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Could this be the funniest film ever made?

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't - but a friend of mine, now a professor of chemistry, actually fell off his chair and rolled around in the aisles laughing. I didn't think that actually happened! John Cleese is perfect, Kevin Kline is perfect, Michael Palin is perfect, the comic timing is exquisite. Wonderful!

AQuick and to the point

'A Fish Called Wanda' accomplishes what many have not. A comedy with a rediculous premise, made believable by the casting. John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis and thier supporting actors are terrific. Just enough Monty Python.

Not Cleese's best

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.

Wonderful throwback to the Ealing comedies, and a wonderfully crafted film...

This is probably Cleese's best work, post-Python and post-Fawlty Towers. It's still hilarious today, and it has something that most modern comedies don't even come close too...consistency. Almost every joke works. There isn't a dull moment in the entire film. It is meticulously done by John Cleese and Charles Cricton. Cleese wrote the screenplay, and Crichton directed it. Crichton is best known for the great Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (which is a wonderful film starring Alec Guiness). I really like the digs that Cleese gets at the expense of Otto, here portrayed brilliantly by Kevin Kline. Kline is so reminiscent of the pseudo-intellectual babbling that permeates many parts of our society today. The scene where Wanda (Jaime Curtis) berates him for pissing off Archie Leach (Cleese's character, and Cary Grant's real name) is my favorite scene in the film. Jamie says the line "apes do read philosophy, Otto, they just don't understand it". Many read, many watch art films, important films, read big books, but don't understand a damn thing. But Otto is so naturally stupid that his pseudo-intellectualism is funnier.


All of the players here are excellent. Kline won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role (one of the few times a comedic performance won), and Palin is wonderful as K-K-K Ken (as Otto affectionately calls him), the killer who loves animals. The film gets a bit nasty, but then it's British, so this is to be expected. This film, despite a modern setting, is really reminiscent of Crichton's Ealing comedies, and I think that's what makes it very funny and special. There's a real craft at work here, and it makes all modern comedies look like amateur theatrics.

"Don't call me stupid..."

What a killer movie! It is utterly tasteless, completely un-PC, and wickedly funny. Kevin Kline is brilliant, and truly inspired. His devilish sense of humor is insane. When he pretends to be gay, it is an absolute riot, and the scene where Curtis yells at Kline is priceless. Kline truly deserved that Oscar, but the whole cast is inspired. I love how the movie ends

Was Ever a Better Comedy Made?

This is one of those comedies that literally have you bent over in laughter. What has become of comedies? I cannot believe people find Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey funny. I just do not get these guys, their "humor" and the ninnies who go see their films--and I have an excellent sense of humor.I will not re-hash the plot, but like to instead delve into the interesting nuances, especially Kevin Kline's performance. Was there ever a funnier performance in all of film than Kline's moronic assassin who reads Nietzche but is a Buddhist? I love at the beginning of the film, when he declares to his accomplices "England is a fine country!" and then quickly degenerates as the film progresses as a Brit-loathing Yank ("...the filth of the planet!")I've always thought that, for a serious actor like Kline, it's harder to play a comedic role than a serious one. His facial expressions are reasons enough to give him the Oscar, which he deservedly won. It was nice to see the Academy awarding a rare comedic role.There are so many funny scenes in this film, but one of the best for me was when Otto caught Archie robbing his own house, and then finally apologized to him (while Archie was unconscious, of course). Another great scene occurred when Otto was caught by Archie's wife Wendy in their house, and then tries to explain that he's in the CIA. Absolutely hilarious! Especially when Wendy, the perfectionist, uptight Brit can remember Otto's false name, Mr. Man-fred-jin-sin-jin.Michael Palin was a scream as the dog-loving thief with the worst stutter you ever heard! The scenes with Palin and Kline and between Kline and Cleese were the best in the film for me.But I suppose that without the script, none of this magic would have occurred. So I must praise the comic genius of John Cleese, whose classic "Fawlty Towers" is one of my favorites of all time.This is a great comedy to cheer you up when you're feeling blue, about the relationship between Yanks and our British cousins across the pond.

Hilarious film!

A Fish Called Wanda has got to be one of the funniest movies ever. It's got an amazing ensemble cast, with brilliant work by Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. There are too many memorable scenes from this film to mention here - my favorites are where Palin's character tries (repeatedly) to kill the old woman, and the "K-k-ken is c-c-coming to k-k-kill me!" bit. And the part where John Cleese cavorts naked around the apartment speaking Russian. Hilarious. That's the only word for it. I recommend watching this film very late at night with a bunch of other people - it makes it even more funny (if that's possible).

