Larger Than Life (1996): Dir: Howard Franklyn / Cast: Bill Murray, Matthew McConaughey, Janeane Garofalo, Linda Fiorentino, Keith David: Has there ever been a comedy starring Bill Murray that contained fewer laughs than this? Title refers to an elephant as well as expectations, hopes and dreams. Dreary plot regards a man who learns that his father was a circus clown and has left him an elephant in his will. He receives two offers and struggles to get it across country. Much of this is boring routine road movie storytelling directed by Howard Franklin with overuse of fade out shots. Viewers will likely find watching elephants on wildlife programs to be more entertaining. Other than the elephant there is nothing new or interesting here. Bill Murray is at the mercy of laughless material. He not only lugs this sorry elephant around but he also drags around a script that should be shoved up the elephant's anal track. Matthew McConaughey is foolish as a crazed truck driver who gets himself into trouble by just doing what nobody in the audience would think of doing. Janeane Garofalo and Linda Fiorentino play contacts. Garofalo is true blue to the elephant's needs while Fiorentino isn't so upfront about it. Either way both roles are cardboard. Animal rights theme stranded within horrible road movie clichés and a screenplay that isn't so large. Score: 1 / 10

The over-riding problem with this film is that it can't possibly use Bill Murray to the best of his abilities, simply because of the co-star.If this was a road movie with another comedic actor, it might work. Even if they were both trying to get the elephant across the country, it would at least allow for them to share some amusing dialogue. As it stands, Murray is left talking to an elephant who cannot answer back with witty banter. Essentially, it means that Murray is talking to himself, and this makes the film more boring than it could have been had he had another character to bounce off.Kids would enjoy this movie,simply because of the elephant, but anyone wanting to watch Bill Murray's biting delivery and enjoy an excellent script needs to look somewhere else.

LTL is the kind of formulaic, hopeless comedy to be enjoyed by the sort of sheep that stop and listen when they come across a band playing in a shopping mall.I remember Murray promoting LTL on Larry King's crappy CNN show, where he said something like "if this movie doesn't become a hit I'll stop making movies (or comedies)". He wasn't being nearly as jovial as one might think; he must have felt that LTL was a sure-fire hit and that its failure would mean his status as a star had markedly fallen - hence a sort-of ultimatum live-on-air to his fans to spend their hard-earned money on a dumb elephant comedy. (The comedy being dumb, not the elephant...) Or maybe he simply realized during the shooting (or when he saw the final cut) what a turkey this was, so he tried desperately to convince everyone how much optimism he had regarding LTL's quality. "Go see it, it really is good!" Actors are prostitutes inter-bred with car salesmen.LTL is the sort of lousy project that comes from the "Friends" school of comedy; their motto: "If you ever run out of ideas - or if you never had any in the first place - then stick an animal into the plot and that will at least inject an element of cuteness". Cuteness = a sad substitute for lack of funny gags. The other motto "Friends" had was: "always include pointless, dull sentimentality", which this movie so predictably ends with, when Murray rather pathetically says: "what they forgot to tell you is that you never forget an elephant". Maybe not an elephant, but I certainly managed to easily forget this turkey, which I saw many years ago. I was suddenly reminded of it when I saw a scene from it on TV today (hence this equally pointless review).Murray wastes his talent on this turkey (disguised as an elephant), but he isn't nearly as uninteresting/bad as McConaughey (or however that man's name is spelt); one would think that M.M. would have an easy time playing himself, i.e. a hick, but he is so painfully unfunny and unconvincing that I could barely stand to watch him make such a jackass out of himself. It was cringe-worthy. To round off this nonsense, we have that generation-X buffoon, Garofalo, in a rather useless role. Then again, everything about LTL is useless...After LTL, which bombed as far as I know, Murray went on to become more of a "serious actor". What is it with these comedians and their inferiority complex? Is it all just about getting awards, i.e. "recognition from their peers" (read: votes from their moron colleagues)? This piece of crap marked the end of a string of good and great movies Murray made in the early- and mid-90s, such as "Groundhog Day", "Quick Change", "Mad Dog & Glory", "Kingpin", "What about Bob?" and "Ed Wood". Recently we've had the immeasurable pleasure of seeing him in garbage/mediocrities such as "Hamlet", "Lost In Translation" (you just can't get away from these "ultra-talented Coppolas"), and "Broken Flowers". Compare those two batches.One guy described LTL "funny as heck". Now THAT'S the kind of audience this movie was hoping for... Shopping malls and trailer parks...

I thought it was Great, as an animal film and as a comedy. I laughed for the bulk of it, and nearly cried at the end (it's nothing near drama, I'm just weird). Perhaps it got a little sappy at times, but never 'so-sappy-you-could-die' and was never vulgar, hurray! I suppose I could go into all the themes and merits of this movie, but I'll just suggest you go see it.