User reviews

Brief and simple: this movie is terrific entertainment! With its uniquely eccentric characters and delightfully absurd storyline, 'A Fish Called Wanda "unquestionably is one of the funniest films ever made. The exhilarating screenplay works on so many level (a diamond heist gone wrong, Brits vs. Americans, romantic comedy...) and the top-notch cast obviously had an excellent time doing this film-job. There's not a dull moment throughout the entire movie and every sequence contains at least two or three hilarious moments. The humor is very over-the-top at times but, what the hell, it remains a joy to behold. The cast is nearly perfect with John Cleese, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis at their absolute best. Still, there's one actor who deserves extra praise for his role here and that's Kevin Kline. His hyperactive, deranged and extravagant character Otto is one of the most brilliant roles in comedy cinema ever! His moves, grimaces and monologues will make you fall off your seat laughing. Kline won an Oscar for his role and, everybody who has seen" A Fish Called Wanda "will agree on the fact that this was a well-deserved price.

When four people team up for armed robbery then all try to keep the whole lot for themselves, hilarity follows. The humor in this film is clever and constant, never letting up for a minute. Watch especially for Kevin Kline's performance of Otto, it's one you'll remember for years to come. His attitude and his character suit him so well. His contrast with John Cleese's Archie Leach is phenomenal. A must see for all. Brilliant film.

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.

Before I review this film, I want to mention that I've seen it about ten times and have yet to stop laughing at any of the jokes. This is one of the best written and acted comedies that I've ever seen. The plot is airtight, and the jokes are perfectly timed and delivered. This is due in large part to the spectacular cast of the film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Johh Cleese, Michael Palin, and my personal favorite Kevin Kline as Otto the moronic ex-CIA agent who's too stupid to realize that he's stupid. The film centers around the four aforementioned actors who are involved in a bank robbery, and the conniving and backstabbing by each that takes place afterwards. A large portion of the comedic material in this film comes from the mixture, or more precisely clash, of British and American cultures. Kevin Kline's portrayal of Otto the red-blooded American with entirely too much ego and confidence is contrasted perfectly by John Cleese's reserved and in Otto's words "sexually repressed" English gentleman who is too scared to go out and live his life. Jamie Lee Curtis is also great as the title character who is determined to back-stab and cross anyone and everyone in order to get what she wants. Finally, there's Michael Palin as Ken the hit-man/animal lover/severe stutterer who must kill a key witness in order to protect his Boss. If there are any funnier scenes than the ones where Ken must kill this witness, I haven't seen them. Palin is absolutely brilliant, easily one of the best comedic performances ever. The film is close to 2 hours long, but the plot is so clever and well structured that it's over before you know it. To me, that is one of the trademarks of a great film. You don't want this movie to end, and you're disappointed when it does. Do yourself a favor and watch A Fish Called Wanda and you will wonder why you haven't seen (or in many cases even heard of) this film before.

This is the only film I ever paid to see two days in a row. I missed too much of it the first time because of my own hysterical snorting laughter.

This is a work of comic genius. And, like any good film, the screenplay is at the heart of the belly laughs. Every character is given a detailed personality quirk or two, and then it is shamefully exploited for laugh after laugh. Note for example, John Cleese's speech to Jamie Lee Curtis about how awful it is to be British - the eternal fear of embarrassment. Moments later, he is caught buck naked in a marital tryst in some else's flat by the people to used to live in his own home. Also, the funny-offensive envelope is pushed to the limit when K-K-K-Ken (Michael Palin), the passionate animal lover inadvertently kills three innocent dogs in his attempt to murder an old woman who would otherwise be a prosecution witness. Now that's funny!

Cleese's character, Archie Leach (Carey Grant's real name) is a likable buffoon of a lawyer, happy in his banal existence until he meets the sexy American, Wanda (Jamie Lee). I cannot even being to describe the plot beyond that point without doing it a grave disservice. It twists and dangles about in a world of double-cross and goldfish-eating for no other reason than to set up a joke.

