Terry Jones Movies

The casual British viewer might have tuned into the BBC anthology weekly A Series of Birds in hopes of seeing a delectable parade of females (or "birds," as they were nicknamed at the time). Instead, the series consisted of eight 30-minute playlets, all starring versatile young stage performer John Bird. Bird also wrote much of the material, together with John Fortune and a bright new team named Michael Palin and Terry Jones (who obviously had a future in the business). The program began its run on October 3, 1967, and ended on November 21 of that same year. John Bird went on to essay a wide variety of roles in a number of other TV projects, including several entries in BBC's ambitious anthology of Shakespeare's plays and the 2000 satirical special My Government and I. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different was first released in the US in 1973, but didn't really take off as a midnight-movie fixture until after the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series began making the PBS rounds. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam are the Pythonites in attendance, together with semiregulars Carol Cleveland and Connie Booth. The sketches presented include such classics as "The Lumberjack Song", "Hell's Grannies", "The Upperclass Twit of the Year Race", and, of course, "The Dead Parrot". Additionally, Terry Gilliam's animated-cartoon interpolations act as buffers between sketches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the cusp of stardom, standup comic Maija DiGiorgio suffered an emotional breakdown while performing before a room packed with a number of the comedy industry's head honchos -- whom were on the receiving end of DiGiorgio's obscenity-laced outburst -- at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Subsequently faced with a nearly industry-wide blacklisting as a result, the comic (and film school graduate) came upon the idea of creating a film journal to document her struggles within the industry, as well as within her own psyche. The result is Bitter Jester, DiGiorgio's 2003 film that started as a document of self-examination and evolved into an examination of success and achievement within the standup circuit. Greatly assisted by the contacts and prestige of executive producer Richard Belzer -- a friend and former employer of DiGiorgio's boyfriend and co-conspirator Kenny Simmons -- DiGiorgio proceeds to gain access to a surprising berth of comedy legends, including Chevy Chase, Richard Pryor, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, and George Carlin, all of whom dispense insightful and sometimes surprising opinions about their individual achievements. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

A British production created by Monty Python alumni, this film concerns an inept chocolate-factory executive (Tyler Butterworth) who accidentally knocks three workers into a vat. The product is an incredible hit with consumers, though one of the workers' widows (Vanessa Redgrave) is considering blackmail. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Three kids are accidentally sent on the underwater adventure of a lifetime in this animated story for the whole family. Five-year-old Stella and her 13-year-old brother Fly are dropped off to spend the afternoon with their Aunt Anna and her son, an overweight computer geek named Chuck. Fry, Stella, and Chuck soon tire of Aunt Anna, and they sneak out to go fishing. When the tide suddenly comes in, the kids have trouble finding their way home, and they end up in the lab of a benignly mad scientist who is convinced global warming will soon cause the polar ice caps to melt. With this in mind, the scientist has come up with a formula that will turn people into fish so that they will be able to survive in the new, waterlogged environment. Stella accidentally samples the special potion, and is turned into a fish and accidentally released into the ocean. Realizing what's happened, Fly and Chuck also sample the formula, and hit the waters with the antidote in tow to save Stella. However, as they look for their newly fishy relative, Fly and Chuck encounter Joe, a mean-spirited fish with delusions of grandeur. When Joe gets a taste of the antidote to the fish transformation serum, he gains the accelerated logic and intelligence of a human being, and begins hatching a plan by which he will take control of the oceans -- and then the world. Gloups! Je Suis Un Poisson was produced by a Danish creative team, and animated by talent from Denmark and Germany; the film's original Danish title was Haelp, Jeg Er En Fisk, while the film was screened in Europe in versions dubbed into French or German. An English language edition was prepared, with Alan Rickman and Terry Jones highlighting the voice cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the French comic book Panic in London, director Pierre-Francois Martin-Laval's sophomore feature tells the tale of a forgotten isle inhabited by five people who live like they're in medieval times while awaiting the arrival of their new king. Tourist train driver Guillaume (Martin-Laval) and his tuba-playing wife, Magali (Florence Foresti), are deeply in love. They lead a blissful life in the suburbs, and they've just discovered they're about to start a family when the father Guillaume never knew contacts the couple with a shocking announcement: by virtue of an accord reaching back to the Middle Ages, Guillaume is the heir to a kingdom located just off the coasts of France and England. But while the elated couple at first imagine themselves living in an island castle and presiding over a paradise filled with faithful subjects, the reality of the situation isn't quite so romantic. Battered by North winds, the island is little more than a glorified rock. To make matters worse, the current residents are five eccentrics who seem to have forgotten what century they live in. Now, while Magali gets wrapped up in the prospect of becoming a genuine queen and Guillaume celebrates his status as a crowned head, their new servants scramble to cover up the truth about the island until their new ruler can no longer renounce his throne. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

While most authors deal with writer's block at one time or another, Darius (Albert Dupontel) seems to have a worst case than most -- and has found a far more extreme solution. A playwright of note, Darius developed a drinking problem after his first major hit, and has taken time out from writing his follow-up to go to a clinic and dry out. After his release, Darius finds his producer has hired a leading lady for his next show, booked the theater and advertised the starting date -- all without Darius writing so much as a word of this new play. Darius desperately tries to come up with ideas, but nothing comes to mind, with an inflexible deadline staring him in the face. One day, Darius kills a neighbor's cat by accident; terribly depressed, he swallows some sedatives and falls asleep at his computer -- only to awake with the beginning of his play glowing on the screen. Darius is now convinced he must kill in order to create, and starts murdering an ever-expanding variety of creatures in order to satisfy his now bloodthirsty muse. Albert Dupontel wrote and directed Le Createur, as well as playing Darius; the film also features a cameo from former Monty Python member Terry Jones, as God. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman, Magdalen McElhinney (Alix D. Smith), sits in a sleazy Philadelphia bar, offering herself for a price. But she's not selling sex; she's selling stories, and men and women come in and lay money down to hear her tales. One of her more demanding customers, Mr. Jones (Terry Jones) is an angry black businessman. He pays to hear the same erotic story again and again, though he's never satisfied with the way Magdalen tells it. "You have to tell people what they want to hear," he chastises. Another bar patron, Jace (Jace Gaffney), is a blocked novelist. He talks to Nathan (Nathan Hopson), a struggling actor, about his visit to Magdalen. He wasn't impressed with the story she told, about her father, an egomaniacal bisexual filmmaker named Andrew who screws over everyone, but Jace plans to incorporate Magdalen into his novel. Magdalen is also "hired" by an older gentleman (David Semonin) who claims to be a virgin, and a mysterious elderly woman (Moira Rankin), who seems to know the story before Magdalen tells it. In between her "sessions," we see Magdalen record a video diary (mostly about her troubled relationship with her arrogant, destructive filmmaker father). There's also a dream sequence in which she confronts her father (played by the filmmaker, Andrew Repasky McElhinney), the source of most of her stories, and he discusses his own confused childhood. "If you don't like my stories, change them," he tells her. Magdalen, McElhinney's first feature, was made when he was still a teenager. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Created in 1969 as the British Broadcasting Corporation's answer to America's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (one of its guiding forces was BBC executive and former Laugh-In writer Barry Took), Monty Python's Flying Circus was both the title of the series and the name of the comedy troupe appearing in the show. (The name was chosen precisely because it didn't mean anything!) The cast -- Cambridge and Oxford graduates all -- included John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. A sixth Python, American-born Terry Gilliam, provided the series' zany, non sequitur animated sequences and occasionally appeared on camera. Most of the female roles were handled by Connie Booth (Cleese's then-wife) and Carol Cleveland. Virtually indescribable to anyone who hasn't seen it, the series (which opened each week to the tune of John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March") was a wild, irreverent collection of open-ended comedy sketches, sometimes tenuously tied in with a single theme. The individual sketches were usually connected only by the sonorous announcement, "And now for something completely different," which also served as the title for the group's first theatrical feature film. Favorite Python targets included dull BBC talk shows and documentaries, idiotic legal restrictions, bean-counting bureaucrats, incomprehensible foreigners, and venerated British traditions. For some curious reason, all of the Pythonites enjoyed dressing up in women's clothing, usually portraying frumpy, strident-voiced suburban housewives. Among the series' more famous bits were "The Pet Shop," "The Lumberjack Song," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Department of Silly Walks," "The World's Deadliest Joke," "Hell's Grannies," "The Annual Twit of the Year Awards," and a lengthy science fiction movie parody in which evil aliens (who looked like French pastries) transformed all British subjects into Scotsmen, the better to win the annual Wimbledon tennis match (a premise which, in context, makes perfect sense). Though the 45-episode series enjoyed an enormous following in England, it didn't arrive in America until 1974, when the package was picked up by PBS (ABC had evinced interest in the property, but insisted upon cutting all the "naughty bits" and arbitrarily inserting commercials). In addition to making stars out of virtually all its cast members, Monty Python's Flying Circus has spawned several comedy record albums, movie spin-offs, and many solo projects like Fawlty Towers. In 1999, the series, long available on videocassette, was picked up for yet another go-round by the Arts and Entertainment cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a preview of comic BBC attractions (stay tuned for "Snooker My Way"), the host of "Archeology Today" quizzes his guests on the disparity of their heights. Professor Lucien Kastner swears to avenge his honor, and succeeds during a 1920 Egyptian expedition. A testimonial for the National Truss comes to an end when an absent-minded woman is beaten up by a boxer. Two sketches are abandoned in mid-joke, while a third routine details the animated exploits of Eggs Diamond and his gang. Two versions of a sketch featuring Mr. and Mrs. Sniveling Little Rat-Faced Git are prepared to mollify the censor. Australians Roy and Hank Spim use atomic missiles to hunt moths. And Beethoven tries to complete his Fifth Symphony despite interruptions from a mynah bird, a carpet sweeper, and an unsolicited visit from Colin "Chopper" Mozart. Guest star Carol Cleveland's mother appears in the "Git" sketch. "Archaeology Today" first aired November 18, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this episode, 18th Century highwayman Dennis Moore steals lupins from the rich to give to the poor. He later changes his M.O., stealing from the poor to give to the rich. In other developments, boxer Jack Bodell squares off against Sir Kenneth Clarke for the heavyweight championship; astrologers Mrs. Once Off and Irene Trepidacius foretell the future with audio-visual aids; and a doctor robs his patients, only to lose the cash to a man-headed frog. Also featured are an episode of "Victoria Regina," anachronistically invaded by Dennis Moore; the 15th Annual Ideal Loon Exposition; and "Prejudice," in which the host runs out of ethnic epithets and stages a "Shoot the Poof" contest. First seen on January 4, 1973, "Dennis Moore" features Carol Cleveland, Nosher Powell, and a cast of dozens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Few television comedy programs have had the enduring success of the legendary Monty Python show. Now fans of the surrealist sketch comedy series can find all of Eric Idle's best moments from the influential series in one place thanks to this Python-approved release from A&E Home Entertainment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide