A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Hit comedy about some thieves--Ken Pile (Michael Palin), Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis), Otto West (Kevin Kline)--and a barrister (John Cleese) who falls in trouble with them. The plot is way too convoluted to summarize but it involves stolen diamonds, multiple double-crosses, sex, violence etc etc all in a supposedly funny manner.

Now this movie does have some good things about it--Cleese (playing the straight man for once) is good; Curtis is just fantastic (and incredibly sexy); Kline is even better in a role that got him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and Palin is also good. It moves quickly, looks great and I was never really bored.

But, it wasn't funny. I didn't laugh once. I didn't like it in 1988 (some critics weren't too thrilled with it either) and I still don't like it now. For one thing almost all the main characters are vicious and cruel (especially Otto). This movies idea of humor is violence. One character is beaten up multiple times and humiliated--all like it's funny. Another stutters nonstop (that's played for laughs) and is being constantly verbally humiliated and gets maimed in accidents and almost suffocated to death. Another is run over by a steam roller. Animals are killed, live fish are eaten....To some people this might be hysterical but I found it way too cruel to be funny. Also, I'm no prude, but did we really have to have constant non-stop swearing throughout the movie? That also isn't funny--just annoying.

I'm giving this a 5 for the actors--and that's about it. Still, it was a smash hit so it depends on what you find funny. If you love the Three Stooges this is for you.

Fmovies: The movie was created as a hybrid of 1940-1950's Ealing comedy and later Monty Python-type silliness. The combination didn't quite work as intended.

I went to see it in the theater because of all the praise the movie got, but when I saw it, it had some laughs but it was less funny than I had come to expect. The movie's main joke is about the culture clash between the loud, overaggressive Americans versus the over-mannered, comatose Britons, but the stereotypes are so exaggerated they are more irritating than funny.

The movie is somewhat redeemed by the scenes with Cleese and Curtis, but the other leads resort to overacting, which in itself is not very funny. As a crime drama, it's not particularly clever either. I was glad to see it once, but I wouldn't bother again.

'The Fish Called Wanda' and 'Some Like It Hot' are the two best comedies that I have ever seen. They're both very unique films and represent one complete story and manage at same to be devastatingly funny films. They don't need sequels because they are both 'perfect' in their own right. I have seen these films so many times but they always surprise me again and again when I find out how good they are.

'The Fish Called Wanda' is not only well made but also happens to be funny. I call this movie 'the best', which may sound ironical, because Cleese and Palin have even been more funny as Pythons. Also ironical is that Jamie Lee Curtis says only one joke (Aristotle was not...) in the whole film. Kevin Kline is hysterically funny without one-liners and slap-sticks. It is the overall situation that makes the film complete. This is to say, that the film is not at all stuck up with gags but has absolutely right timing for every event. This feature makes the film even better than anything what Monty Python and the Marx Brothers have done. Or at least reaches the same level with them. This film proves that a movie can kill you in laughter using only everyday realism.

A Masterpiece from John Cleese, who proves here that he can be funny even without Pythonity. He actually did the same with 'Fawlty Towers', but as a single film is this the very best. It just works.

A Fish Called Wanda fmovies. This is one of the funniest films I have ever seen. The film is so well put together that time flew on by and I was sitting there wanting more. This movie is perfectly cast and well directed. There is no real style to the direction, but when you have a script like this all you need to do is point the camera and let it rip. I would like to point out that if you haven't seen this movie yet, check it out for Kevin Kline's performance alone. It is one of the best comedic performances you will ever witness. Great movie.

A Fish Called Wanda is my favourite movie of all time and always will be. John Cleese has written this masterpiece very cleverly, his best best writing piece since Fawlty Towers. Kevin Kline, who won an Oscar for his role in the film, is excellent as the looppy, arm pit sniffing Otto, and is my favourite in the film. Michael Palin is also brilliant as the stuttering Ken. John Cleese, in a role rather different to Basil Fawlty and his Monty Python characters, plays the lawyer Archie Leach fantastically. But the movie is all around Jamie Lee Curtis' Wanda, who is an American thief, after diamonds that she, Otto, Ken and George (Tom Georgeson) stole. In order to get the diamonds, Wanda has a fling with just about everybody. The movie will leave you in suspense wondering who will get the diamonds. Along the way, there are plenty of funny lines and gags, especially from Kline. A top movie. Watch A Fish Called Wanda, don't skip it. A++++

This is one of the best, if not THE best, caper comedies of the modern era. The writing is very witty and at the same time sometimes turgid. The cast is absolutely perfect; Cleese makes a great subdued lawyer who wants to be a bad boy, Curtis is wonderful and just keeps you guessing (as perhaps her own character is guessing, as to what it is SHE wants), and Kline is perfectly annoying as the Nietzsche-quoting American. This movie has strong shades of "The Big Sleep" and other Howard Hawks comedies, even going so far as to name Cleese's character "Leach" in honor of Cary Grant.

This film should appeal to those with no classic movie knowledge, but for those who have seen "To Catch a Thief" and other caper classics, this is even more of a treat. Romantic, funny, and slick.

Also big ups to Michael Palin for another memorable supporting performance.