Month: August 2011

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 12 (The Naked Ant)

Highs:
Wilkins/Robertson
Meaningless graph
Mr. Hilter (at the beginning)
Ken Shabby
The Wood Party
Spectrum Host’s Demise

Lows:
Hilter and company get a bit dull after a while
Vocal Annoyances
Speech Analysis
“No…No…No…”

Overrated (But not bad):
Upper-Class Twits

Grade: B-

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 11 (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes To The Bathroom)

Highs:
Wistful undertakers
Terry Jones’ pep talk
Nobody being asked to leave the room
very long arms
Proustian display of modern existentialist football
Jimmy Buzzard
Sleepy bricks
Flying Cat

Lows:
Mr. Walters
Extreme undertaker attrition
The World of History

Overrated:
Gumbys
Pearl Harbor re-enactment

Grade: B-

2012: Bad parts not so bad, just not nearly as good as the good parts.  Grade: B

BSH-Speak

In the manner of LTI, here are some handy phrases to know if you ever end up at BSH…

ITU (“Intensive Treatment Unit”) = Solitary

CO = Someone that can sneer/laugh at/mock/”subdue” (WHEN APPROPRIATE!) patients

Patient = Prisoner

Established Bedtimes = When you go to your cell unless there’s a sporting event that calls for much earlier bed

CO Training Walk-Through = Lock up the patients and pretend it’s always this way

Good CO (Of which there are many) = Someone who has their job for a reason other than listed above (See “CO”)

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 10 (“Untitled”)

Highs:
Polite robber
“It’s a Tree”
A piece of laminated plastic
Vocational Guidance Counselor
gay banter
“The Larch”
Luigi Ficotti
Ron Obvious
Pet Conversions
Gorilla Librarian
Gilliam’s “Survival of the Fittest” during an intellectual debate

Lows:
Lonnnnnnnng (and boring) bedroom seduction

Grade: A-

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 9 (The Ant, An Introduction)

Highs:
Llama info
Cleese behind a desk
Double Vision Mountaineering
Michael The Homicidal Barber/Lumberjack
The Larch
Ken Buddha
Unwanted Knight
“Let’s have a ding-dong”

Lows:
Professor Gumby
Gilliam’s animation goes on a BIT too long
“Hunting Film”

Overrated:
Man with a tape recorder up his…

Grade: B

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 8 (Full Frontal Nudity)

Highs:
Watkins the Coward
Army Shakedown
Colonel Chapman’s bits throughout
Art Critic
“Dog Kennels”
Vicious “Keep Left” signs
Dead Parrot Sketch

Lows:
None…just mediums.

Grade: A-

8/8/12: The “Lows” are only low compared to the other bits.  They’re not actually bad.  Grade: A

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 6 (It’s The Arts)

Highs:
Cleese’s impromptu burial
The Whizzo “Quality Assortment”
Dull City Stockbroker
Cleese’s “Free Officer”
Twentieth Century Vole
Yes Men/Pencil Droppers/Lousy Ideas/SPLUNGE

Lows:
The self-indulgent and admirable but somewhat painful Yohan G…whatever.

Grade: A-

8/8/12: Yohan G. is brilliant in its apathy for ratings.  But it still gets dull.  Grade: A-

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 5 (Man’s Crisis Of Identity In The Latter Half Of The Twentieth Century)

Highs:
Confuse the……..cat
The world’s worst smuggler
A Duck
A Cat, and
A Lizard
“Sandwiches???”
Attacking the lower classes
Unfortunate Newsreader
Stock film or sex
Gilliam’s marked improvement
Management Training Course
Encyclopedia Salesmen

Lows:
Careers Advisory Board

Grade: A+

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 3 (How To Recognize Different Types Of Trees From Quite A Long Way Away)

Highs:
The Larch
Mr. Larch’s “Freedom” rant
The late Arthur Aldridge
John Cleese going “Wooooo…”
“E-wic” and “Mi-chael”
Nudge Nudge Wink Wink
Dirty Cutlery
THE HORSE CHESTNUT

Lows:
Bicycle Repairman (Except the random “international communism” part)

Grade: A-

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 2 (Sex & Violence)

Highs:
A quick…visual…Arthur Frampton
Palin’s first charming utter wimp receiving counseling with gorgeous “wife” Carol Cleveland
Tungsten-Carbide Drills
“The Epilogue” : A Question of Belief
Mr. A (Arthur Jackson)

Lows:
Eric Idle’s first (and only) attempt at being the “completely different” guy
Queen Victoria “Vaudevillian” film

Overrated:  The whole “Sheep” theme

Grade: B-

2012: Flickering with energy, just not fully focused yet.  Grade: B

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Episode 1 (Whither Canada)

Highs: 
Sir Edward………….Ross.
Arthur “Two Sheds”……………Jackson(And a Viking) in a remarkably similar studio.
Palin’s “lost soul” emerging from the water.

Lows:
Terminally mediocre Palin/Jones bit about Picasso on a bicycle.
Early Terry Gilliam misses and “hits”.

Overrated:
The not-very-funny-World’s-Funniest-Joke.

Grade: C+

Braveheart (1995)

Mel Gibson’s extremely fictionalized account of William Wallace and the Scottish struggle for independence from English rule is a true Epic in the classic Hollywood sense – Visually stunning, action-packed, and alternately inspiring and sappily cliche.

Taken as a historical recreation, this is an abysmal failure.  Taken as a work of fiction, it is a triumph whose charming and numerous strengths overcome its annoying weaknesses.

Weaknesses: The same incredibly gory battle scenes that made me “Oooo!” in amazement and delight as a young lad now make me either cringe slightly in frustration and/or disgust or just get through them by spotting the obvious errors in battlefield placement (the Scottish soldier half-heartedly fighting noone is a personal favorite).  In a film like ‘Saving Private Ryan’, similarly disturbing scenes work because they’re SUPPOSED to be disturbing, serving as a reminder of the horrors of a War that too many people have nearly conveniently forgotten.  In ‘Braveheart’, they seem obligatory if not glorified, as if Gibson thought of a lot of interestingly gruesome ways for people to get killed and he was going to make d@mn sure he took this opportunity to display them.

The other major complaint is the interaction between Wallace and the Princess of Wales – not because of its obvious historical impossibility, but because it’s so TOTALLY out of the character that Gibson had worked so hard to establish for Wallace.

On the positive side, the acting is almost uniformly excellent, with Gibson’s lead being outdone especially by Patrick McGoohan as King Edward “Longshanks”, and also by Wallace’s three Lieutenants (Most notably Stephen the Irishman in a bit of brilliantly insane comic relief).

The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, the costumes and soundtrack beautiful, and the script is (for the most part) intelligent, inventive, and gripping.

I cried several times watching this movie over the years, and also felt an undeniable surge of adrenaline and exultation.  When a movie can produce both effects, you know it’s doing something right.

Grade: A-

2012: It’s only a movie…it’s only a movie… Grade: A

10/3/16: Robert the Bruce also deserves a mention for impressive acting, and Gibson does have *some* moments of brilliance; the feelings and thoughts he conveys without words after meeting the Bruce on the battlefield are impressive and undeniable. Grade: A