A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

That was an excellent one.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Maybe this movie gets better after the 20 minute mark, but somehow I doubt that. This movie is very boring. The acting is bad, and nothing happens. I didn't finish watching this movie, but there is nothing that made me even remotely interested in this movie. I would not recommend this movie.

"Total farce, so many gags; it's like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon": my friend's unenthusiastic reactions through a mouthful of somewhat dry baked potato.And he was right. A Fish Called Wanda definitely has tons of pomp and circumstance, but lacks any real structure apart from following around a key, secured in a locket, which Jamie Lee Curtis is going to use to open a safe that will make her rich.The (sort of) positives: A *few* moments of passable situational comedy, some fun torture scenes (when Kline quizzes the stuttering Michael Palin about Nietzsche, stuffing french fries into his nose with non-response, before slurping down all of Mike's aquarium life), some semi-funny lines ('I've worn dresses with higher IQs' & ' The London Underground is not a political movement!').Really, you should just pull up stills of the most not-to-be-missed feature of the film: Kevin Kline's wardrobe. With the black ball cap and trench coat. Possibly the best outfit of any cinematic heist-meister. Does he really put his pants on one leg at a time?

Making a truly great comedy is one of the hardest things to do in all film history.Really, how many truly "great" comedies have been made in the last 100 years?Well, "A Fish Called Wanda" qualifies as a comedy legend.Kevin Kline won an Oscar for "Best Supporting Actor" in 1989 for his role in "Wanda"...something that is virtually unheard of...and for a "foreign" film no less.This movie is filled with more hysterically funny lines and sight gags than I could possibly count.If you've read other reviews, they've provided some spoilers.If YOU haven't seen this movie yet, buy / rent it on DVD or Blu-Ray, or watch it on the 'net.DO NOT watch the edited version, because you need to hear ALL of the funny dialogue that makes this movie the classic it is.If you don't have a highly sophisticated funny bone, don't like foul language, making fun of someone with a speech impediment, or "animal cruelty" (done strictly for gut-busting laughs), or have young children you want to share this with, then avoid watching it, because you will NOT enjoy this masterpiece of a comedy. Regardless of my less-than-stellar review, just don't call me stupid!

It's my understanding that A Fish Called Wanda is often regarded as one of the funniest films of all time. However, after watching it I'm perplexed as to why it's quite so highly regarded as to me it was barely funny at best.There isn't much wrong with the basic idea behind the film and the idea of the protagonists double-crossing each other in an attempt to get the stolen loot certainly holds a lot of promise, but sadly this was just a really big missed opportunity.For a start, the characters aren't very well-written and sadly the gags are very one- note and repetitive. Michael Palin's character Ken Pile has a stutter and that's about it - it's mildly amusing at first, but when that's the only funny thing about his character it wears thin very quickly. I'm also surprised that Kevin Kline won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Really? Perhaps he should have won the award for Best Overacting Actor. God was he irritating in this film - he shouted all the time, randomly spoke in a stupid Italian accent for no apparent reason, and he was just generally annoying. Later in the film we see Pile trying to take out a witness to the robbery, but every time he tries to kill her he ends up killing her dogs - it wasn't that funny the first time, but to have this as the only running gag shows a real lack of imagination and I must admit that this is very lazy and disappointing (and as one of the writers Cleese must burden some of the responsibility for some of its failings).The only moderately interesting aspect of the story was the relationship between Wanda and Leach. Leach is a believable character - a middle-class man stuck in a loveless marriage who merely wants a bit of excitement in his life. Leach is quite a likable guy & Cleese's dead pan expressions and excellent comic timing do help to keep the film mildly tolerable. It's a shame that the material here is thin and largely unfunny. However, Cleese's and Curtis' acting are the best things about this film and their scenes together are easily the best in the film.However, the final nail in the coffin was the ending which I found to be utterly ridiculous and totally unbelievable. A Fish Called Wanda is a film that seems to be loved by the masses, but it's appeal is something of a mystery to me.