Michael-Palin Movie Reviews

Michael Palin takes us on a voyage from North to South Pole and along the way introduces the interpid couch-traveller to some great sights, inateresting people, and the usual Palin humor. Highlights include the fjords of Norway, Russia and the Ukraine before the general's coup and a crazy long trip through the heart of Africa. Lots of fun...a great way to spend a cold autumn saturday.

I actually purchased the book before seeing the series, noting the name Michael Palin on the cover, and remembering his adventures around the world in 80 days. The fact that I did not see the show somehow made the book more enjoyable to read. Palin has a very descriptive, yet easy-to-follow writing style, which helped me vividly imagine the exotic locales & various personalities. Of course, the photos by Basil Pao helped a lot. All in all, great work, so much so that it doesn't feel like a TV companion, but a travelogue that can stand strongly on its own.

An unique journey from the North Pole to the South. Along the 30 degree East line of the longitude. Palin recorded all his exciting encounters and experiences in this remarkable travelogue.Provided great entertainment for arm-chair travellers.

This tape features the first two episodes of my favorite show "Monty Pythons flying circus" the first episode is a bit slow at times... but the second episode hits on target every time.

To this day, Monty Python remains THE idol and source of inspiration to humourists all around. »Monty Python's Flying Circus« made the group famous, and it is the best ever to come out, not only from Monty Python, not only from Britain... but humour in general!

Highlights on this tape are »The Funniest Joke In The World« and »The Mouse Problem«.

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I bought this for my father. When I was a kid he would watch Flying Circus and laugh to himself. I was too young to join the laughter--I just didn't get it. Now, when we watch the skits together we both laugh and laugh and laugh. This is a great collection of shorts and it is sure to please a Python fan of any age.

Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (1989) and Pole to Pole (1992), chronicles of his travels across the world, were very amusing and quite educational. Palin returns with a new adventure around the Pacific Rim. He explores the locales not as an expert but as an ignorant traveller in the best sense of the term. You feel as if you're there with him each step of the way, seeing the sights with him for the first time and glimpsing some of the troubles encountered when travelling abroad. While not as grand or hectic as Around the World in 80 Days, Full Circle is a very enjoyable series...

Michael Palin's Full Circle is a great show that would be a wonderful addition to anyone's video collection. Not only is the tape entertaining, with Palin adding his own humor in, but it's educational as well. It is a set that would please almost anyone.

This series will make you feel as though you have actually travelled the world. There is no hokiness, or fake glossied up pseudo-artistic photography. At the end of it all, you actually feel as though you have been on a trip with Michael Palin, who is one of the most down-to-earth, and "real" blokes one could hope to ever meet (not to mention sporadically hilarious, and unpretentiously so). I have travelled extensively, BK (before kids) and anytime I get itchy feet, I either buy a ticket and go.....or I settle in the armchair and stick a Michael Palin film in. Absolutley marvelous stuff. Spend the money...it's well worth it, several times over.

Love the Pythons you have to be able to understand British humor and I almost have the whole set and I just love Monty Python. Better than Saturday Night Live, Kids In the Hall, or any kind of troupe or show like another show, SCTV. Love the silly six!!

This volume in the entire Flying Circus collection has some of the best sketches ever conceived by the troupe. The North Minehead Bielections with "Mr. Hilter" is a personal favorite. Other favs include the Upper Class Twit-of-the-Year Show, People Falling Out of Buildings, Fairy Police, "Albatross!", and the Weird Voices Policeman Sketch. Any Python lover would be wise to make this part of their collection and enjoy watching it over and over.

To this day, Monty Python remains THE idol and source of inspiration to humourists all around. »Monty Python's Flying Circus« made the group famous, and it is the best ever to come out, not only from Monty Python, not only from Britain... but humour in general!

Highlights on this tape: »Agatha Christie Sketch«, »'Spectrum' - Talking Abouth Things« and »Ken Shabby«.

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I like all the Ripping Yarns, some are better than others, but my favorite is in this collection: "The Curse Of The Claw". This bit is so great, that I never get tired of watching it. Michael Palin is wonderful in a dual role, as both the innocent boy Kevin and his hilariously diseased Uncle Jack. The actors who play his unbelievably oppressive parents are great. Everything is top-notch, the atmosphere, acting, dialogue, and the ending. This, and all the Ripping Yarns, are full of very subtle but hilarious humor that may go over the heads of many.

