Monty Python's Life of Brian (R, 1979)

This movie definitely has more overt violence and sexual humor than Monty Python's Flying Circus (TV show) or even "Holy Grail." Still, that's not what's most tricky about letting kids see it. This movie satirizes religion with a razor-sharp edge. Fascinatingly, about the only thing in the movie it treats with genuine reverence in the image of Jesus himself, delivering the Sermon on the Mount in a fashion as dignified and realistic as any Biblical epic. But, almost instantly, it shows people mis-hearing and mis-interpreting his words to hilarious effect. Believers of every stripe (religious and political) are depicted as little more than buffoons (a group of rabbis once called this "the most offensive movie ever made"), and the folly of clinging to a faith that, under scrutiny, makes no sense is laid bare time and again. The message -- and there is a message -- of this movie is that you should understand what you believe in. That's a powerful intellectual revelation, but one that pre-teens may not be ready for.

My rating: R for constant sacrilege and mature anti-Christian humor, strong language and some graphic nudity.

This movie is great, what annoys me is the fact that people think this movie is offensive to Religions. It's making fun of it, it's just putting it in the Bright Side of Life (See end of the movie). All in all, I really liked this movie

It is arguably the most hilarious film ever, if your kids are old enough. If you have children that laugh a lot at nudity or find it funny when someone swears, you cannot let them see the film. But a mature child will find this film great. This film also includes the single most random/funny moment in film history, when Brian is falling from a tower and is randomly caught in mid-air by an alien spacecraft, which goes very far out in space, then encounters a maulfunction, and randomly comes right back to Earth on the exact same spot the aliens found Brian. The aliens die, and Brian somehow survives.