|
By
FRANK BEHRENS
Avid fans of the Monty
Python group will already have in their collection
not only all of the original television shows on
A&E DVDs but also videos of their "live" shows
from Hollywood and even the telecasts they did in
Germany, not to mention all of their films. So
they should be warned that all but about 8 minutes
of the DVD "Eric Idle's Personal Best" consists of
material they already own.
But that opening 7 minutes and the closing 1
contain some of the funniest material since
Aristophanes laid them in the Athenian aisles.
Eric Idle gives us every cliché of a narrator
introducing a documentary, and every shot is dead
on target.
As for the rest of the 55 minutes, there are from
the original telecasts such gems as the tropical
isle inhabited by nobody but television
commentators and the Queen Victoria stakes (that
is run by a pack of Queen Victorias); from the
Hollywood Bowl, there is Idle's marathon diatribe
against the problems of travel; and from Germany,
there is the subtitled Lumberjack Song, repeated
in a fuller version later in the show. As a bonus,
there are 10 minutes of "Eric Idle's Personal
Second Best" and some trivia questions.
No, I changed my mind. Even those who have all of
this material will want this compilation. And I
understand that there are 5 more similar DVDs
featuring the other Monty Python legends. Keep
alert. |
