The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)

Originally Reviewed

Monday December 12, 2005

 

This is the Bill Murray of old, the classic, the hilarious Bill Murray not the straight dark comedy Bill Murray, the one I find excruciatingly hard to sit through any of his films.  I don't find him funny anymore but I guess he's having more success with his new style and genre of film. The Man Who Knew Too Little ranks somewhere in the Top 10 funniest movies of all-time, it has to, because it's just that good. It's Wallace Ritchie's (Murray) birthday and he is coming to London to visit his brother. Bad timing because Wally arrives on the night of his brother's big business meeting and his brother knows how much Wally hates boring meetings, so he sets him up to participate in the Theater of Life. Something he expects he brother will enjoy since he's in the movie business... well actually he works for Blockbuster in Demoine, Iowa!

The Theater of Life is a live action role playing drama where the customer is the main participate in a story made to appear real. Ironically Wally gets mixed up in something much bigger, an assassination plot to foil a treaty between two countries. Although the whole time Wally believes this is all an act, all part of the experience of the show. Wallace Ritchie soon becomes the main target of the resistance and is thought to be an American spy hired to foil the plot, but the whole time he's enjoying himself tremendously and has no clue whatsoever that his life is in great danger.

The Man Who Knew Too Little is one of the funniest movies I have seen, and it's no less amusing after the tenth time. Definitely the funniest Bill Murray film as he has no clue what's really going on yet he's outsmarting the bad guys who think he's some type of super agent. I highly recommend this film; you are guaranteed to laugh, if not see a doctor because something is wrong with you. One of the best written comedies ever, it flows extremely well and there is never a dull moment.

9/10