The quest for the full Monty Python, Part I.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

So perhaps he's suffering from some degenerative brain disease, or perhaps he's being clever and disingenuous, or perhaps, perhaps, he really doesn't remember, though I don't believe that at all, then, do I? Regardless, Michael Palin absolutely refuses to recall that Monty Python, the comedy troupe of which he is still marginally a member, once released an album of previously available material called "Monty Python's the Final Ripoff," which was followed six years later by "The Ultimate Monty Python Ripoff."

"Did we now?" says Palin, after attempting to avoid the question by mimicking the sound of trans-Atlantic static. "I don't remember us being all that blatant, though we did title one of our live things `The First Farewell Tour,' knowing full well we'd be out there to milk it again. I mean, you can accuse us of many things, including the endless recycling of very little original material, but you can't say we weren't candid, can you?"

This investigative interrogation has been instigated by the impending theatrical rerelease of Python's second feature film, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Unlike the upcoming "Apocalypse Now Redux," which boasts nearly an hour of new footage, the best the Pythons have been able to come up with is a better-looking print, a fresh sound mix and less than a minute of previously unseen footage, which is just like them, don't you think?

On the other hand, there's very little humor in "Apocalypse," unless you count baldy old Brando; "Holy Grail," on the other hand, is one of the funniest films ever made, which could justify its being available again.