Don't Call This Movie Stupid

Michael Palin is the anti-PC, stuttering, animal rights activist, thief, and doggie hitman.

Jamie Lee Curtis is sexy (of course), devious, loveable, and a manipulation mastermind.

John Cleese is, well, John Cleese.

Kevin Kline won an Oscar for his work as a philosophy-reading/mangling, live-fish-eating, ex-CIA thug named Otto.

There's a plot involving stolen diamonds and plane tickets to Rio, but, really -- who cares? The joy is in watching four brilliant comic actors, who all obviously enjoy working with one another.

The joy, and the laughs, are infectious. Quite simply, "A Fish Called Wanda" is the funniest movie of the last 25 years.

3.5 stars out of 4

The Bottom Line:

A hilarious comedy which features a number of excellent comic turns (Kevin Kline was rightly rewarded with an Oscar), A Fish Called Wanda gets funnier upon multiple viewings and also--importantly--develops characters that we actually care a little about; all things considered, it's a supremely enjoyable film.

A Fish Called Wanda: 8/10

John Cleese and Michael Palin may be most famous for their Monty Python troupe, Jamie Lee Curtis for Halloween, and Kevin Kline for…being in movies, but one of their most memorable movies is the first one they did together. Which one? A Fish Called WandaCurtis is Wanda, part of a diamond group along with Ken (Palin), George Thomason (Tom Georgeson), and her brother Otto (Kline). They pull off a multi-million pound heist in England, and hide the loot. It seems, though, that Wanda and Otto (who aren't actually brother and sister but lovers) want it all for themselves. So they turn George into the police to try to find out where he hid the loot. It seems the only person George would have told about where the loot is would be his barrister Archie Leach (Cleese). So, naturally, Wanda goes up to him and becomes `friends' with him, much to the dismay of Otto.A Fish Called Wanda is a twistful and delightful comedy that shows the new sex comedies that they don't need gross body functions to be funny. I'm not saying this movie is completely tasteful. Ken, who is an animal lover, accidentally kills dogs. But, it's not too explicit.Most of the humor comes from Kline, who always shows up whenever Archie and Wanda are together, and who pretends he's gay and tries to get Ken. Some of those subplots, such as the gay one and Kline hating people that call him stupid, seem to not matter. But it is funny. Cleese's script is full of surprises. And most of these laughs were genuine, unlike the fakey ones from other movies. Who can forget Kline's shout whenever he's in the car? It is a memorable movie.Kline puts up his best comedic performance, and deserved his Oscar for best supporting actor. He has excellent comedic timing, always putting the joke on at the right time. He had great chemistry with everyone; it seemed to blend in with the lifestyles of the others. Curtis was excellent in a comedic role. Of course, Cleese and Palin are no strangers to comedy. Cleese seemed like a typical British person-stuck up and courteous. He actually talks about that during the film. Palin was great with a stutter that actually is an important part of the film.It seems that A Fish Called Wanda thinks itself as `bad' and `let's offend everyone!' However, it's one of the more tasteful comedies I've seen recently. Its jokes are almost always funny and tasteful, with Kline's trigger-happy attitude that explodes every once in a while. This group, that came back for 1997's Fierce Creatures, were excellent and they look like they had fun together. Which is good for them. However, after the first forty minutes or so, the humor kind of wavers and it becomes a little uneven. There are still jokes, of course, but not as rapid-fire as the ones before. But considering the humor of the film in its entirety, it could be considered a moot point.A Fish Called Wanda is a very hilarious comedy that you'll remember for a while, and looks like it can stick up for repeated viewings, because there are so many jokes you'll forget a lot of them.My rating: 8/10Rated R for language and comic violence and sexuality.

A True Masterpiece Of Comedy

This film is brilliant. I have watched this film time and time again and I will continue to.
The casting of the film is ingenious, they all compliment each other. One of the best scenes out of the film has to be when John Cleese's character and his fellow python Michael Palin. A sense of urgency yet to say one line it took three minutes. This film is comedy at its best.
If aliens came down and wanted to know what comedy is like I would show them this! I give this wonderful film 9.7 out of 10

A Chip Up the Old Nostril

A wicked Ealing Comedy about twenty-five years after producer Michael Balcom stopped making them, "Wanda" is the inspired brainchild of John Cleese and director Charles Crichton (who directed such Ealing classics as "The Lavendar Hill Mob"). One part caper, one part sexy romance, two parts farce, three parts black humor, and altogether delightful. Even the actors with the smallest roles are hilarious, and the four principals--Cleese and Palin (the Brits), Curtis and Kline (the Yanks)--are gloriously funny. The Deluxe Edition is brimming with outtakes, commentary, and all that's needed to justify the price. But remember: "Don't call [him] stupid."

A movie to be admired for the cast, definitely not the plot.

It's funny how a certain movie that one person may find fantastic will not illicit the same response in another person. Such is the case with this movie. I know of several people who rank this as one of the best comedies ever made. I don't feel that way, although I do think Wanda had some funny MOMENTS , there is no way I would call the movie as a whole, a perfect comedy. Not even close.Wanda contains a few absolutely hysterical -flawlessly hysterical moments but not a lot quite honestly, and the movie is one to be admired but more for the cast then the plot. I think Kevin Kline's performance was, in the comedic sense as good as it gets. In fact the movie was cast near perfectly. However, this is the type of movie that starts off funny, progressively gets funnier then starts whittling down in sheer funniness and goes into left field into stupidity.I think that maybe because the movie's funniest scenes take place near the beginning and middle so by the end nothing else can measure up. Can anybody watching this REALLY think that:SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH POST!!The scenes where Kevin Kline eats the fish and the scene where he and Archie tussle in the airport can't hold up against the sex scene with Jaime Lee(Wanda) and the Italion Cheeze talk(which really was hysterical, I gotta say!)? The humor was so good in the beginning and middle, by the end it seemed played out and tired-and I'm sorry but eating fish and nosebleeds wasn't that funny to me, it was kind of disgusting. Just my opinion.Although Wanda was OK as a movie(at times) I really don't think it's a classic comedy. The pureness of the comedy wasn't there, it was redundant by the end of the movie. Way to much cruel humor toward the end too, which frankly, was so unpleasant, it takes the movie down at least a few points on the scale for me with that alone. But I will give Kevin Kline a perfect 10 in terms of his acting. It's one of those movies I don't think was really good but I will remember for certain funny MOMENTS. And like I said, it was a perfectly cast movie if not a really good one and the acting was really good by all. Still, would never make it as my top comedy and as a whole I wouldn't rate this higher then a 4 and that's at most.

One of the best "Post-PYTHON" comedies ever done...

Great comedies are difficult to write, and nearly impossible to pull off. All the right elements have to come together, and when they do, it must be a scenario that will keep people laughing time and again. Most comedies can never stand up to that kind of a test upon repeated viewings.Happily, though, "A FISH CALLED WANDA" is one of those rare and brilliant exceptions. Post-Python affairs have been wildly hit and miss at best, with everything from TIME BANDITS to ERIK THE VIKING coming from Terry Gilliam (who does better at offbeat dramas) and the remaining former members of the immortal troupe.With "WANDA," Cleese and company managed to get everything right. The casting, script and droll direction by vet Charles Crichton all mesh perfectly, and at the heart of the film is an absolute jewel of a comedic performance by Kevin Kline. The Academy even got it right for once by handing him the Best Supporting Actor award that year. Now if only the picture had won...The best situation comedies come from the most deceptively simple plots, and this one keeps it basic...at first. American criminals Wanda (Curtis) and Otto (Kline) join forces with George (Georgeson) and Ken (Palin) to pull off a daring jewel heist. All goes well, until the double and triple crosses start flying, and an English barrister (Cleese) suddenly becomes an important factor in deciding who will end up with the loot and the booty (meaning Wanda's!)Jamie Lee Curtis' va-va-va-VOOM performance is tempered by her smart-as-a whip rendering of Wanda, proving that she's smarter than almost all of her male counterparts. There are brains beyond the breasts, and she's not above using either, or even both at the same time! This was one of the big roles that helped her break out of scream-queen hell, (and she hammered the point home again in TRUE LIES.)John Cleese did the smartest thing of all by writing a sharply drawn character for himself as the hapless barrister Archie Leech. Rather than simply fall back on a Pythonesque caricature of a well-bred English stick-in-the-mud, he shows us the heart and desires behind the facade, which makes him funnier and definitely more interesting. His compatriot Michael Palin has always been a whiz at conjuring up more from less, and though Ken gets about a fourth less screen time as his comrades, his stutter and his stamina make him memorably funny indeed.And then there's Kevin. Wacky, slapstick performances are extremely difficult to portray as natural, and as a result only very few comedians can pull it off, let alone actors. But Kline is that rare commodity: an actor capable of doing physical comedy, and not once do you catch his Otto trying to "be funny." As infuriating, egotistical, bigoted, petulant, childish and clueless as he is, he can't help but be hilarious in every frame. Tom Green, take notes. You don't actually have to go out and annoy people in real life to be funny.This is an essential addition to the comedy section of your home VHS or DVD library. In fact, just pretend that FIERCE CREATURES doesn't exist.

