This movie could have been great, and it certainly shows flashes of brilliance. But they are flashes only (and generally in the use of language -- probably written by Peter Cook), and are separated by tiresome pirate-based skits that (kind of) hang together. My rating of 6 is for the flashes, and not the tiresome-ness.Cheech Marin and Peter Boyle dig into their parts and play with gusto, but everybody else seems to be sort of standing around a lot and saying things to get us to the next scene of people standing around. James Mason plays Charles Laughton gamely, but Marty Feldman is mostly wasted. John Cleese seems to be acting in an entirely different movie all together. The best line (by Spike Milligan) is spoken by a character not even given a name. A shame, really.

This film must have been amazing to be on the set of with all the great comedic talent on board. Unfortunately, it's loathsome to watch - what a piece of garbage. I walked out of it when it was first released. A few years ago, I saw it for cheap at my favorite used record/CD/DVD store in West L.A. and picked it up, thinking maybe a second viewing would win me over. No dice. Just awful. Also, it was sad to see James Mason in one of his last roles with nothing to work with, script-wise. Most of the time, the cast looks like it's dying to be thrown some kind of bone - anything that might get a laugh - but it's hard to remember that happening much. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!

The hardass Yellowbeard(who rapes and kills whoever he wants to) was the most dreaded pirate(and this fits in all the clichés of the subgenre… a man loses his hand and replaces it with a hook, we have a blind man(DareDevil has nothing on this guy, his acute hearing is impeccable) though it's both eyes, we get a mutiny, a boarding and a ship battle at sea, if only half of this takes place on the ocean, a treasure island and even a final showdown), and when he was captured, his booty had not been recovered. He finds that he has a son who doesn't take after him at all, and since his head contains the only map of it(…literally; it's actually tattooed on there), the two have to somehow work together(since he talks his father out of decapitating him). But his old his second-in-command, Mr. Moon, who betrayed him and got him thrown in jail, is along for the ride, and they're also being hounded by the Royal Navy. The biggest problem with this spoof, which certainly had potential, is how hit and miss the, at times remarkably uninspired, material is. We get jokes about the uptight British upperclass and sailors wanting women(or something to replace such) on the ships, along with swashbuckling(which can be genuinely engaging and exciting, some of the gags reminiscent of spaghetti Western saloon brawls), but there are obvious missed opportunities, and this does tend to either go for being funny or forwarding the plot, where a good comedy does both seamlessly. Even when things happen, sometimes they make so little impact on the audience that you find yourself forgetting that it occurred. The cast have their moments, such as Cheech and Chong, Chapman in the titular role, Cleese as the apparently helpless sightless man, and Idle as the face of the military. And the ending is definitely good. The filming and editing has its moments. There is a lot of violent, bloody and disturbing content and brief female topless nudity in this. I recommend this to the biggest fans of the Monty Python crew. 6/10

With this cast and budget, should have been much more of a sustained laugh fest. Nevertheless, many of the lines and visuals are classics, and everyone aboard is such a pro that you can forgive the deader stretches. Marty Feldman does a lot with not much material, while Peter Cook's beyond-deadpan mutterings are frequently hilarious. Disappointing were Peter Boyle and Tommy Chong, the latter to the point of inducing nausea. Cheech Marin fares better, but only because his character is written with marginally more dimension. Loved David Bowie's cameo and Madeline Kahn's pluckiness. James Mason, however, looks vaguely uncomfortable (not to mention feeble) in his few scenes, which, sadly, do not contain any glittering gags.All in all, you will definitely laugh, cringe, and yawn, but won't regret tuning in.