Broadcast by the BBC, 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969-1974) was written and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a live action sketch show aided by Gilliam's short moving Victorian era antique photographs cutout animation between skits. The show pushed the boundaries of comedy with its innovative over the top surrealism approach. It became a huge hit and by the early 1970s Hollywood was calling from a very surprising source Victor Lownes, an executive for Playboy who was looking for a film to save the magazine's fledgling movie production company. In 1971 he got his wish as this comedy was created by the group. However the movie directed by Ian MacNaughton bomb as the film offer nothing near completely different in its material. Instead the flick was mostly made up of compilation of reshoot sketches from the first two seasons of the television series edited together for an American audience. Don't get me wrong, in an era before internet & home recordings, seeing it in theater seem like a good idea. It was technically the only way to see foreign comedies besides moving to that country. Regardless the majority of the Americans viewers were so unfamiliar at the time with Python's humorous idiosyncrasies of British's citizen's lives that they weren't even aware of that the English comedy would be shown in theaters. Before then much of the other UK's television comedies would often be remade, gear to Americans and passes through the major 3 television networks without much notice. As for the diehard audiences, the film did not really offer anything unique, except the opportunity to see the sketches in better quality and in color since many UK viewers still had black and white sets. Regardless many of the fans were disappointed of the lack of an original concept. I don't blame them, the same can be said with those whom watch every episode of the show in today's media full world before seeing this movie. People would find the recycling highly annoying. Don't get me wrong, some of the risqué innuendo laden humor, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines material are still somewhat funny ever if it's been done to death. Some of them were improved such as the 'How Not to Be Seen'. I glad that the beach hut scene is replaced with a tent in the woods. It shows that the people are really trying to get hide away from the narrator so they don't get kill, instead of going on separate holiday for R&R. The gag also doesn't go too long as the atomic explosions throughout the world are not shown. It doesn't run the joke to the ground. The house of neighbor was born getting destroy was good enough. The same can be said with 'Self Defense against Fresh Fruit' sequence. The film wisely ends with the eating of the banana rather than going on with students attacking the teacher with raspberry and peaches with him combating against them in outrageous ways with tigers. Perhaps the greatest improvement from the original sketch has to be their most famous. I like that the Dead Parrot skit doesn't have the filler scene where the shopkeeper tells the customer to see his brother in Bolton for a refund only to get into argument about palindromes when he get back from there. The film's altered version of the pet shop owner wanting to be a logger is a lot better as the customer seem more confused, conveying more laughs. That's bring us to the 'Lumberjack song'. It's here where I found the ending to be in poor taste as the man is pelted with rotten fruit and eggs by the Mounties, who can also be heard shouting more offensive insults about his crossdressing habits. The original kept the homophobia a lot cool and collected with the other character's disgust of the lumberjack. In this movie, its more borderline a hate crime. Another skit that hasn't aged well is office people falling out of high buildings. Lots of Sept. 11 vibes. It's really hard to laugh at it now. Regardless there were a few sketches I wish the movie had put in the film instead. One is the Spanish Inquisition and the other is the ministry of silly walks. I get that the film was made in the middle of the second season, but if 'Hungarian Phrasebook' made it without yet being aired. The same can be done with them. As for unused characters, I felt a few the movie sketches like 'Marriage Guidance Counsellor' would had work better if it end with the knight hitting the husband with a toy chicken like the original. The 16 ton weight gag being dropped was overused much like the BBC narrator. Another character that should had been there in the film is the Robinson Crusoe type castaway that start every episode. Not seeing him was a bit jarring. It's clear that production of the film did not go entirely smoothly as Lownes try to gain more control over the group; deleting characters and cutting key sketches. However the complain of the film being low budget. I really don't see it. The movie had beautiful clean animation, well shot and mostly edited fine. Plus the film restore original censored works like the cancer cartoon. There was money going into it. Still the lack of overall story structure was a distracting. Thank goodness the next film 1975 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' draws on new material & parodying more well-known works like the Arthurian tales allowing PBS affiliates to start airing reruns in the US. The success on both sides led to the Pythons going on live tours and creating more films, while the individual members flourished in solo careers afterward. Overall: While this movie is not as memorable as the other films. It's still worth putting your foot down and watch.