"Actor: Charles McKeown"

• Monty Python's Life Of Brian | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £5.32   |  Saving you £7.67 (144.17%)   |  RRP £12.99

  There is not a single joke, sight-gag or one-liner in Monty Python's Life of Brian that will not forever burn itself into the viewer's memory as being just as funny as it is possible to be, but--extraordinarily--almost every indestructibly hilarious scene also serves a dual purpose, making this one of the most consistently sustained film satires ever made. Like all great satire, the Pythons not only attack and vilify their targets (the bigotry and hypocrisy of organised religion and politics) supremely well, they also propose an alternative: be an individual, think for yourself, don't be led by others. "You've all got to work it out for yourselves", cries Brian in a key moment. "Yes, we've all got to work it our for ourselves", the crowd reply en masse. Two thousand years later, in a world still blighted by religious zealots, Brian's is still a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Aside from being a neat spoof on the Hollywood epic, it's also almost incidentally one of the most realistic on-screen depictions of the ancient world--instead of treating their characters as posturing historical stereotypes, the Pythons realised what no sword 'n' sandal epic ever has: that people are all the same, no matter what period of history they live in. People always have and always will bicker, lie, cheat, swear, conceal cowardice with bravado (like Reg, leader of the People's Front of Judea), abuse power (like Pontius Pilate), blindly follow the latest fads and giggle at silly things ("Biggus Dickus"). In the end, Life of Brian teaches us that the only way for a despairing individual to cope in a world of idiocy and hypocrisy is to always look on the bright side of life. On the DVD: Life of Brian returns to Region 2 DVD in a decent widescreen anamorphic print with Dolby 5.1 sound--neither are exactly revelatory, but at least it's an improvement on the previous release, which was, shockingly, pan & scan. The 50-minute BBC documentary, "The Pythons", was filmed mainly on location in 1979 and isn't especially remarkable or insightful (a new retrospective would have been appreciated). There are trailers for this movie, as well as Holy Grail plus three other non-Python movies. There's no commentary track, sadly. --Mark Walker

• The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen | Blu Ray | (07/04/2008) from £10.03   |  Saving you £11.22 (127.94%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From Terry Gilliam director of Time Bandits and Brazil comes The Adventures of Baron Munchausen a spectacular epic fantasy quite unlike any other film ever made. Just who is Baron Munchausen? Liar? Rogue? Madman? Or the greatest superhero ever to battle and triumph against unbeatable odds? Did he really ride through the air on a cannonball slay a three-headed griffin journey to the moon all before breakfast? Helped and hindered by a cast of quite literally thousands including Vulcan Berthold and many more the indomitable Baron succeeds in overcoming every obstacle to face his final greatest challenge: Death itself! There's never been a film remotely like this but then there's never been a hero to compare with the Baron...

• Brazil | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £9.15   |  Saving you £6.84 (74.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--Brazil is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. In fact it was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek government clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. It's not a software bug but a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets squashed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic tangle, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson On the DVD: Brazil comes to DVD in a welcome anamorphic print of the full director's cut--here running some 136 minutes. Disappointingly the only extra feature is the 30-minute making-of documentary "What Is Brazil?", which consists of on-set and behind-the-scenes interviews. There's nothing about the film's controversial release history (covered so comprehensively on the North American Criterion Collection release), nor is Gilliam's illuminating, irreverent directorial commentary anywhere to be found. The only other extra here is the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. A welcome release of a real classic, then, but something of a missed opportunity. --Mark Walker

• Monty Python's Life Of Brian | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £5.02   |  Saving you £14.97 (298.21%)   |  RRP £19.99

