It's rare that there's a movie that came out in my 20s that I didn't know about, but this is one of them. A Bill Murry comedy from 1997 that was completely unknown to me feels odd, and when it came across my desk at the library, I immediately checked it out to myself. And while this isn't top tier Murray, it's still extremely watchable.
Murray is a tourist in London, visiting his well-off brother who is too busy to celebrate his brother's birthday, instead signing Murray up for the latest theater craze to hit London...an audience participation event which sticks you right into the middle of a story. The show starts when you receive a call at a phone booth, giving you a name an address. But what happens when you show up early and answer the wrong call? In Murray's case, you unknowingly find yourself caught up in a Cold War style spy game.
In many ways, this movie is ahead of its time. The concept of meta story didn't really take off for another five to ten years. This movie forces you to continuously remind yourself that Murray's character is completely unaware that everything he is experiencing is real and not part of the theater he signed up for. The absurd premise is what makes this slap slick style comedy work.
Certainly not a movie one should feel guilty for never seeing, but definitely one to watch when you got nothing else to watch.
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