The title made it obvious that this film would a parody of classic Alfred Hitchcock style espionage thrillers, despite it being an average rating by critics, I was drawn to it by this and a good list of actors in it, directed by Jon Amiel (Copycat, Entrapment, The Core). Basically naive American tourist Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) from Des Moines, Iowa, who works at Blockbuster Video, has travelled to London, England on his birthday to spend time with his brother James (While You Were Sleeping's Peter Gallagher). James is happy to spend time with Wallace, but has business guests coming to dinner and needs something to distract his brother so he doesn't sour the evening, so he sets Wallace up with an interactive improv theatre business, the "Theatre of Life", which promises to treat the participant as a character in a crime drama. But trouble begins when Wallace unknowingly answers the phone to a real hit-man and in is mixed in a case of mistaken identity, the criminals believe him to be a CIA spy, and he gets tangled in a plot to kill Russian dignitaries who will be signing an important peace agreement. Wallace is completely gullible and goes along with this, even when people are being killed, criminals are chasing him and newfound femme fetale Lori (Joanne Whalley) and a bomb is ticking down, he thinks it is all an act, part of his experience with "Theatre of Life". Also starring Alfred Molina as Boris 'The Butcher' Blavasky, Richard Wilson as Sir Roger Daggenhurst, Little Britain's Geraldine James as Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin, John Standing as Gilbert Embleton, Four Weddings and a Funeral's Anna Chancellor as Barbara Ritchie, The Fast Show's John Thomson as Dimitri, EastEnders' Cliff Parisi Cliff Parisi as Uri, Dexter Fletcher as Otto, J.E. Freeman as CIA Man, Maxwell Caulfield as British Agent, The Fast Show's Paul Shearer as TV Reporter, Going Live's Sarah Greene as TV Presenter and Top of the Pops' Mike Smith as TV Presenter. Murray is very convincing as the idiotic slow-witted ordinary man caught in the middle of a dangerous predicament, so much so that it almost becomes annoying, the supporting stars all do well being more amusingly serious, the bumbling dimwit formula does create laughs, but it does a little kick eventually, and the assassination attempt stuff wears a little thin as well, becoming slightly predictable, overall though it is a funny enough spy comedy. Worth watching!
Review of The Man Who Knew Too Little
