Eric Idle Movies

Just after the evil Emperor Spengo (Jon Lovitz) imprisons King Raff (Eric Idle), he spots a California housewife (Teri Garr) through his telescope. He decides to beam her up along with her husband (Jeffrey Jones), but isn't prepared to deal with the results when both become interplanetary freedom fighters. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this comedy thriller two dopey pals try to solve a puzzling riddle. If they succeed, one of them will inherit a valuable artifact, an object desired by a number of suspicious characters willing to do just about anything to obtain it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This 56-minute video celebrates 25 years' worth of inspired lunacy from Britain's Monty Python's Flying Circus. Loyal Pythonites John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam are interviewed, offering surprisingly sobersided insight as to what made their zany aggregation tick. Highlights include vintage clips from the Monty Python TV series, as well as vignettes from the group's theatrical features and concert appearances. As a bonus, we are treated to rare vignettes never before shown on American television. If you've never been exposed to such classic routines as "Dead Parrot", "Lumberjack" and "Department of Silly Walks", don't pass up this opportunity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane team up for this bad boy comic burlesque, directed by Jonathan Lynn. Idle and Coltrane play Brian Hope and Charlie McManus, a pair of two-bit hoods who want to go straight, repulsed by the increasing reliance on guns and violence in their line of work. In thrall to vicious gangster Case Casey (Robert Patterson), the duo determine that their next job will be their last. When a large amount of money is extracted from a gang of Hong Kong drug dealers and it falls into the laps of Brian and Charlie, the two take off with the loot, with the Chinese Triad and Casey in relentless pursuit. When their car runs out of gas in front of a convent, Brian and Charlie run inside and disguise themselves as two of the ugliest nuns imaginable. Inside the convent, Brian and Charlie pass themselves off as nuns from a different order, assigned to the convent before leaving the country on missionary work. As the two men enjoy their undercover work with a collection of nubile nuns and coeds, the bad guys close in on their trail. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This is a retrospective of the British comedy troupe on their 20th anniversary. Hosted by comedian Steve Martin, many of the group's most famous routines are showcased. Included are such gems as the Spam diner, the lingerie-clad lumberjacks, and the officials from the Ministry of Silly Walks. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

This adaptation of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera is set in England during the depression. ~ All Movie Guide

In this theatrically released chapter of the 1984-1987 syndicated animated series, the struggle between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons is taken twenty years into the future as both sides must deal with a world-devouring being called Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles). Set in 2005, The Transformers: The Movie serves as a bridge between the series' second and third seasons, with the deaths of several major characters and the introduction of new ones. Darker and more action-packed than the TV series, the movie was originally dismissed as little more than a feature-length toy commercial, but it has since grown in stature to become a cult favorite. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide

The Secret Policeman's Private Parts, the second of two concert films produced on behalf of Amnesty International, is better photographed than the first (The Secret Policeman's Other Ball) but not quite as enjoyable. As in the earlier film, the show is stolen by the Monty Python aggregation: John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam. Also on hand are former Beyond the Fringe-er Peter Cook and musicians Pete Townshend, Phil Collins and Donovan. Fans of the artists will probably get a bigger kick out of Private Parts than casual moviegoers. Like Other Ball, Private Parts fully deserves its R rating. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Meaning of Life is without a doubt the most tasteless of the Monty Python feature films; it also happens to be one of the funniest. Life's questions are "answered" in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a pre-credits sequence at a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. One of our favorite bits involve the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor, pointing out that there's nothing in his contract preventing this. And of course, there's the scene with the world's most voracious glutton, who brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise. Be warned: though hilarious, this may be the grossest bit of comedy filmmaking ever conceived (there aren't enough words in the world to describe it in detail!). Loyal Pythonites Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin star in The Meaning of Life and share writing responsibilities, while Jones is in the director's chair this time out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Browning's cautionary poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin is vividly brought to the 21-inch screen by director Nicholas Meyer. Monty Python regular Eric Idle stars as the enigmatic Piper, who agrees for a price to rid the town of Hamelin of its rat population. When the corrupt city elders refuse to pay the Piper, he makes the town's children dance to a strange, alluring tune, resulting in anguish and grief for the selfish adults. Though peppered with comedy relief, wise-guy dialogue and contemporary attitudes, this 60-minute, taped installment of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre is a lucid, faithful recreation of the original. Parents of very young kids, beware: this one might induce a few unsettling dreams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young boy joins a group of renegade dwarves on an unpredictable journey through time in this humorous fantasy. Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam mostly achieves a tricky balancing act in his second feature as sole director, creating a dark, irreverent comedy disguised as a family adventure. Particularly amusing are the boy's encounters with various historical figures, including an entertainment-starved Napoleon (Ian Holm), a powerful Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and a surprisingly stuffy Robin Hood, embodied by Gilliam's Python cohort John Cleese. Episodic by nature, the film is less successful when dealing with the larger narrative, which concerns the pursuit of the dwarves and their time-traveling map by the Supreme Being. However, the combination of Gilliam's visual exuberance and the witty script (by Gilliam and Michael Palin) ensures an entertaining, if erratic, journey. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian...and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a messiah -- yet he's always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can't hear any of it ("Blessed are the cheesemakers?"). Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Biggus Dickus, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide