ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Lee Eisenberg Terry Gilliam rips apart the yuppie culture with this short that preceded Monty Python's "Meaning of Life". Focusing on some elderly employees who rebel against their bosses and turn their office building into a pirate ship, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is really an indictment of how greed dominated the 1980s. Yes, this kick in the balls to Reaganomics is what cinephiles get to see before watching a poor man (Michael Palin) sing about how every sperm is sacred, watching a professor (John Cleese) demonstrate sex to his students, and watching a morbidly obese man (Terry Jones) vomit all over the place. Terry Gilliam succeeds again.A piece of trivia is that "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" is the film debut of Matt Frewer, who played Russ Sr. in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids".

Tom Murray The Crimson Permanent Assurance is, to me, one of the high points of Monty Python and His Flying Circus. It was created in conjunction with the film The Meaning of Life but was created by Terry Gilliam in a separate studio. He went way over budget without informing the others and when it was finished, they wondered what to do with it; it did not fit in with the rest of the movie. They decided to include it as if it were a separate short to be shown before the feature. The short was so well received at the Cannes Film Festival that The Meaning of Life was guaranteed to be a success.The short was originally intended to be a five-minute animated short but Gilliam felt that it would be more suited to live action. It became a 30 minute film and was then edited to 16 minutes. The film is a wonderful, highly imaginative, funny, anti-capitalist fantasy, with a very nice song.It begins by showing what appears to be a ship's sails, which turn out actually to be canvasses that are covering the face of a large old building that is being cleaned. The original impression, however, turns out to be the reality. The Crimson Permanent Assurance Company is a very British company that has been in existence for a long, long time. Its staff loyalty has left it with a geriatric staff, who have worked there all their lives. The company has been purchased by The Very Big Corporation of America, which brings in efficiency experts to rank the staff. When a staff member is fired for being slow, rebellion erupts. Evidently, this moment has been anticipated, because everybody seems to know exactly what to do: how to use office equipment as weapons, the chain of command, that the building is able to sail off on the "Wide Accountant-sea", etc. Since the charm of the movie is its element of surprise, I will say no more (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).One question remains: is The Crimson Permanent Assurance a separate short film or an integral part of the feature film The Meaning of Life? The answer is, "Yes!"For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crimson_Permanent_Assurance

rmike A satrical look at the way the business environment was changing after downsizing became the latest American import into the U.K. The central theme of men pushed beyond their limits is explored in an extremely entertaining, surrealistic, typically Gilliam fashion. The use of totally inapt equipment, filing cabinets as ship's cannon, is somewhat reminiscent of the use of musical instruments in the Square World episode which won the Golden Rose of Montreux. All in all a sidesplitter!

Brad_Dharma Terry Gilliam has proven himself as an incredible director of dream imagery. the context of his films exist in an unreality complete with sarcasm and satire. Crimson is the perfect example of Gilliam's attitude towards the structure of big business (Brazil also exists on this level). It mixes comedic violence and well-crafted sets to create a intro for The Meaning of Life. Look for Matt Frewer in the meeting room and Michael Palin outside the window.