Nuns on the Run (1990)

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Madness in the nunery here, with likable duo, Idle and Coltrane hiding out from some bad dudes, they ripped off (funny to see Asians with machetes). One of their fellow associates left, and was quickly disposed of, and our two don't want that. Their boss is actually a wuzz with permed hair, who spends his nights, loafed on his sofa, spent, watching the tele, while eating Cheetos. Idle and Coltrane make a splendid team as the posing nuns. Coltrane is especially funny, when his disguise, like when his eyes eat up a young teen nun, bare in a shower block, or when he snatches Idle's fries, before all the chaos begins. What makes matters worse, is that Idle falls in love with a young lass (the one out of King Ralph-another English comedy I loved). The lass has very bad visions and only adds more humor to the comedy hit. Nuns On The Run is a deliciously funny comedy, one of a few mishaps, as only the Brits could deliver. If you're a lover of English comedies, and you haven't seen it, you're depriving yourself of a great night of entertainment, on the box.

I went to see this with my cousin Dave, back in 1990. I was visiting Oregon and we both went to see a movie, this looked really good to me. Now, I was only really familiar with the likes of, "The Benny Hill Show" and not with much else English. My cousin might as well have been a rock-star, he was into heavy metal and had no care or ties to class or culture. At any rate, we went and agreed on this in sort of a 'flip' manner. When the previews ended, I forgot what we came to see, so did Dave, but just shortly after starting, the story was infectious!! We both laughed and laughed, all the way through. These two Englishmen Idle and Coltrane and a cast that I had never seen before, just lit up. The music was a delightful companion to the movie. I know that usually with comedy, in a certain culture you might get it or you might not, if you are not from that country or culture. So with that I realized, that I wouldn't catch it all. But, instead of feeling like an outsider, I felt as though I was together on the same side as these two mob con-men in a story of nun 'Hammery' . What a nice surprise! My cousin was on it too which kind of shocked me . All in all, it was as if this movie didn't miss a single trick, the ending was a perfect wrap-up for Charlie and Brian bringing along Faith for good measure on a wide body 747!! And dressed for the job, as airline stewardesses !!! Coffee, tea or peanuts?! This is a ten-star comedic bash of a good time! I recommend this classic to those who love English comedy. This is a real untarnished getaway English mob flick with a little Catholic confusion, at confession time and mayhem along the way, thrown in for good measure. What a comedy team-up, these two Eric and Robbie!! George Harrison was the one that enabled this to be made, I couldn't believe it, that good ole shy former Beatle, thanks again George.The rest of the cast was smashing as well. Good show(****)

Handmade films started off by making the phenomenal Monty Python's Life of Brian, made several fantastic films to follow that, and just 11 years later wound down their production with this hidden gem. Nuns on the Run is a truly British comedy. No other country in the world can do comedy as well as the British, and this movie represents when they got just about everything right. Perfect casting, fantastic scenario and some hilarious one-liners. This was really one of the last great films comedies, with only Fierce Creatures and Chicken Run coming close since. Unfairly maligned, I seldom hear a good word said about it in the film community, yet nobody I know possibly has any criticism of it. It will continue to be a personal favourite of mine, and I'd hope that other people will in time realise just what they've been missing. 9/10.

Eric Idle, Robbie Coltraine, Janet Suzman - it should have been almost impossible to go wrong. Of course it has some funny moments - the scene in the showers when Robbie Coltraine echoes Lon Chaney Jr's ghastly werewolf line "I can't help myself" is hilarious. But ultimately the plot, script and direction are flat as a pancake and as tired as a 90 year old nun after 180 "Hail Mary"s. When I was a child, Carry On films filled this niche slightly better, which is a really sad indictment of a film with such a promising cast.