Griff Rhys Jones Movies

Based on the best-selling novel by Irish comedian Spike Milligan, Puckoon is a political satire about a town cut in half by the partitioning of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1924. The action takes place in a town known as Puckoon where an ordinary fellow named Dan Madigan wakes up one day to find barbed-wire fences running right through his neighbors' houses. All at once, Madigan's friends begin altering their personalities to suit the side of the fence they've found themselves on. So it's up to Madigan, the last sane man in town, to restore order. Originally written in 1963, Puckoon is considered the forerunner of anti-humor comedy which became the staple of shows like Monty Python and Saturday Night Live. ~ Connor McMadden, Rovi

Unlike the more familiar animated Pinocchio by Disney, there are no song interludes here, and characters added to the story by Disney (such as Jiminy Cricket) are not included. Producer Francis Ford Coppola and director Steve Barron, (known for the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film) closely adhere to Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel and use the visually timeless setting of a Czechoslovakian village. Jim Henson's puppet studio skillfully brings this Pinocchio to life. Long ago, in his youth, Gepetto (Martin Landau) loved but did not court Leona (Genvieve Bujold), who married Gepetto's brother instead. In that earlier time, he carved her initials with his onto a tree. Now his brother is dead, and though he still feels for Leona, he is still too shy to woo her. Instead, the old puppet-maker goes into the forest and cuts down a tree in order to make a puppet just for himself. The tree is the same one he carved his initials into when he was younger, and it has the magic of his love in it. Soon after the puppet Pinocchio is made, he comes to life. Aside from being made of wood, he begins to live the life of a perfectly normal little boy. He even goes to school. Lorenzini, an evil magician who runs a children's puppet show, hears of Pinocchio and wants to use him in his show. Lorenzini lures children to his show, only to later turn them into donkeys. Donkeys are useful creatures, and Lorenzini makes a lot of money selling them. Through many trials and tribulations, the puppet-boy earns the right to become the human boy Pinocchio (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Two British war buddies who exceeded at entertaining their fellow troops on the battlefield attempt to take their act to the stage after being demobilized and returning to civilian life in this comedy starring Martin Clunes and Griff Rhys Jones. When fighting was at its most intense, Captain Ian Deasey (Jones) and Lance Corporal Dick Dobson (Clunes) played the clowns in order to raise the morale among their combat weary fellow soldiers. After four long years in the deserts of North Africa, however, Deasey and Dobson return to London, and realize they're not ready to stop entertaining. Before long, they're drawing big crowds at the Blue Parrot nightclub. But life back home is a bit more complicated than it was when they were in the military, and just as they're on the verge of breaking big, the two lovable buffoons find reality threatening to silence the laughter for good. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Produced for London Weekend Television, Wilt is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Sharpe. Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, stars of the internationally popular TV series Not Necessarily the News, head the cast as Henry Wilt and Inspector Flint. Though master of his own destiny on the lecture circuit, Wilt is a natural-born doormat in his day-to-day life. He also has a bad habit of inadvertently gumming up the various investigations conducted by Inspector Flint. Things come to a head when the hapless Wilt is implicated in a murder, allowing the zealous Flint to persecute -- er, prosecute -- the poor man to the full limit of the law. With its parade of eccentric character and Gilbert & Sullivan-style plot complications, Wilt can't help but raise chuckles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The highlights of two benefit concerts staged in support of Amnesty International are collected in this British performance film, which features ample helpings of both music and comedy. The members of the Monty Python comedy troupe serve as headliners, performing live variations on some of their most famous sketches. Additional humor is provided by such luminaries as Peter Cook, while the musical segments include performances by Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, and Sting, amongst others. While all of the performers deliver the goods, the film's overall effectiveness is unfortunately limited by the purely functional direction and often poor image quality. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi