It's hard to believe that the Monty Python comedy troupe only made 4 movies. The first in 1971 and their last in 1983. They moved on to many different solo projects and oftentimes two or more of them would appear in something together, but this was the last official Monty Python movie. Like their first one, And Now For Something Completely Different, this is a sketch movie and also like that first one, it contains some hilarious scenes and also some not quite so hilarious scenes.

All of the Python movies, even Life of Brian, were sketch movies, but in Brian and to a lesser extent in Holy Grail they disguised that fact by tying all of the sketches together with common characters and at least a sense of a plot. Here the only thing connecting the sketches is that they're all supposed to be about the stages of development and have something to do with the meaning of life. To be honest this never really works and is a very light framework to hang the movie on.

As a whole the movie isn't particularly well structured, but individually most of the sketches are laugh-out-loud funny. The opening scene with the baby being delivered and the doctors being more concerned about the machinery is one of my favorites as is the final scene where death shows up at a dinner party to take them all away. In between there are quite a few gems as well. The fattest man in the world, Mr. Creosote is disgustingly funny and the sex education class is another classic.

The movie is also a musical and contains at least one great production number and several catchy tunes, mostly courtesy of Eric Idle. Every Sperm is Sacred is an old Hollywood production number seen through the eyes of Python. The Galaxy Song is not only catchy, but quite factual.

This was the Python's only Studio picture and it's the most expensive they ever produced. About the only real effect this has on the movie is that it looks good. The costumes, the sets all look first rate, but both their earlier films were made cheaper and are better movies, which shows you how much budget really has to do with quality.

Connected to this movie is a short about Pirate Accounts directed by Terry Gilliam. I might offend some Python purists by saying that when you watch The Meaning of Life go ahead and skip the Gilliam short. Oh sure, watch it once if you've never seen it, but watch it separate from the main feature. Putting the two together makes for too long an experience and they really aren't very compatible in style.

The passing of Graham Chapman in 1989 guaranteed that there would never be another Python movie, so we have to make do with the 4 movies they made. This might not be the best of them, but that's like saying one of my four diamonds has a small flaw in it.

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