Splitting Heirs

I had never heard of this film, but saw it on offer and snapped it up because of the cast - 2 Pythons and Catherine Zeta Jones! Moreover, Barbara Hershey attacks her role with relish, Sadie Frost shines in a love-hate relationship with Idle and Rick Moranis manages not to be irritating, and there are cameos from some classic TV stars: Stratford Johns (Z-Cars and Inspector Barlow), Eric Sykes (Carry-On and his own comedy show) and Brenda Bruce (theatrical works). And yet, somehow, it doesn't quite come together to provide the level of entertainment I expected. Nevertheless, it is worth a watch on a rainy afternoon when one is in the mood for silliness.

I saw this film a few nights ago as a late night Channel 4 film. Eric Idle and John Cleese are in classic Monty Python form, with a few in-jokes thrown in too. Rick Moranis is an interesting addition, not brilliantly funny, but he adds the American humour element. I was absolutely sure the film was a late 70's film, from the title sequence, visuals, jokes, the fact that it said "and introducing John Cleese" in the opening credits, and Eric Idle looks very young. I was very surprised to find it was from 1993!

Great comedy, I'd love to see more like this.

Well, this movie wasn't the worst I've ever seen...but it was far from the best. It was mildly amusing at times, and although the talent they collected for this film was great, the writing fell flat. Keep an eye out for some great Python-esque jokes, and Barbara Hershey is surprisingly convincing as a sex-crazed duchess, but the one real thing to keep an eye out for is the Hindu Dream Sequence. If you've ever seen the old Indian (Bollywood) version of the Mahabharata, be prepared to laugh your head off. The depiction brought back everything I thought as a kid when I first saw that movie. There were a few other jokes in there that only the British or South Asians would get, but if you're not in either of those categories (or not sufficiently familiar with either) these jokes will be lost on you. Rent this only if you're an insomniac or a die-hard fan of cheesy humour.

This film cracks me up, especially John Cleese's character, the sight of Cleese rolling down a hill atop of an upside down Renault which moves thanks to the bikes holding up the entire car, will stay with me forever. I'm giggling to myslef as I write this review. Admittedly it's not for everyone. For example, a lot of Americans prefer bold, in-your-face comedy to Brit wit.

Also, this is probably Eric Idles second best film outside of Monty Python (1st being Nuns On The Run).

Gosh, I seem to be one of the few people who enjoyed this movie. It certainly wasn't up to the standards of Eric Idle's and John Cleese's other movies, but it still far surpassed many other comedies available (IMHO anyways).

Some parts of this movie had me in stitches. John Cleese right at the end standing on the car for instance.

I'd say this movie isn't the best in the world, but It's still good. 7 out of 10.