Whoops Apocalypse

This is an undeservedly forgotten gem! I wonder why you can't get this one on video or DVD; it really deserves it. At least it deserves to be aired again. As with all great comedy it is dead serious at bottom, and its message is as urgent as it was in 1982. About the only serious line in the whole film is the very last one, and the effect is really powerful.

Allow me(...you really might as well, because I'm going to whether you personally approve of it or not) to start this off saying that what watched this as was an edited-together version of the six(?) episodes that renders it a movie of not terribly much more of a run-time than 90 minutes or so. Not having enjoyed all that much of of John Cleese's work outside of the Monty Python team and their projects, I put off my viewing of this for a while. This was purchased for me on VHS, immediately following about an hour and a half of the aforementioned group mercilessly butchering routines they did perfectly fine on their Flying Circus(yet another reason to put this off). I am, however, glad I did put it on. I was more amused, watching, than so much all-out laughing, but there are definitely some biting wit herein. The comedy varies, sometimes involving gross-out comedy. Some of the running gags should perhaps have been jogging at a more leisurely pace, because they kept popping up, and it wasn't always funny. The pacing is, presumably due to the chopping up of the episodes to make this about half as long, from what I can surmise, is wildly mixed, with parts speeding by, and others being slow. Not everything seems to pay off, which may again be caused of the cutting. Editing and cinematography are adequate TV quality. Acting is mostly good. There are some adult things in this, and it should not be seen by children. The writing manages to make fun of so many different countries and cultures that almost everyone can be offended, but they do hit the nail on the head with an awful lot of it, and points in this could easily be classified as satirical. I recommend this to fans of British humor and/or Cleese. 6/10

This is one of the best, blackest, most satirical comedies you will ever find. Unfortunately most people will remember the abysmal big screen slapstick version. There are so many great performances, not least from Barry Morse and John Barron as the US president and his advisor; Peter Jones, Geoffrey Palmer and Richard Davies as members of the cabinet when the Labour Party wins the UK election; John Cleese as the terrorist and the brilliant double act of Bruce Montague and David Kelly as the deposed Shah of Iran and Abdab, the Shah's blindfolded manservant. You've got to see this.

No doubt much of this has aged badly since the Cold War seems well over, but Cleese's performance alone makes it worth finding. Also worth catching is the relationship between the Shah of Iran and his manservant Ahdab - a more endearing piece of subservience would be hard to imagine. Finally my favourite line is recited by one of the Soviet premiers; "Neutral countries have two options - medium or well done"! Important advice for someone living in Sweden.

Was a very funny show at the time, some great comedy actors pop up, Alexei Sayle also . Later of course the film with Rik Mayall stealing the show as the SAS leader , sadly Alexei Sayle even sneaked into that version as well.

The great Geoffrey Palmer amongst a fun cast with his deadpan face and delivery, definitely worth another look for its madcap way of dealing with what was a serious issue at the time. The Superman scenes always remained memorable as all these years later.

Plenty of anarchic style humour from the era and great satire , not all of it works but enough to make it a good watchable comedy even all these years later . Were some years to the film version which improved on this , some not so much but a good back to back watch again as both have some excellent moments.