  That rarest of rare treasures, Monty Python's Life of Brian is both achingly funny and seriously satirical without ever allowing one to overbalance the other. There is not a single joke, sight gag or one-liner that will not forever burn itself into the viewer's memory as being just as funny as it is possible to be, but, extraordinarily, almost every line and every indestructibly hilarious scene also serves a dual purpose, making this one of the most consistently sustained film satires ever made. Like all great satire, the Pythons not only attack and vilify their targets (the bigotry and hypocrisy of organised religion and politics) supremely well, they also propose an alternative: be an individual, think for yourself, don't be led by others. "You've all got to work it out for yourselves", cries Brian in a key moment. "Yes, we've all got to work it our for ourselves", the crowd reply en masse, "Tell us more". Two thousand years later, in a world still blighted by religious zealots, Brian's is still a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Aside from being a neat spoof on the Hollywood epic, it's also almost incidentally one of the most realistic on-screen depictions of the ancient world--instead of treating their characters as posturing historical stereotypes, the Pythons realised what no sword 'n' sandal epic ever has: that people are all the same, no matter what period of history they live in. People always have and always will bicker, lie, cheat, swear, conceal cowardice with bravado (like Reg, leader of the People's Front of Judea), abuse power (like Pontius Pilate), blindly follow the latest fads and giggle at silly things ("Biggus Dickus"). In the end, Life of Brian teaches us that the only way for a despairing individual to cope in a world of idiocy and hypocrisy is to always look on the bright side of life. --Mark Walker

• Monty Python's Life Of Brian (Special Edition) | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £17.87   |  Saving you £-0.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  You could say this is one of the greatest comedies ever but the Monty Python team said it first! 'Life Of Brian' is all about (and here's the big surprise) the life of Brian who was born in a Bethlehem manger next door to Jesus. Three wise men believe he is the messiah but it becomes apparent that he is only Brian. It's written and performed by the Monty Python lads so you know what you're in for; if you don't put this disc down and go out while it's safe!

• The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen | DVD | (02/05/2011) from £13.26   |  Saving you £-7.27 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Monty Python's Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) directs this wild, wild version of the stories of Baron Munchausen, pushing the limits of 1989 special effects technology to bring us such sights as a horse divided in half and running around in two parts, and a giant Robin Williams with his head flying off his shoulders. Basically, this is a treat for Gilliam fans, as the sustaining idea of the film runs out of steam, and manic energy alone keeps the momentum going. Casual viewers might find it tedious after awhile. There are nice parts for fellow Python Eric Idle, as well as Sting, Alison Steadman, and Uma Thurman as a dazzlingly beautiful Venus on a half-shell. Gilliam had greater artistic and commercial success with Brazil, The Fisher King and 12 Monkeys. --Tom Keogh

• Monty Python Movies Box Set | DVD | (10/04/2017) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Monty Python goes to the movies in this DVD boxset packed with three of their classic cinematic adventures. Enjoy ˜And Now For Something Completely Different', ˜Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and ˜Life of Brian'. And Now For Something Completely Different Monty Python's Flying Circus is regarded as a milestone In British Comedy, This, their first feature film, is an anthology of the funniest sketches from the legendary BBC television series. Pick one of your favourites from among many, including the famous Say No More, Nudge, Nudge sequence, the Hell's Grannies and The Dead Parrot. Monty Python and the Holy Grail After a chance meeting with a rather irate God, King Arthur and his Knights of The Round Table are set the sacred task of retrieving the all powerful Holy Grail. On their long quest they encounter a number of terrifying hazards the taunts of the abusive French Knight, disgruntled peasants, the Knights who say ˜Ni' and the deadly rabbit with the big pointy teeth. (Double Disc Set) Life of Brian The Pythons deliver a scathing, anarchic satire of both religion and Hollywood's depiction of all things biblical with their third film. The setting is Judea 33 A.D., a time of poverty and chaos, with no shortage of messiahs, followers willing to believe in them, and exasperated Romans trying to impose some order. (Double Disc Set)

• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  From Terry Gilliam director of 'Time Bandits' and 'Brazil' comes 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' a spectacular epic fantasy quite unlike any other film ever made. Just who is Baron Munchausen? Liar? Rogue? Madman? Or the greatest superhero ever to battle and triumph against unbeatable odds? Did he really ride through the air on a cannonball slay a three-headed griffin journey to the moon all before breakfast? Helped and hindered by a cast of quite literally thousands including Vulcan Berthold and many more the indomitable Baron succeeds in overcoming every obstacle to face his final greatest challenge: Death itself? There's never been a film remotely like this but then there's never been a hero to compare with the Baron...

