That more than adequately sums up my feelings of 'The Man Who Knew Too Little'. It's his show. All the way. There is also no denying this is a rather stupid movie because it has to be. The only prerequisite is the situation must be completely implausible and the main character a complete bulb and on those terms this movie passes with flying colors. Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) is a man perhaps the furthest thing from ultra cool and sexy a la James Bond. I guess the fact that he is a forty-plus year old man working at Blockbuster is confirmation of just that.
Coming to visit his brother James (Peter Gallagher), you can see from frame one that he wants nothing more than to get rid of him. Yes, sign him up for some harmless fantasy role-playing. Where's the harm in that? He's supposed to go to a telephone booth and await fake instructions except when he picks up the phone, it's an actual spook relaying him to go to an address. Seconds later, the real assassin approaches the telephone booth and it's the game calling. Some man is pretending to beat up a woman across the street as we can see the window and corresponding sound from the telephone. The assassin without emotion calmly walks across the street and mechanically puts three shells in the male actor. A rare moment of dark humor in an otherwise over-the-top silly movie.
The rest follows a pattern of Wallace stumbling around unaware of what he's really involved in and this illusion he can do / say / try anything without consequence of death is weirdly amusing. Of course, furthest from plausible, but having to be as such. If you can shoulder a sporting Bill Murray carrying the weight in order to save a threadbare story you'll find something to like here. Even though by the end it had worn thin, I had a real good laugh or two and that's more than I can say for most comedies nowadays. A must-watch for Bill Murray fans.
Coming to visit his brother James (Peter Gallagher), you can see from frame one that he wants nothing more than to get rid of him. Yes, sign him up for some harmless fantasy role-playing. Where's the harm in that? He's supposed to go to a telephone booth and await fake instructions except when he picks up the phone, it's an actual spook relaying him to go to an address. Seconds later, the real assassin approaches the telephone booth and it's the game calling. Some man is pretending to beat up a woman across the street as we can see the window and corresponding sound from the telephone. The assassin without emotion calmly walks across the street and mechanically puts three shells in the male actor. A rare moment of dark humor in an otherwise over-the-top silly movie.
The rest follows a pattern of Wallace stumbling around unaware of what he's really involved in and this illusion he can do / say / try anything without consequence of death is weirdly amusing. Of course, furthest from plausible, but having to be as such. If you can shoulder a sporting Bill Murray carrying the weight in order to save a threadbare story you'll find something to like here. Even though by the end it had worn thin, I had a real good laugh or two and that's more than I can say for most comedies nowadays. A must-watch for Bill Murray fans.