ThiefHott Too much of everything

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

MisterWhiplash While the feature this short is presented after in succession, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, is a very good comedy with the scattered laughs bringing some of their best moments, in sheer audacity and daring with the film-making the prize has to go to writer/director Terry Gilliam for his 'The Crimson Permanent Assurance' (in fact it did at Cannes in 83). The key to understanding it, or at least appreciating it, is knowing that it was originally meant to be shorter, much shorter, as one of the animated segways that connect the segments in the Monty Python sketches. This idea soon expanded for Gilliam, and his 'director bug' (right before his take-off to Brazil and right after his first two solo director outings) took over into this ideally cartoonish, surrealist, and perfectly anarchic comedy of will-power.Sum up the story quick, will do- the workers at the Crimson Permanent Assurance company are old, very old, and very tired and beat down, like the ship rowers in Ben Hur. It finally breaks for their to be a revolution against the bosses, and the old men fight back. On this simple premise, Gilliam builds and builds (with extra help from cinematographer Roger Pratt, and a couple of the other Pythons as extras) until one wonders how this can even conceivably be made as entertainment. I once remember hearing Gilliam on the commentary for Holy Grail saying (sarcastically) 'the stuff in this film is so unjustifiable, its insane', and the same can definitely be said about this short film. It's big (this took up a million of the 7 or 8 million budget of Meaning of Life), its violent, its surprising, and while it maybe lacks only the sort of focused, dry British genius that was in the other members of Python, it certainly doesn't lack the daring of pushing the envelope (in this case, the Assurance 'ship' gets pushed off the world itself). Even when I wasn't laughing hard I was struck by the style of the direction, the fun in these old-school British actors, and the swashbuckling music.

selfparody My very favorite is a documentary I saw called THE SUNSHINE, about a flophouse in the Bowery which like require intense callousness to not get some reaction. SO, it's not really a fair fight when it comes to considering fiction.Terry Gilliam has made a flick about old-world business versus corporate seizures that will make one who has an appreciation for physical comedy, the absurd, or business satire enjoy wasting fifteen minutes. It has the best music I have ever heard outside of Clint Mansell (PI and Requiem for a Dream.) It has some magnificent models, and a song that is so immensely witty I forgave Eric Idle for being in BURN Hollywood BURN.

rbverhoef This short is from the Monty Pyhton's and that is pretty obvious. It is funny, strange, well made, interesting and very imaginative. The story has something to say and it is good satire considering the time it was made.This short is about an uprising by the elderly workers against the corporate young men who treat them like garbage. Their building turns into some kind of pirate ship and they prepare for battle with the corporate world.With lots of humor, a fine production design and a typical Monty Python ending this is a very good short film.

craigjclark Originally intended to be part of the body of "The Meaning of Life," Gilliam's loony story about pirate accountants was found to go on too long and tended to overpower the rest of the film, so it was excised and made into a separate short subject. This was probably for the best since it has a strikingly different tone from what the rest of the Pythons were doing.Gilliam's visual sense, as always, is a marvel to watch, and his attention to detail is stunning. Watch for his cameo -- along with Michael Palin -- when the CPA attacks its first competitor. And Gilliam regular Myrtle Devenish -- who was Beryl in "Time Bandits" and Jack Lint's secretary in "Brazil" -- also puts in a welcome appearance."Weigh the anchor."