Chalk up another one for Bill Murray

By Grant T. Michalski
King of the Wicker People

: Warner Brothers' The Man Who Knew Too Little starring Bill Murray is an extremely humorous flick worth six bucks if you need a laugh.

Okay, I know Bill Murray hasn't had any great movies for quite a while. The Man Who Knew Too Little isn't up to the calibre of his earlier work (i.e. Stripes, Ghostbusters), but definitely packs enough punches for your funny bone to keep it tingling for the duration of the movie.

The premise is a bit more original than I had expected. Wally Ritchie (Murray) is going to England on his birthday to see his brother, James. Well, the family reunion is cut short when Wally finds out that James is hosting a dinner-meeting at his house. Anxious to get rid of his brother for the night so he can conduct his meeting, James signs Wally up for an experimental theatre production called Theatre of Life where an acting company puts the outsider in a number of situations where outsider simply improvises in the situation.

Well, that night Wally goes to the public telephone where he is supposed to receive a call telling him what to do for this Theatre of Life production, and receives a call from a secret British spy agency. Wally, assuming this is his Theatre of Life call, follows the instructions of the spy agency, and gets involved in a plot to kill the leaders of England and Russia before they sign a peace treaty at midnight.

Once you accept the constant coincidences, the movie takes off, and it's hard to stop laughing. This is easily Murray's best work since Groundhog Day, if not Ghostbusters. The script is excellently written, leading to several "double entendres". The music resembles that of a classic Hollywood detective film, and has many of the same cliches which only help make the film better.

I honestly haven't seen a movie that made me laugh this much for quite a while. So, after failing two tests this week, go check it out... it's definitely worth your time and ticket cost.

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