You cannot speak of this film without mention of Kevin Kline as Otto, a role that won him a richly-deserved Oscar. Otto is the ex-CIA "weapons man" who makes it his business to read philosophy but would be more at home with Curious George. An obsessive, self-indulgent, painfully stupid, violent, deceitful, gullible egomaniac, the character of Otto is amongst the best comedic performances ever delivered.

The film's funniest scene takes place at Leach's (Cleese) house. In a scene that rivals anything that has ever hit the screen for laughs, the film and its scripts looks deep enough into itself to even give Cleese's dry-as-toast wife a laugh or two. Then, later on, this scene proves to be the set up for even more jokes. A Fish Called Wanda is pure comedy and every scene either provides a laugh or sets one up - it graciously does not waste our time trying to be moral or turning into a formula car-chase flick.

My comments are choppy but so is this movie. If you see it and don't laugh, check your pulse. We have only been given a handful of good comedies in the last decade. A Fish Called Wanda is a treasure. **** out of ****.

NOTE: TBS and some other TV networks show this film with the "offensive language" edited out. It kills the movie - if you can't hack the language, pass this one over.

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.

Portraying a heist gone awry, "A Fish Called Wanda" goes all out in every way possible. Maybe the whole thing is little more than an excuse for a bunch of silly situations, but they have some great ones here. Whether it's John Cleese's dance, Kevin Kline's rips at England, Michael Palin's stuttering, or Jamie Lee Curtis's deadpan performance, they know how to do everything here. I can't describe how funny the movie is; you just have to see it. And you may very well die laughing - or if nothing else, you'll want to take a trip to England. Kevin Kline definitely deserved his Oscar. And of course, the cast teamed up again for the equally funny (maybe even better) "Fierce Creatures". This is a comedy classic in every way.

Oh, and in case Kevin Kline is reading this: Happy birthday! You're my favorite actor!

What makes this old friend so very funny? There are lots of great setpiece sequences, like Michael Palin running over Kevin Kline in slow motion. It's the energy that Kline gives to his Oscar-winning role, the way Jamie Lee Curtis double crosses everyone, Michael Palin's stammer, Tom Georgeson's malign mastermind, the clockwork jewel robbery..... but mostly its the mean-spirited selfishness that suffuses every moment of it. It's pretty much unique for British comedy, which always seems to have a soft spot some place for the little fellow. Even the Boultings, at their most vicious, have that normative core, a sense of right and wrong, to grimace dourly at the actions of their petty tyrants.

This movie, however, makes no such claim. In fact, Cleese's monologue about the stifling, lifeless way in which the British are terrified of saying the wrong thing the terror of asking about the spouse and being told she left that morning... it's not a comedy of embarrassment. It's a comedy of shamelessness, and pretty much unique. And anyone who talks about 'poor taste' doesn't get it. It's meant to be tasteless.

The great John Cleese starred in two post-Monty Python films in the mid 1980s: 'Clockwise' is arguably under-rated, but 'A Fish Called Wanda' was a huge commercial success. This is actually surprising, as the film is only fitfully amusing, with its obvious (and commercially-minded) Anglo-American theme. A bigger problem, perhaps, is that Cleese himself plays a relatively straight role, leaving it to Michael Palin (never the funniest of the Pythons, and here merely annoying) and the always annoying Kevin Kline to attempt to deliver the laughs: the film only really becomes funny in its second half, when Cleese is finally allowed to show us his talents. Another point of note is that the Python-esquire vision of Britain, maybe enhanced by the use of veteran Ealing studios director Charles Chrichton, is starting to look dated: the world shown is a parody of contemporary life, but no longer accurate enough to be considered satire. There are still some funny moments here, but for a true demonstration of Cleese's greatness, look elsewhere.