I don't want to give too much away, Mr. Russell. If you like Python, and you've never seen this, get it now! I wish they would release this on DVD.

If you like Ripping Yarns, then you will like More Ripping Yarns. It is the second of the Ripping Yarns series.

The Testing of Eric Olthwaite (1934): Michael Palin has two roles in this episode. He plays Eric Olthwaite, a very boring young man. His only interests or should I say obsessions are black pudding, shovels, and especially the weather. He is so boring that his mom, dad, and sister run away from home. He askes his girlfriend for help but she is too busy having a fling. Poor Eric, he goes and searches for them. After receiving some friendly advice he decides to change his life and apply at a bank. Michael also plays the head bank teller. It is an interesting scene with both characters speaking to each other. Suddenly a bank teller comes in and takes Eric hostage. Soon Eric's life takes a bizzare turn and he is not so boring after all. It's a funny episode and the song at the end is very catchy.

Winfrey's Last Case (1921): The Germans are planning to start the war a year early, who do they call on to be the hero? Michael Palin plays General Winfrey. He refuses by telling them he needs a holiday. He leaves for his holiday, but it has a few funny turns. He goes into an empty pub where he is served by an old women whose arms and hands are the only thing you see. She even drives him up to Smugglers Cottage. Don't attempt this stunt ever. He goes up to Smugglers Cottage where he is greeted by 16 servants in a very small home. Later on one of the servants is trying to kill him but thanks to the 23 exits he manages to escape. Now another bizzare turn happens to General Winfrey, and somehow he becomes the hero. The scenery is beautiful and makes a great vacation spot.

Murder at Moorstone Manor (1926): Stephen King could not of written anything this scary, or should I say funny. This episode has Michael Palin playing three characters. This is quite a challenge, but Michael pulls it off beautifully. He starts out as an old man named Kevin who is alone and is greeted by an explorer and his trible. He tells the explorer a story of fear, tragedy, and terror. The story is about THE CLAW! He tells about his childhood and his visits with Uncle Jack. Michael plays Uncle Jack who has more diseases than anyone. Michael also plays Kevin in his mid 20's. Again, both characters are speaking to each other. Uncle Jack tells Kevin he must deliver the claw back to the rightful owners. He is unsucessful on his trip, but later on the claw reappears. How it ends is unusual. I like this episode because it is funny, and again Michael does a great job with all three characters.

Brilliant. The Eric Oldthwaite epidode depicts the sudden charisma which the most boring man in Yorkshire acquires when he accidentally becomes a robber of banks (and rain gauge records). Dialogue you'll drive your friends mad with for years to come. Visuals which make loving mock of "When the boat comes in" and a host of other tv and film icons. The Whinfrey episode is only ok, but The Claw is back to form: sinister, sad, strange and screamingly funny. Buy it!! You must watch the other 2 tapes, #1 for Golden Gordon and the brilliant, cult-episode Tomkinson's Schooldays and #3 for the wonderfully anarchic but cozily conservative Roger of the Raj. They're all great, but Eric Oldthwaite is the greatest and the most grating of them all. P.S. watch out for a sly fleeting reference to Eric in the "Golden Gordon" episode on tape 1.

I have 2 small children under the age of 5 and they enjoy listening to this CD over and over again. They ask for it every time we get in the car! And this isn't one of those annoying kids' CDs that adults hide after a while. It is actually well told by the talented actor, Michael Palin, who is quite funny in his own right. I highly reccomend this CD for car rides with kids - especially for the long summer car trip varieties! In general, we own about 4 "Rabbit Ears" CDs and they are all entertaining and "adult friendly". But most of all, my 2 kids LOVE them! (and we get some peace and quiet in the car!)

When my five-year-old discovered Jack's tale at preschool, we ended up bringing home every version available at our local library. Of course some were much better than others. I soon decided that if I was going to be reading about Jack twelve times a day (my two-year-old by now had captured his sister's passion for the tale), I needed to find the best written, most readable version available. Having long been a fan of Rabbit Ears Radio and Rabit Ears Publishing, I did a little deeper search and found this edition. My recommendation? Of the twenty or so Jacks we have read (and read, and read. . . ) in the past few weeks, this is the one I purchased for our family's collection. I would highly recommend other books by this publisher, as well.

To this day, Monty Python remains THE idol and source of inspiration to humourists all around. »Monty Python's Flying Circus« made the group famous, and it is the best ever to come out, not only from Monty Python, not only from Britain... but humour in general!