• Erik The Viking | DVD | (07/08/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Erik a fine example of a Viking one day questions the ethics of his livelihood; raping and pillaging so he sets out for enlightenment and the gods of Valhalla. His men become adept at creating chaos on this wacky adventure.

• The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen | DVD | (07/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From Terry Gilliam director of Time Bandits and Brazil comes The Adventures of Baron Munchausen a spectacular epic fantasy quite unlike any other film ever made. Just who is Baron Munchausen? Liar? Rogue? Madman? Or the greatest superhero ever to battle and triumph against unbeatable odds? Did he really ride through the air on a cannonball slay a three-headed griffin journey to the moon and all before breakfast...? Helped and hindered by a supporting cast of literally thousands including Vulcan (Oliver Reed) Bertholdt (Eric Idle) and many more the indomitable Baron (John Neville) succeeds in overcoming every obstacle to face his final greatest challenge... Death itself.

• MONTY PYTHON: DAS LEBEN DES BR | Blu Ray | (22/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Ripping Yarns | DVD | (21/04/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-74), and well before going Around the World in 80 Days (1989), Pole to Pole (1992) or even Full Circle (1997), Michael Palin starred in Ripping Yarns, co-written with Terry Jones. As the title suggests, these were spoofs, affectionate pastiche-come-homage Boy's Own-type adventures. Each was an individual short film, less bizarre than the Flying Circus, not so consistently hilarious as fellow ex-Python John Cleese's Fawlty Towers, but inventively surreal with a daffy, gloriously English eccentricity. "Tomkinson's Schooldays" was the 45-minute pilot (originally shown as a one-off programme in 1976) and the funniest of the three tales here. A parody of Tom Brown's Schooldays, the humour comes from the violence, cruelty and insane rules of Graybridge public school in which the unfortunate Tomkinson is incarcerated. Ian Ogilvy is a fine School Bully, terrifying even Terry Jones' useless headmaster. "Escape from Stalag Luft 112B" is a P.O.W. movie send-up (from the first series), and "Golden Gordon" (from Series 2) celebrates the man who won't give-up on an underdog northern football team. In 1983 Palin made The Missionary, essentially a feature-film Ripping Yarn. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Ripping Yarns - The Box Set | DVD | (24/10/2002) from £69.99   |  Saving you £-45.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ripping Yarns: six episodes of Michael Palin's remarkable comedy showcase in one box set. The Testing of Eric Olthwaite: Set in the days of dark depression before Last of the Summer Wine started bringing jobs to the area. Eric's tough mining parents find their son so boring that they run away from home. Eric torn between love for his parents and lack of brain cells becomes involved with a hardened criminal. The rest is history. Tompkinson's Schooldays: Set in the Edwardian era the heyday of school stories it has all the authentic ingredients for absolutely topping schoolboy fun - excitement adventure heroes and bullies. Escape from Stalag Luft 112B: A tale of courage and valour from behind the lines in the Kaiser's Germany. An inspiring story of camp life and British officer who won't lie down! Whinfrey's Last Case: Dashing debonair Gerald Whinfrey saves his country twice a week but in 1913 a German plot to start the First World War without telling anybody coincides with his holiday. Where do Whinfrey's priorities lie? Has he got any? The Curse of the Claw: Gothic horror comes to Maidenhead. A timely reminder of what happens when men dabble in the dark world of oriental superstition. Michael Palin aided by plastic surgery plays old and young Kevin as well as Kevin's childhood hero Uncle Jack - an enormously cheerful physical disaster area who has had every disease known to man usually at the same time. Golden Gordon: Superfan Gordon Ottershaw supports a team which hasn't won a match for six years. But worse is yet to come when Gordon and his bicycle clips are re-united in a last desperate bid for glory.