A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Genre: Comedy, Funny Funny
Source: TV (IFC)



I have this book called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and I pretty much consider it my every-genre movie bible. It's not just comprised of the classic "great" movies (Citizen Kane, Casablanca etc.) but it also contains many hidden gems, really cheesy horrible movies that you must see, and movies that just make you warm and fuzzy inside. A lot of the movies I continue to review will be out of this book, considering it is my goal to watch all 1001. Unfortunately, I have only seen 183 of these films to date, including the one I am writing about right now.
I love movies from the 80's, and I love British humor. Put two and two together...i love A Fish Called Wanda! This movie has a great line up including Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese and Kevin Kline. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Wanda, a woman who pretty much uses her sex appeal to find the hiding spot of $20 million dollars worth of diamonds. She not only tricks every man in her path to fall in love with her, but in the end she eventually gets what she wants and then some. While on her journey, she ends up falling in love with a lawyer named Archie (John Cleese) who also happens to be one of her many victims and the lawyer of her partner in the jewel heist. What really pulls me in about this film is the diversity of humor in it. This film is filled with everything from classic american comedy, to dry british humor. It contains characters that stutter every word (very Monty Python esque) and characters that eat pet fish out of a tank and use it as a bribing mechanism (Kevin Kline was so great in this part. Not only was he extremely funny and insulting, but he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role). This film is definitely one of the better films I have reviewed so far and now I understand why it is in my "Movie Bible".

Side note: is Kevin Kline Italian? I will bet anyone that they cast him in I Love You To Death after seeing him with his italian accent in this film. This is the second movie i've seen with Kevin Kline and the second time he shows off this thick accent! He either spent a lot of time in Italy or channeled Mario.

I Love You to Death (1990)

Genre: Comedy, Dark Comedy
Source: Online (watch instantly)



I've been wanting to watch this movie for a very long time. Why you ask? Well, because River Phoenix is in it! So, instead of doing something important like homework, I started watching this on Netflix. Kevin Kline plays a stereotypical, Italian immigrant (who sounds like Mario) named Joey Bucca. He has it all, his own pizza place, lovely wife and family, and oh ya, he likes to have sex with almost every woman that crosses his path. Once his naive wife, played by Tracey Ullman catches on to his habits, she decides that killing him is a better option than divorce. As the film goes on, we realize that it's almost impossible to kill him! This is where hilarity ensues. River Phoenix plays the new age, hippy bus boy in love with Rosalie (Tracey Ullman) and does a wonderful job of doing it. Phoenix was one of those actors who was so versatile, he was convincing in every part.
I think this is a great dark comedy with very few flaws. I also believe it's a film that has definitely been overlooked. Not only do all the actors actually give a good performance, but they are funny while doing it. You almost feel sorry for Tracey Ullman and you catch yourself moving back and forth between wanting Joey Bucca to just die already, but at the same time you want him to live longer in anticipation of the next method of murder that will be attempted. If you ever decide to see this movie and you don't have Netflix, good luck finding it in the video store. It's sad this movie isn't in a wider distribution and syndicated on cable. I can think of a few movies they could replace with this one on TV *cough every movie they play on TNT cough*