To make a comedy that can be lauded with the comment 'absolutely hilarious' isn't an easy thing to do. It's not so difficult, however, when you are one of the funniest men on god's green earth; and the extremely talented John Cleese has certainly managed to write a fine piece of comedy here. Teaming up with Monty Python buddy Michael Palin and Ealing studios director Charles Crichton, these talented comedians have managed to create a film that is most certainly one of the funniest; laugh per minute and lasting hilarity when it's over, movies ever made. The plot is taken straight from the classic Ealing comedy era (no wonder it works so well) and it follows four crooks that have stolen a bunch of jewels and now decide to double cross one another to take the loot solely for themselves. The plot thickens when the female of the bunch decides that the best way to get the loot would be to get close to a grassed-up co-conspirator's barrister; John Cleese.

Aside from an inch-perfect screenplay, A Fish Called Wanda also benefits from a fine cast of actors to deliver it. John Cleese steals every scene he's in, as you might expect, and he more than justifies his reputation as one of, maybe even the, finest British comedy actor ever. He is joined by a talented pair of Americans; Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis, along with, as mentioned, his fellow Python Michael Palin. Kline is certainly one of the most underrated actors working today, and his comic timing in this movie is right on the money. Makes you wonder how much better he could have been used over the years. "Scream Queen" Jamie Lee Curtis also does well in the title role; and Michael Palin obviously knows his way round a comedy script. The jokes in the film come thick and fast, and I can't think of a single one that didn't work. It's the big gags that are the real stand out of the movie, though, and one in particular that sees Kevin Kline trying to explain to Cleese's wife what he's doing in their home is absolutely priceless. I nearly fell of my chair laughing. This film is a must see.

In London, four very different people team up to commit armed robbery, then try to double-cross each other for the loot.

This film's genesis begins way back in the 1960s, when writer John Cleese and director Charles Crichton met and even (unsuccessfully) proposed a comedy film... the steamroller gag allegedly gestated all that time. By the 1980s, both Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis had helped on early drafts to make it more American (Cleese modestly suggests that 13 different people perfected the dialogue). Kline and Cleese had been acquainted since "Silverado".

What bothers me right off the bat is this idea that Jamie Lee Curtis is attractive and can lure people. This was not the first film where she was used in this way, and certainly not the last ( "True Lies" ). But it is confounding, because she really is just not the sort of person you expect to be the "sexy woman" in Hollywood films. This is not meant as any disrespect to Curtis, but her strong point is not her physicality.

That nitpick aside, this was a nice film from some of the Monty Python folks (John Cleese, Michael Palin). Interestingly, neither one of them stole the show -- that honor goes to Kevin Kline as Otto. Maybe I am mistaken, but I always got the impression Kline lingered just below the A-list and just above the B-list, and no one knew what to do with him. A shame. He is a real talent, with an incredible comedic skill. Appropriately, this film landed him an Oscar. According to Cleese, Kline was different on each take, and invented his physicality on the fly (which drove the editor bonkers).

For those looking for other Python connections beyond Cleese and Palin, they are there if you dig hard enough. Costume designer Hazel Pethig had been with them since 1969, practically another member. Assistant director David Skynner is the child of Robin Skynner, who co-wrote "Families and How to Survive Them" (1983) with Cleese. And you may recognize actor Andrew MacLachlan from wither "Life of Brian" or "meaning of Life".

The film's quasi-sequel, "Fierce Creatures" (1997) also starred Cleese, Kline, Curtis and Palin, but was as big a bomb (both commercially and with audiences and critics) as "Wanda" was successful. On the other hand, some have alleged that the success of "Wanda" opened the door for other British-American films such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral", so perhaps it had other quasi-quasi-sequels that carried the torch.

The Arrow Video Blu-ray is a full house, aces high. Beyond the brand-new 4K restoration from the original negative, there is commentary by John Cleese; brand-new appreciation by Vic Pratt of the BFI National Archive; brand-new interviews with composer John DuPrez, production designer Roger Murray-Leach, executive producer Steve Abbott and makeup supervisor Paul Engelen; "John Cleese's Final Farewell Performance", a 1988 documentary on the making of the film; "Something Fishy", a 15th anniversary retrospective documentary; "Fish You Were Here", a documentary on the film's locations hosted by Robert Powell; 24 deleted/alternative scenes with introductions by Cleese; "A Message from John Cleese", a tongue-in-cheek introduction; and more!