Episode Five is one of the best episodes ever. The highlights of Episode Six include »The Dull Life Of A City Stockbroker«.

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I LOVE Monty Python. They are the funniest comedy team EVER

Where can you start? New Cooker, Face the Press, the Piranha Bros.....Ministry of Silly Walks!!! The second half contains yet another gem: The Spanish Inquisition!! The semaphore version of Wuthering Heights is kind of dull, but the court charades is funny.

"I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"
"NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!!"

To this day, Monty Python remains THE idol and source of inspiration to humourists all around. »Monty Python's Flying Circus« made the group famous, and it is the best ever to come out, not only from Monty Python, not only from Britain... but humour in general!

Highlights on this tape are the two absolute classics »The Ministry Of Silly Walks« and »The Spanish Inquisition«. Fortunately, they left out the generally below-level Episode 13 on this tape.

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To this day, Monty Python remains THE idol and source of inspiration to humourists all around. »Monty Python's Flying Circus« made the group famous, and it is the best ever to come out, not only from Monty Python, not only from Britain... but humour in general!

Highlights on this tape: »Exploding Penguin On TV Set« and »Fish Licence« (one of my all-time favourites!).

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If you have ever loved monty python then you will love this.

A true lost-between-the-cracks comic gem. My friends and I have enjoyed this movie since we first saw it and finding good copies of it were difficult, to put it mildly. Although the DVD is skimpy, it's here, and damn reasonably priced, too.
Even with the DVD remaster, the sound is typically lousy (what IS it with the British...refuse to use German microphones?) and one almost has to turn the subtitles on to understand all the muffled dialog. Miking problems aside, "A Private Function" is a delightful, funny, occasionally crude comedy about class struggle in post-war Britain. A small "who's-who" of England's character actors make up the perfect cast of this film and all turn in splendid, low-key performances. Michael Palin, possibly the best "actor-actor" of the Monty Python troupe, is charming as the chiropodist who unwittingly stumbles unto the upper-middle-class via his female clientele, much to the delight of his social-aspiring, piano teacher wife, Maggie Smith.

Thank George Harrison's Handmade Films, without whom this, and many other films would have never been made, however low-budget and poorly-received they were. "A Private Function" may not grab you on the first viewing, but there's much to go back for on repeated viewings. And it gets funnier each time.
One warning: if you're at all squeamish about the butchering business (or piggie gastro-intestinal business), you may want to skip this one!

What a surprise that this perfect gem is not better known...such a loss. Britain during the early fifties had much to look forward to and much still to do. Everything was still rationed just as in the war years principally because the treasury was sacked to pay for the arms and munitions needed to fight it. The Empire (or what was left of it) was broke too and most that had not already done so went the autonomous route now, taking revenue away from London...though all quite peaceably and with everyone's best wishes. It would be ten years after the war ended (that makes roughly fourteen in all) until rationing would end for these isles, celebrated with the fantastic Festival of Britain in 1955, and people could at last look forward into a new Elizabethan age, rather than back on that darkness. My god Britain paid for that war in every way possible...really. What a period then to set a comedy I suppose...except that this particular story required those lean and austere times for the telling of it. Fresh meat you see...gammon, bacon, joints roasted and slavered with apple sauce...mouth watering! Imagine then the lengths you might go to for some of that after, let's say, eleven years of powdered egg.
Michael Palin as the hen pecked chiropodist, Maggie Smith as the social climbing hen, Liz Smith as the batty scatty mother-in law who'll stuff virtually anything and everything in her gannet gob, Denholm Eliot (as the doctor) who refuses to be impressed and so must be made so...along with everyone else in town who matters....I have never laughed so much. They are all that generation who would have been children (more or less) in this time period and all say how they never felt they went without....how they enjoyed their childhood's and wish it could be the same always...when you watch this you can see their point. This film and everyone's performance in it is superb. Please...for your good health and for your better and more cheerful disposition...buy this movie.

A vivid and comic look at dour Britain in the early 50's, just as Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) is about to get married. Local celebrations are hampered by food rationing - and a stolen pig becomes the centre of attention. Lizzie Smith as the old mum is brilliant, Richard Griffiths excellent (he is in "Withnail and I" too) and Dame Maggie Smith as Michael Palin's wife is just right.
Denholm Eliot, as a local bigwig, is a revelation. Buy it! Pity it's not on DVD.