The Odd Job

I remember see this film at our local Odeon on its general release. Then it disappeared from view.

To a certain extent you can see why,although it has its funny moments the film is not consistently funny.

The story,as mentioned elsewhere,has been used on previous films.

It is interesting to see David Jason in the role of the potential assassin. Graham Chapman is unconvincing.

The film becomes more frenetic and less funny towards the end.

Had good hopes for this 70s flick with Python's Chapman, but it's really not that good.

This was originally a short script and the filler shows. It rambles through unfunny situations and soon, to paraphrase Python, you feel like it goes on and on and on until you start foaming at the mouth and fall over backwards.

To be fair, there were lots of these B Brit films made in the 70s. This one tries to promote itself on Python's back, only there is nothing Pythonesque about it.

There's nothing funny about it either. Should be of interest only to die hard Python fans who want to see a second rate curio made during the height of Python's tenure.

Graham Chapman was one of the members of Monty Python, though he also starred on a variety of shows before this such as "The Frost Report" and "At Last the 1948 Show". In each case, he acted and wrote for the various TV shows. Sadly, in his later years, alcoholism negatively impacted on his career. This is one of the projects he worked on following the final episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus".

The story begins with Arthur (Chapman) coming home from work...only to find that his wife is leaving him. Depressed about this, he decides to kill himself in a most unusual manner...to pay someone to murder him unexpectedly...such as in the Burt Reynolds film "The End". However, when his wife returns, he's unable to find the would-be killer to call off the contract!

If this seems like a familiar concept, it is. I have seen several films with similar ideas and it was remade as the Burt Reynolds film "The End". It also was originally by Chapman as an episode of "Six Dates With Barker"...starring Ronnie Barker instead of Graham Chapman.

The best thing about this film is the often strange dialog...not exactly hilarious but odd and striking. While I didn't adore the film, it is more enjoyable and more subtle than "The End". An interesting film...but not something you should rush to see.

This movie stars Monty Python's Graham Chapman and apparently hasn't been seen by many people considering there are less than 10 votes on it. I bought the video for $5 at a flea market since I'm a Python fan, figured I'd check it out. It's ok. Nothing special..kind of a one-joke premise...hire a guy to kill you, decide you don't want him to...then the guy won't quit until the job is done. Pretty funny ending though. What a lot of people don't know is that the American version of this was Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise who remade it as "The End." I watched it once then resold it on ebay for twice what I paid - hurrah! It's out of print so its tough to find, unless you hit a flea market or an old 1980's video store that has this, Adventures of Pac-Man, and the original copies of all 9 Friday the 13ths..good luck!...7 out of 10 (average rating).

THE ODD JOB is an extremely obscure low budget British comedy that offers a starring role for Graham Chapman, hot off the success of LIFE OF BRIAN. This one has a familiar and well-utilised storyline about a depressed man who, unable to take his own life, decides to hire a hitman to do the job. However, he changes his mind, and soon discovers that the hitman's dedication to the role is frighteningly intense. It's a story we've seen done before and there's not much here to get excited about, with Jason's performance too silly to be of interest. Only Chapman holds it together with his usual straight man persona.