Yellowbeard (played by Graham Chapman) is the story of a pirate who hides his treasure shortly before his mutinous first-mate Moon (Peter Boyle) turns him in, and he is imprisoned with his new first-mate Gilbert (Marty Feldman). He lives through his sentence only to find out that the Royal Navy has had his sentence extended in order to force him to escape and lead them to the treasure. He escapes and goes back for his map to learn that his mistress Betty (Madeline Kahn) has had the map destroyed and the only remaining copy is tattooed to his son Dan's (Martin Hewitt) skull. In the meantime, Moon is tracking him trying to get to the treasure as well. A voyage is made to the isle it was hidden on, which is now run by El Nebuloso (Tommy Chong) and his right hand man El Segundo (Cheech Marin). In the end, Yellowbeard gets his gold.
There were some real power houses of film in this movie. Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Michael Hordern, Eric Idle, Madeline Kahn, James Mason, John Cleese, Kenneth Mars, Susannah York, and even a David Bowie cameo. I could keep going. Unfortunately, I believe having too many cooks in the kitchen might spoil the pot. I just didn't get that same smack in the face, comedy laughter I got the first hundred times I watched it as a kid.
Don't expect to be wowed by the intricate and in-depth documentary, trailers, and behind the scenes interviews, because there aren't any. They barely have a generic menu that must have taken all of about 5 seconds to make. On an interesting side note, the movie is rated PG, and there are the same gratuitous breast shots as in any 80's movie. Nowadays they would make it an PG-13 or even R just for that. All in all, it was a good movie with some good laughs. It will never stand as high as Chapman's Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but still a good showcase of some talented actors who were really just making a movie and having fun doing it.
