A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Want to see it?

Seen it?

0
1
2
3
4
5
Rate this movie.

Buy it now on DVD

Starting at $15.22

Want to buy it?

Write a review

Discuss it

Add to lists

Recommend it

Get recommendations

Watch trailer

Directed by Charles Crichton.

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, John Cleese, Michael Palin.

Watch trailer

In A Fish Called Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis plays an ambitious con artist who uses every ounce of her sexual wiles to obtain a fortune in jewels stolen by her gangster lover Tom Georgeson. First, she romances Georgeson's dimwitted but deadly henchman Kevin Kline (who won an Academy Award for his performance). Then, to clear the path for her getaway with Kline, Jamie woos Georgeson's starched-shirt attorney, John Cleese -- and it's Cleese whom she genuinely falls in love with. Michael Palin, Cleese's former Monty Python cohort, plays a stuttering mob flunkey who continually messes up his one big assignment: killing a little old lady (it isn't that he has any qualms about knocking off the old dear; it's just that her pet dogs keep getting in the way). A Fish Called Wanda was scripted by star John Cleese. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

[more]

Reviews and discussions

The Golden Globe Backlash Is th ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"It’s so easy to criticize the Academy Awards’ ignorance of the merits of comedy (even if such criticism is unfounded), but the Golden Globes have rarely been so deserving of scrutiny in their exclusion of the funny business. After all, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association actually has a category for best comedies of the year. Sure, the genre is still considered second fiddle to drama and has to share its category with musicals (which are sometimes musical dramas), but at least we know there’s a place that honors Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Crocodile Dundee as one of its year’s best pictures (thank goodness for the musical-less ’80s!). The problem is, now that the musical genre is back in (near) full force, comedies are not getting as much recognition, even in their own (shared) category. Following the Globe nominees yesterday, there was a good deal of complaining going on that Knocked Up wasn’t one of the Best Motion Picture Musical ... " [More]

Your overrated list
by Risselada in Totally Over-rated

lost interest.

"Swingers's detail pageI thought I wouldn't like participating in this group at first because it get's frustrating complaining about movies, but I can't seem to hold myself back. Puhnner, you asked me to list some of my overrated movies, referring to my definition of overrated by ratio. Well I'm not sure if this is going by the same criteria, but I've come up with a list from another source. I also rate movies at the website movielens. It will give you recommendations based on your ratings and whatnot. It also gives some interesting statistics. For one, it tells me which movies I have rated the lowest compared to the average rating on their site. So I have looked at that list and picked several of them. The thing about this method is that I am not using what my impression of the ammount of acclaim a movie has received for the ratio but rather what the ammount of acclaim a website thinks a movie has based on the votes from it's users. Some of t ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

One of the best black comedies of the 1980s, A Fish Called Wanda revels in poking fun at stereotypes: neither British nor Americans are ever completely off the hook. Representing the Yanks, Jamie Lee Curtis finally received a role worthy of her ample comic sensibilities, and Kevin Kline's antagonistic wackiness secured him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. For the Brits, scene-stealer Michael Palin and lead/co-scripter John Cleese display a wit and spontaneity not seen since their Monty Python years. Co-writer/director Charles Crichton had previously proven his skills with the classic 1951 crime farce The Lavender Hill Mob, and Wanda is every bit the classic that film was. Lampooning as many sacred cows as it does, Wanda is bound to put off some viewers; but it's hard to take too much offense at a film where all the characters eventually get theirs. ~ Matthew Doberman, All Movie Guide

Tags: comedy , british , heist , kevinkline , johncleese
View all