I love this film. It is a funny journey through a bizarre starenage and quite intense sex education and the cosnequences. When something happens the boy is to have a go at the 'masters' of rugby/

Taking their final bow as a team with this being their final collaborative film project, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life finally hit cinema theaters back in 1983. Dispensing with the the more conventional narrative that they utilized with their previous two movies, they opted for the sketch format that they had become most renowned for with their classic TV series. Given the foreseeable hysteria that had met them with the controversy surrounding their magnum opus, Life of Brian; it might have felt like something of a relief that their last offering was not met with same outraged devour. That's not say there Isn't anything contentious or potentially offensive however as they up the bad taste and vulgarity factor to inspired effect. From challenging Roman Catholic Dogma with their elaborate, showstopping Every Sperm is Sacred musical routine to John Cleese playing a public schoolmaster teaching sexual education to is pupils by having sexual intercourse with his wife in front of them; it has moments of perverse brilliance. Team member Michael Palin himself noted that that it's increased budget of $9 million meant they could afford to be more "daring and dark". Accompanied by Terry Gilliam's short film, The Crimsons Permanent Assurance, a typically surreal prelude to what's to come. Showcasing his aesthetically distinctive style that show was utilized to greater prominence with his first solo directorial work; Time Bandits, and later with 1985's; Brazil. Concerning a group of elderly office clerks who work in a a small accounting firm, they figuratively throw off the shackles of their employment by rebelling against their corporate bosses. Becoming pirates they turn their office building in to one big ship, and pillage financial areas. Gilliam's short would be amusingly woven in to the fabric of the subsequent film due to a interruption, and a voice over apologizing for it "due to an attack by the supporting feature."Director Terry Jones who took sole directorial duties as he did with Life of Brian does a bang up job, and the film does have something of an overall more polished feel than the last two films, largely due to it's larger budget. He still never the less displays his considerable prowess and no more so in the aforementioned musical number. However further musical moments that include Eric Idle's quirky and colourful rendition of The Galaxy Song, which examines the humbling nature of the vastness of the Universe and our relative insignificance is truly inspired. It is complimented by visually magnificent high-tech computer generated sequence, that while dated now would have impressed movie-going audience back then. Arguably most memorable however and for it's vomit inducing bad taste is the sketch entitled "The Autumn of Our Years", which introduces the glutinous and grotesquely overweight Mr. Creosote as portrayed by Jones. A vile, repulsive character who disgustingly stuffs his face in a restaurant (where he is served by John Cleese's caricatured french waiter) to such an extreme that it culminates with a memorable gross out punchline of eye-popping proportions. Amusingly when the The Meaning of Life won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, he joked that it might have been because Orson Welles, who was on the judging panel, identified with Mr. Creosote. Where it fails to completely hang together as a cohesive whole is it suffers although not frequently from self indulgence. It's at times strange for the sake of being strange to some degree, and while it does work at times it results in a scene involving two insanely bizarre characters played by Jones and fellow team member, Graham Chapman in a segment called "Find the Fish". Also the sketch format, which worked well for myself personally as an enthusiastic Python fan would not had the same appeal for a general mainstream audience. With the film just taking under $15 million at the box office as opposed to Life of Brian's $20 million that strikes me as likely being the case. And given that one member of the team stated that the main theme and concept of the film was so they could weave together a series of unrelated sketches, you feel as if they weren't quite as committed to their endeavour and the impetus behind the movie was a shallow attempt to profit off of their success. Even so, looking at the end product as it stands, they still invested much creative effort even if it doesn't quite reaching the dizzying heights their first two proper movies. (And Now For Something Completely Different was nothing more than a collection of their sketches from the TV series which were re-shot for American film audiences in an attempt to introduce their brand of comedy to the U.S. market) Inventive and more polished due to less financial constraints which still doesn't guarantee high quality, it's an outing that I still enjoy revisiting when I get the chance, and still gains a stamp of approval from dedicated fans

By almost all accounts, including that of the Python troupe itself, this is the worst of their films. Yes, it's still entertaining at times, but it comes nowhere near the wonderful absurdity and wit of Life of Brian or Holy Grail. So if you have high hopes for this based on other Python material, I strongly recommend lowering them. There will be parts of this that you enjoy, but as a whole it's not as funny as you might expect. My favorite segments were the Miracle of Birth part A, Fighting Each Other, and Live Organ Transplants.There's no story or plot to the film, just a bunch of sketches strung together in a somewhat cohesive order. The modern equivalent would be taking a collection of YouTube videos by the same person. The only purpose that the film as a whole serves is to comment on the meaning of life. Now this might sound obvious, but what I mean by that is that the inconclusive nature of all of the sketches points to what the group is saying the meaning of life is: there is no meaning to it. As the similarly themed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tells us in its own way, the ultimate answer that we're all looking for just isn't out there or isn't one that's going to satisfy everyone or is different for everyone. But otherwise, the movie is just for laughs.Personally, I thought the skits that were not set in modern times were the best. Somehow, it's more refreshing to see their comedy in a historical setting, as is done with the first two Python films, than in the present. This is not true of all comedy. John Hughes does an excellent job commenting on the culture of his time through comedy. But for others like Mel Brooks it's where they blossom. This was part of what made the war sketches entertaining for me.The role that each actor gets to play throughout is spread pretty evenly. There is no lead role for Graham Chapman to play this time, but there are plenty of women for Terry Jones to impersonate and room can always be made for John Cleese's versatility, Michael Palin's bawdiness, or Eric Idle's grins. The only place where they aren't featured much is the short at the beginning, which could have been a little shorter but was still fun.You can watch this movie in pretty much any order, so feel free to skip around and find scenes that you like or have a friend show you the best ones. It's fine if you watch it sequentially, but nothing is gained or lost by it. For this reason, I would recommend that you watch it all the way through unless you are completely turned off by the Python style and this is your first time. It probably shouldn't be the first Python you watch (Life of Brian is probably the best one to start with). If your interested, go in with low expectations and an open mind. Overall Rating: 8.2/10.

Movie is basically a bunch of short sketches that purport to show the meaning of life (They don't). It opens with a laugh less and stupid 20 minute short about an insurance company being run by pirates. From then on it doesn't change much. About 90% of the sketches have no laughs in them at all and are just pointless. There are some bright spots--The "Every Sperm is Sacred" song and dance is cute; John Cleese teaching his students about sex with his wife is funny; the Zulu war bit was amusing; the liver organ donor sketch was VERY bloody but funny and a visit from Death at the end was clever. However there's a sketch about an incredibly obese man visiting a restaurant and constantly vomiting over everybody and everything. It's not funny...just sick. Also that comes towards leaving a bad taste (sorry) for the film as a whole. Python fans might want to take a look but you can safely stay away from this one.