Woodyanders Cowardly and dim-witted peasant Dennis Cooper (a likeable performance by Michael Palin) stumbles his blundering way into a situation in which he has to slay a ferocious monster that has been terrorizing a rundown medieval kingdom. Director/co-writer Terry Gilliam not only presents a grim, grungy, and rancidly unromantic evocation of the Middle Ages, but also delivers gobs of hideous gore, provides a wickedly funny satirical commentary on the evils of commerce and the dismal failure of bureaucracy (the local merchants want the beast to continue to live because they make more money off all of the people seeking refuge in the city!), and further spices things up with a deliciously twisted sense of pitch-black humor. Moreover, this film acquires considerable sardonic bite from the crafty way it savagely mocks standard notions about heroism and chivalry. The spirited acting by the enthusiastic cast rates as another substantial asset, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Max Wall as inept buffoon King Bruno the Questionable, Warren Mitchell as crude merchant Mr. Fishfinger, Deborah Fallender as a lovely, but hopelessly naïve princess, Jerold Wells as desperate beggar Wat Dabney, John Le Mesurier as the sharp-tongued Chamberlain Pesselewe, and Bernard Bresslaw as a hot-tempered landlord. Terry Jones makes a brief appearance as an ill-fated poacher while ubiquitous British bit player Fred Wood can be glimpsed as a bandit with a bushy beard. A delightfully subversive treat.

TheExpatriate700 Jabberwocky is Terry Gilliam's grimier follow up to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, set in a dirty, mud-strewn vision of the Middle Ages. A monster is terrorizing the kingdom of King Bruno the Questionable, and it falls to a young cooper's son to slay the beast. In the process, he must deal with an oversexed princess, a randy squire, his fat lover and her family, and enterprising beggars.Jabberwocky is a dirty, darker counterpart to the Holy Grail, with greater attention to the class issues of the Middle Ages. The cooper is faced with corrupt merchants who want to keep the monster alive, restrictions on entering cities, and terrible food. Furthermore, the monster's attacks are by and large played seriously, with considerable violence. Although all is this is played for humor, it's much less zany than the previous film.The film's main drawback is that it's overlong, with the Jabberwock not really playing a role for most of it. A bit of editing would have tightened the comedic timing, and made it funnier. Still, it is an enjoyable dark comedy and a good companion to the Holy Grail.

Henry Kujawa Lately, I've found myself wanting to watch some films over and over. But there are also those films that, perversely enough, I take pleasure in watching-- KNOWING, with full intention, that I will never watch them again. Terry Gilliam's debut as director, JABBERWOCKY, is definitely one of those.Starring Michael Palin, it's like an extended episode of RIPPING YARNS, which was dull & tedious to begin with. It's filmed in the style of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, which means its view of the ancient world is filthy and disgusting and hopeless, but it isn't 1/10th as funny.The highlight is the DeWolff library tracks, among them, excerpts of both "Night On Bald Mountain" (when the champion is surrounded by The Black Knight's hoods, sworn to stop him so as to "protect" the monster for the benefit of the city's merchants), and "Pictures at an Exhibition" (heard when Dennis returns to the city in accidental triumph with the beast's decapitated head).The film's got some talented actors hidden in there... among them, it turns out, Harry H. Corbett, who was the "and Son" on England's STEPTOE AND SON, the younger partner of Wilfred Brambell, who played Paul's grandfather in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Because he's chasing after an innkeeper's wife, he gets Michael Palin to fill in for him when his master is chosen champion to face the monster.Also in there-- I KNEW I'd seen this guy before, but for the life of me could not place him-- was Graham Crowden as the head of a bunch of religious fanatics. He'd played "Soldeed" on the DOCTOR WHO story "The Horns Of Nimon", and has long been accused of doing some of the worst over-acting in the show's history!! No wonder he seemed familiar, I knew I'd heard that raving lunatic voice somewhere before.Brian Glover ("Lugg" on CAMPION) was the city "armorer" whose shop is destroyed in a clumsy accident. And Kenneth Colley (who co-starred with Palin in an episode of RIPPING YARNS and was in the 2nd & 3rd STAR WARS films) is a fanatic who INSISTS he be catapulted to a violent yet glorious death. Insists!! Oh yeah, and the Black Knight (whose face we never see, of course) was David Prowse, who, the same year, became Darth Vader.See this only to satisfy curiosity... but if you do, go in with the lowest possible expectations.

fedor8 Don't expect any Python humour here. In fact, don't even expect that much British humour; this stuff is more French in nature, i.e. people tripping over each other, plus a lot of overacting/mugging going on. Most of the gags bomb, apart from the occasional genuine laughs such as the hilarious "improved efficiency" scene and the hysterically funny hide-and-seek-playing knights.Gilliam has often tended to be more interested in style than content, especially very early in his career (his contributions to Monty Python's writing have always been minimal; not surprisingly, he added much to the look of Python). Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Jabberwocky", which is visually quite interesting, what with its greenish-brownish moody look - and considering the movie's pitiful budget it's nothing short of miraculous what Gilliam managed to pull off here. However, the script is mediocre and relies too much on the actors clowning around rather than on truly good ideas/lines. It's difficult to understand how Gilliam could have possibly thought that Innes banging a drum that was smashed on his head would be funny. (It may be screamingly funny to the French audiences, but then they'll laugh at anything.) Some of the dialogue is barely comprehensible, which doesn't exactly help matters.The feel and look of the movie as well as the costumes remind a lot of "Monty Python's Holy Grail" (some of the same costumes/props having been used in both films), but don't expect a movie anywhere nearly as good as Python's first feature film. This is more for fans of simplistic buffoonery than clever, original satire.