Yellowbeard

I found this movie extremely funny, no, it was hilarious. I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone who wanted a really good laugh it's British humour at it's very best. One burning question remains is when can we expect to see this classic on DVD? I for one would be queueing up to buy it. The monty python team is a team of geniuses. The plot lines are nothing short of brilliant. The satirical shot of the religious side of the story would certainly of raised a few eyebrows but isn't irreverence one of the corner stones of python stories, you only have to watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to come to that conclusion. All in all it takes class, tradition, the stiff upper lip and all that was britania and turns it on it's head.

With this cast and budget, should have been much more of a sustained laugh fest. Nevertheless, many of the lines and visuals are classics, and everyone aboard is such a pro that you can forgive the deader stretches. Marty Feldman does a lot with not much material, while Peter Cook's beyond-deadpan mutterings are frequently hilarious. Disappointing were Peter Boyle and Tommy Chong, the latter to the point of inducing nausea. Cheech Marin fares better, but only because his character is written with marginally more dimension. Loved David Bowie's cameo and Madeline Kahn's pluckiness. James Mason, however, looks vaguely uncomfortable (not to mention feeble) in his few scenes, which, sadly, do not contain any glittering gags.

All in all, you will definitely laugh, cringe, and yawn, but won't regret tuning in.

I just watched this again, 20+ years after seeing it on cable. I had the vaguest recollections of the movie, came here to see the cast, and thought it would be fun to watch.

It isn't.

The list of talent in this movie is amazing - but the results are boring. There was enough talent here to make this into Blazing Saddles of the Sea with the right script. But the script wasn't right. Sure, it has a plot. But just about everything in it is lackluster. There's so much talent wasted on lame jokes and premises that fizzle that it becomes sad to watch it all slip away.

Most of the jokes are obvious, and the rest are either pointless or so base as to be insulting to the people they have performing them.

As an example, there's a scene early in the film where Eric Idle heads to Lord Lambourn's estate. As he gets out of his carriage, the camera cuts to a pile of horse manure. Then we cut to him stepping in the horse manure the last shot showed us. Then he stands there and waits for his assistant to clean his shoes while he's still standing in the manure. That's it. End Joke.

Just seconds later, after he meets lord and lady lambourn, the camera cuts to a man about 15 feet away peeing on a hedge. Lady lambourn tells him to stop it. He runs away. She chases him. That's it. End Joke.

If either of those sound lame when they're written out, they're just as bad when you're watching them. The movie is filled with bits that could have been in any movie about any subject, but they just happened to be in this movie because someone thought they'd get a laugh. They do nothing to advance plot, characters, or even the next 5 seconds of screen time.

And if you're thinking of watching for the performances--they don't really manage to salvage anything. It feels like after a certain point everyone started going through the motions just to get the film in the can.

I'm sure that the cast of this film knew that the story was flat and the overall idea was kind of stupid. Still, with Cheech and Chong, half the cast of Young Frankenstein, and members of Monty Python, how could you not consider this movie funny? The late, and very great, Graham Chapman stars as Yellowbeard. A comic legend next to his fellow Monty actors, Chapman would die of cancer a few years later. Here, he falls into character like no other. From playing King Arthur, to the mis-understood wanna-be Messiah named Brian, Chapman plays a legendary pirate. The last shot of the movie shows himself timeless, standing high up top of the ship, watching the open seas. Much of the movie plays to be a classic pirate film, when in fact, it is a comedy, the likes that no British comedy team had seen before. Overall, yes, the movie fails on many levels, but it is a classic because of the players involved. Check it out for yourself.

I have watched this film many times as a child and it is a favourite of mine. Rarely do we see Pirate romps that are the basis of comedies in the past decade, actually rarely do we 'Pirate' films in general these days.

If you're a fan of the Monty Python films then I recommend you see this film, it has schlock 80s British humour, but in general this is a fun film, and its even got enough action to keep you entertained for an hour and a bit! Also where else would you see so many great actors and classic comedians all in the one film- Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, James Mason, Madeline Kahn, Peter Cook, Michael Hordern, Peter Boyle, John Cleese, Spike Milligan and Cheech and Chong! Yellowbeard is a classic comic 'Pirate' flick that probably represents a genre of comedy that was for its time. Nevertheless this is worth a look! ***1/2 out of *****!