BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
For some reason I saw this movie as a kid. I think this was one of the movies that HBO, Showtime, or some other early cable channel showed over and over again back in the early 90’s. It’s a British comedy starting Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane. It’s a hilarious movie, but it’s easily a hard R movie. There is a lot of “naughtiness” in it, which feels even more taboo considering the story. Idle and Coltrane play two criminals who steal a lot of money from the mob. They get in over their heads and end up at a local convent. They end up having to dress up like nuns to hide. So they have to pretend to be nuns, hide their indemnities, worry about the mob, there’s a love story in there, and lots of laughs. There is a weird tone to the movie. It’s edgy and kind of brass compared to what you’d expect. First off, it’s really well written, the score is awesome, and the acting rocked. Idle and Coltrane pull off something really close to what Steve Martin and John Candy did, but maybe even funnier. Definitely edgier. The jokes are smart and there is some interesting crime stuff going on. I wonder if the idea for Whoopi Goldberg’s “Sister Act” had anything to do with this movie. Replace young naked women with young singing women, swap two brits for one black woman…and bam! The plot is the same! I like both for different reasons, but it’s still a little strange. I think at my current age, I’d say that THIS movie is something I’d rather pour a drink to and check out again. The American comes out in me when I say I was shocked by the casual and not so casual nudity in the movie. Maybe I should be more shocked that I watched this movie at the age of 10. That’s probably why it stood out to much to me. The humor was there, but there is no way I understood 1/10th of what was going on in this movie at that age. I just knew two funny foreign guys were pretending to be nuns and occasionally I’d see a naked woman. The days of early cable were awesome. If you ever get a chance, watch this movie… with parental guidance! B+
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