The Man Who Knew Too Little 1997

     This film is based on a novel written by Robert Farrar.  American Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) gets a ticket for an audience participation game in London England.  Then, he gets involved in a case of mistaken identity.  As an international plot unravels around him, he thinks it's all part of the act.  Wallace is in London to see his brother.  He is a banker and he is throwing a big business dinner.  He doesn’t want Wallace to be at the dinner and he buys him a ticket to the “Theater of Life.”  This is a troupe that works on the city streets and involves one audience member at a time in a real-life drama.  Wallace answers a pay phone at the beginning and he finds himself involved in a real spy drama instead of a fake theatrical one.  

     There are a LOT of times that this movie is not funny??  There are instances where conversations can be taken two ways.  Wallace means one thing and the spies believe he means something else??  This is a continuous merry-go-round!!  Bill Murray is a funny comedian but he needs something to work with and he can’t just invent the comedy??  3* (this movie is OK)  

94 min, Comedy directed by Jon Amiel and written by Robert Farrar with Bill Murray, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley, Alfred Molina, Richard Wilson, John Standing, Simon Chandler, Geraldine James, Anna Chancellor, Nicolas Woodeson, Cliff Parisi, John Thomson, Janet Henfrey, Terry O’Neill, Isabel Hernandez.   

Note:  Imdb 6.7* out of 10* with 30,113 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 39% with 33 critics 69% with 34,499 audience scores, Roger Ebert 1*, Amazon 5* with 1261 reviews, avclub.com, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5* with 9 fans. 

Special Note:  One of the Agents at the end has the last name of Venkman just like Bill Murray's character in the first two Ghostbusters movies.  In the hotel after the interrogation, Boris "The Butcher" Blavasky walks out of the room to call Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin.  He says, pointing to Wallace Ritchie, "Uri, get the rubber sheets... and watch that man." "Watch That Man" is the title of the novel on which this movie was based.  The movie that Consuela (Isabel Hernández) is watching in the kitchen is Copycat  (1995), also directed by Jon Amiel.  Wallace has a happy mundane existence as a Blockbuster clerk in Des Moines Iowa.  As a hick from the sticks, he wants to see and try everything in London!! 

Mistakes:  When Wally is on the ledge at the Plaza, he yells down to Jimmy several times.  Several of the times when he yells, his mouth actually isn't moving.  When Wally first points the revolver at Lori, you hear a sound as though he is cocking the hammer but the revolver he is holding is a hammer-less model.  There is no hammer to cock and make this sound.  At Jimmy's dinner party, when Lori slaps Wally's face, the sound of the slap happens before her hand hits his face.  At 53:08 into the film, the shadow of the microphone can be seen on an actor's forehead.