Took me longer than I prefer to admit before actually seeing this movie even though I'm a huge fan of John Cleese and his work.. And I honestly had no idea who Kevin Kline even was before watching this. Winning an Oscar for best actor in a comedy was not normal in the 80's but he stole every scene he was involved it and he deserved it to say the least. Every actor did their job well and I can tell they had fun making this.

I read somewhere that the entire movie was written around the final scene with the truck and the "limey" sement.. How they turned a simple idea like this into a heist-comedy is beyond me but they made it work somehow, and it worked well.

This is an absolute classic!

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.

I had forgotten just how good this film is. I turned on the TV tonight to BBC America - more in hope than expectation - and there it was, fortuitously just beginning. What followed was a wonderfully entertaining and nostalgic look at a movie I loved back then – when I still lived in the UK – and I love just as much now that I'm an exile in California. It's a quintessentially British film, but watching it the thought occurred to me yet again, that a good movie is a good movie, no matter what the culture that spawned it or how old it is, and A Fish called Wanda is now eighteen years old.

I'd just got back from the cinema and watching All The King's Men, (see separate review) so my poor overwrought brain needed a rest without being rendered completely redundant. A Fish Called Wanda is a classic example of what I am beginning to call a Friday Night Movie, entertaining and amusing without being brain dead; something you can watch for some escapism after a tedious week at work, but without actually having your intelligence insulted.

A Fish Called Wanda features the delicious Jaime Lee Curtis at her peak, (she then had the body I have always wanted to have and she probably still does – I don't!), John Cleese doing what he does best, playing a repressed Englishman who cuts loose, Michael Palin as a stuttering, fishkeeping diamond robber and Kevin Cline as a slimeball. It was directed by Charles Crichton, who directed such classics of British cinema as The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt, (whose very name evokes a by-gone age of innocence. Ahhhh!!! The good old days………) Charles Crichton was such a stalwart of British cinema that his IMDb listing seems to require extra bandwidth to do it justice.

It is a simple story of crime gone wrong. Four characters team up to steal diamonds Otto (Cline), Wanda (Curtis), Ken (Palin) and George (Tom Georgeson). After the gang steal the diamonds, Otto and Wanda "shop" George to the police thinking they can make off with the loot, but distrustful George and Ken have already moved the loot somewhere safer, so Wanda must seduce George's lawyer Archie (Cleese) to ascertain where the diamonds are being stashed. This leads to some classic scenes, such as one in the London Docklands loft apartment, borrowed for an afternoon of seduction while the owner is supposedly away, where Archie is surprised naked by the family who have rented the property. I defy anyone not to crack up completely as he reaches for the family photo to cover his groin…….. Michael Palin is wonderful – no, they are all wonderful, a great cast, why pick anyone out for special attention? The movie is well written, not a word is superfluous, well edited, very funny and well acted. Classy and a classic of the Cockney Crime Caper genre. Love it!

I saw this movie when I came out in the theaters and I thought it not really funny. But, a lot of other people called it "one of the best comedies ever", so I must be missing something. So, last night I watched it again on television and see if I would like it now, so many years later. It would not be the first time I change my mind about a movie (although not always in a good way). Well, I did not change my mind. It's an OK movie, but it's not really funny and I thought it was a waste of talent. Maybe I'll find it funny in another 15 years, but I guess not.

'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 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++++

Kevin Kline is superb in this film, but Michael Palin really steals the show for me. Their combined comic genius really made me laugh out loud.

I wasn't sure that I would enjoy this film and have in fact avoided it because I'm not a fan of John Cleese, but he plays his part well too.

Overall there is no one that lets the cast down.

It's a bit slow to start, but once you get in to it, you'll find it's very enjoyable. Not one that would top my list, but certainly good enough to score fairly high.

It's quite a simple story and easy to follow and the jokes, while sometimes a tad farcical, are brilliantly timed and delivered.

