Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 44 Ratings

  • Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese
  • Summary: In this zany comedy, four disparate characters (Cleese, Curtis, Kline, Palin) attempt a daring jewel heist.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. I laughed so hard, my eyes watered. I laughed so loud, I lost track of whether anyone else was laughing. I laughed so much, I ached afterwards. [29 July 1988, Daily Notebook, p.E1]
  2. Reviewed by: Hal Erickson
    80
    If it is indeed possible for a film to be both stylish and tasteless, then A Fish Called Wanda certainly fills the bill.
  3. Reviewed by: Staff(not credited)
    60
    With British-American culture clash as its dominant theme, A Fish Called Wanda bristles with wit, enlivened by delightfully over-the-top ensemble acting.
  4. The dialogue reports funny things instead of showing them. The movie remains in a limbo halfway between the informed anarchy of Monty Python comedy stripped of all social and political satire, and the comparatively genteel comedy of "The Lavender Hill Mob." [15 July 1988, p.C8]

See all 17 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. AMulroneycakesCalledGilbert
    10
    Hmm...I didn't find it as funny as everyone else on the planet, but that's probably me. Certainly when I did find it funny I found it uproarious, and that's good enough. 1010 for common consensus. Expand
  2. 10
    This is a very well written and often very funny film which doesn't let-up for a second. Cleese, Palin, Kline and Lee-Curtis are magnificent as Precarious, Sexy, Disconnected and Chaotic (you can probably match them up if you've never seen this film before). The fact that two are American and two are English gives the film a clashing, tasty quality that I can't remember seeing anywhere else. Though never all in the same room at the same time, they all rub up against each other at some point in brilliantly positioned scenes that frequently have me in stitches. The roots of this film come from the old English comedies of the 1950's but this is firmly set in the 1980's within the very ordinary and everyday. This all adds to the charm beneath the madness. Gone in 60 Seconds this is not - more bumbling motorbikes than shiny super cars and it is all the better for it. Standouts are too many to mention but I would have to say that Kevin Kline's Otto steals just about every scene he bursts into. He adds more than a bit to the out-of-control element throughout what feels like a series of set-pieces. All useful set-pieces though which flow together as one shimmering crime caper. Not a second is ever wasted. It has been said that someone died of laughter while watching this. If I was to die while watching anything, A Fish Called Wanda would be perfect. Classic English humor with an American twist, this continues to be my favorite comedy of all time. Collapse
  3. This was just pure comedy, what happen to comedy nowadays. This movie was amazing, well written, with good dialogues between the characters, it kept the public interested, and they sure did select the perfect cast for this movie, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, John Cleese and Michael Palin were able to do everything in the movie, but they completely smashed it in the comedy scenes, so freaking funny, and therefore the result was pretty damn good. Expand
  4. Hardly a Monty Python vehicle, but its remnants, Cleese and Palin has brought forth perhaps their best work so far (including the python period), a contemporary satire homing in the UK/USA self-mocking kernel, with their US counterparts, Curtis and Kline. Entertaining to its very core, the crime-light, pratfall-heavy comedy ingenuously spikes British humor in its comparatively foolhardy story of a manipulative woman Expand

See all 10 User Reviews