetition, scenes that dead end) under certain viewing, it's a fuckin' brilliant one. A masterpiece, even. A

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Watching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" for the third time in one week, maybe a few dozen times over all, it makes one want to repeal every "A+" I've given to 99 percent of the films I've ever reviewed. Essentially, this film is a gift from God, or maybe the Dark One from downstairs.

The perfect comedy (OK, the original "The Producers" is my ultimate favorite comedy, but still), "Holy Grail" is the Python's crowning achievement of absolute absurd humor. Forget plot details or character round ups, the film's title says it all. From the opening scene of King Arthur and Patsy not riding on horses as they gallop toward a castle, it's an absolute hysterical satire that rips England's and all WASP's eternal love affair with themselves.

The Pythons, with Michael Palin and Graham Chapman as the stand outs, wreck havoc all that is holy, and they deserve halos and wings for it. It's not for everyone's taste, either you love Python, or you don't. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't. (My wife hates it, but I still love her.)

A favorite scene? I can't say. I change my mind every time I watch it, but the king/gay son/dumb guards wedding fiasco, complete with a mass murdering John Cleese, leaves me in tears every time. An absolute classic, if it's possible to wear out a DVD, I'll do it to this one. Oh, and the irrelevant animation by Terry Gilliam -- it's still not topped as far as imagination and giddy fun. A+