698.19/1000.

Watching movies can be a fickle thing. No matter how well regarded a title is, our opinion can be affected if we're in a bad mood, if something about it rubs us the wrong way, or even if just something about the circumstances in which we're watching is less than ideal. I know 'A fish called Wanda' is held in very high esteem. I also know that I didn't laugh once throughout its 108 minutes. To each their own, I suppose; mark this as an illustration of how opinions can be divided no matter how widespread a specific perspective is. I guess I'm glad for those who get more out of this than I do, but now that I can say I've seen it, there's surely no need to ever sit for it again.

I was giving the film my full attention, so my boredom can't be circumstantial. Maybe it's that I was feeling extra down at the time - yet isn't a bad mood something that a comedy classic should be able to at least partially remedy? Is there a depression so deep that a flick deemed by the British Film Institute to be the thirty-ninth greatest British picture of all time can't alleviate it? Maybe it's that the intended humor is defined predominantly by a major mean streak (xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, animal cruelty, and so on) that's simply not appealing; having seen plenty of comedies that were wonderfully funny with no need whatsoever to resort to abject meanness for a bit, maybe I've just lost the taste for it. Whatever the case may be, I know that I've loved some features that are hated, and hated some features that are loved; worse, I've just been bored by some. Whatever the source of my ire, I guess 'A fish called Wanda' counts among the latter for me.

In fairness, I did smile once at that scene between Archie and Wanda that brings us to just about the last half-hour. It took about seventy-some minutes, but I think this last stretch finally finds its legs and comes the nearest to eliciting a laugh. It's still amusing only in fits and starts, and continues to struggle intermittently with the same issues that hounded the preceding length, but the meanness is dropped in at least some measure in favor of sheer silliness - gags, situational humor, exaggerated characterizations and performances, some physical comedy, and witty dialogue. Would that John Cleese and Charles Crichton had filled more of the script with those same absurdist sensibilities, for if they had then I'd be writing very different words right now. Oh, sure, the movie is well made in terms of stunts, effects, art direction, costume design, direction, and so on and so forth. Unless a movie can evoke the desired reaction, however, none of this matters.

Please, do check it out. Most people have clearly enjoyed 'A fish called Wanda' since its release in 1988, and I'm certain that will continue to be the case. Maybe some day I'll decide to give it another go, and something will flip, and I'll find it just as entertaining as so many other folks. Yet with so many other films I can be watching instead, why would I bother rewatching something I didn't care for the first time around? It's not abjectly bad. It just leaves me woefully indifferent. And for a comedy, especially, maybe that's worse.

Four crazy characters team up to steal diamonds, and then try to doublecross each other. Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson) is the elder. Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a vixen who play all the men like a fiddle. Otto (Kevin Kline) is blindly in love with Wanda and easily goes violently crazy. Ken Pile (Michael Palin) is the stuttering animal lover. When the double-crossing begins, Georges' attorney Archie Leach (John Cleese) is dragged into the chaos.

The wacky craziness is punctuated by Michael Palin and Kevin Kline. They've created two of the craziest most memorable characters. Who can truly forget Kevin Kline shoving that fish back in his mouth? It helps that Jamie Lee Curtis is both beautiful and ballsy. It serves her well in this movie.

When a man can recover from being run over by a steamroller, we know we aren't in the world's most serious movie. Still, the wit and byplay that goes on in this gem is wonderful. It has a great cast: John Cleese, MIchael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, and, especially, Kevin Kline (I though he was Calvin Klein when I first heard about him). He has been wonderful in just about everything, but his ticky, off the wall character in this film is worth the price of admission. The plot is like one of those sixties heist films, but this is a visual joy. As animal rights advocate Palin sets out to kill several dogs owned by an old lady who is the only witness to a jewel heist (to cause her to have a heart attack), we are treated to some of the greatest sight gags ever. Also, Kline's jealous rages and impromptu appearances in the most inappropriate places, are marvelous. It was really fun to see a true comedy which doesn't demand the lowest common denominator from us. Great movie.