A Great Screwball Comedy

A great screwball comedy of which Carole Lombard herself would be proud. John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin - they are absolutely brilliant in their interactions with each other and their naturalness in doing so. Even little details, like Curtis with hair remover on her upper lip and her hair in curlers, make the viewer feel like they are watching from a window. The side-splitting scenes are frequent, Cleese dancing in the nude, Kline shouting "K-K-K-K-K-Ken is c-c-c-oming to k-k-kill me!" left me wanting more. I was disappointed in the sequel but will always treasure this first one.

A Fish Called MGM

First, let me agree with others: this is a "bare bones" DVD with marginal sound, so-so visuals and virtually no special features. Write your concerns to MGM.

Well, I guess that leaves the "content" and (sorry to say?) it's well worth it.

You get, for your money, some of the best comedic performances from some of the most gifted comic actors of the last century. John Cleese is perfectly cast as a proper Brit who get sucked into Kevin Kline's impulse management issues. If British people are represented by Cleese and Americans by Kline, here are some conclusions:

1. Cleese and Kline - make a great law firm??
2. Brits are really staightlaced but quite sexy.
3. Americans are completely unhinged, but effective.
4. Neither seem to have much regard for animal rights.
5. But, we're assured, none were harmed in the making of...
6. Brits use steamrollers well.
7. Jamie Leigh Curtis looked awesome.

Yeah, the last one is shallow, but man, is it true...

The funniest rom-com ever

Four jewel thieves pull off the heist of a lifetime, and immediately begin screwing each other over for the loot. Full of twists and turns and some of truly wonderful performances combine to create one of the funniest farces to be put on screen. This movie won Kevin Kline the best supporting actor Oscar. It also enjoyed 6 other wins and 15 nominations, and deservedly so!This is the funniest rom-com ever made. Totally wonderful performances from a star-studded comedic cast showcase this huge hit from 1988. The sheer class of this production was perpetuated by the seeming comfort with one another exhibited by these actors. It appeared as though they really were fast friends, lovers, would-be lovers, and has-been lovers. While the production itself was suspenseful and witty, the relationships were relaxed and easy and played out just as if they were real.Kevin Kline was delightful as the psychotic, sex-crazed, boot-sniffing, insanely jealous lover. He was completely believable in this inventive role as Jamie Lee Curtis' diabolical lover, pretending to be her brother, pretending to be interested in Ken.John Cleese's character was soft and sweet, and totally endearing, while Jamie Lee Curtis (AKA: Wanda) demonstrated pure talent as the obvious, borderline Machiavellian seductress. There wasn't one moment of wasted film, one mis-timed scene, or one lapse in performance quality. Every comedy should aim for the standards set in this work.These types of movies either have it, or they don't. There are no effects behind which to hide poor performances. There is no glitz to disguise a lack of talent or comedic timing. There is simply the actor and the camera. Nothing to color the performances but the director and the score. These types of vehicles are where you discover the true talent of the ages.It rates a 9.2/10 from...the Fiend :.

Offensive language

I got this video because I was told that it was funny.
I did not find it funny. The language was very offensive.
I couldn't count the many times the f-word was used.
I am surprised that John Cleese did that film. He doesn't
have to be crude to be funny. I would not recommend it
to anyone.

The Double-Dip

This movie is absolutely, positively deserving of a double-dip. The first disc that came out was not only non-anamorphic, it was pan & scan. The movie should have never been released in that format to begin with.

splendid, outstanding old chap

Now here is a movie one should have seen. It's simply great. It is obvious that you can leave it up to Cleese to write a comedy, in style of Fawlty Towers and a glimp of Monty Python. I think that Ken could not have been played by any other man than Palin. It's as if his stuttering and yet expertise in robberies are like second nature. All characters in th emovie have a sort of natural thing about them. the way they meet and their behaviour. I must admit that this was the first movie I saw with Jamie Lee after Halloween and I could not believe it, she had grown, and she played her part so well, the sexy girl with a brain, ofcourse only for selfimprovement. And Kline is at his best as the, don't call me stupid, brother (?). I love it how he tries to keep Wanda for himself while she is trying to get rid of everyone. Anyway this movie is one of the greatest comedies ever written, as I mentioned before comparible with Mont Python and Maybe, but that's totally my opinion, Wayne's World. So here's to You Mr. Cleese, well done old chap.