The Man Who Knew Too Little is a 1997 spy comedy film starring Bill Murray, directed by Jon Amiel, and written by Robert Farrar and Howard Franklin.

Before the night begins, James hands Wallace a pair of Ambassador cigars, promising to "fire them up" before midnight in celebration of Wally's birthday.

Daggenhurst offers Wallace and Lori 3 million British pounds in return for the letters, to be exchanged at the same hotel where the dinner is taking place.

During the routine, he sees the Matryoshka doll bomb, unwittingly disarms it seconds before it goes off, blocks a poison dart from Boris with it, and steals the show with his improvised dancing.

Some time later, on an exotic beach, Wally unwittingly incapacitates a spy, passing a test by an unknown American espionage group.

[4] Released to theaters nationally and internationally on November 14, 1997, The Man Who Knew Too Little was financed by Regency Enterprises and distributed by Warner Bros.[5] On its opening weekend, the film grossed $4.6 million[3] and placed at the No.

[7] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times called The Man Who Knew Too Little "another movie high on concept and low on execution.

"[8] Gelder continued, "Yearning to combine the lunatic spirit of the Pink Panther, the panache of James Bond and the suspense of Hitchcock, this comedy turns out to be a one-joke movie executed in routine fashion [...] the plotting relies heavily on misinterpreted words, like ambassador (actually the cigars, not the envoys), port (the wine, not the harbor), gone (not dead but departed), that probably convey more humor on the page than on the screen."

Van Gelder concluded, "Neither an inspired physical comedian nor the beneficiary of clever lines, genuinely inventive situations or intensifying suspense, Murray rides through the silliness of 'The Man Who Knew to Little' mainly on a funnyman reputation established 13 years ago in 'Ghostbusters'".

An obvious takeoff on 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' – the name of the twice-filmed Alfred Hitchcock thriller (1934 and 1956) about an ordinary family plunged accidentally into international intrigue – the title is awkward, silly and unoriginal.

Despite a good cast and director (Jon Amiel of 'Sommersby' and TV's 'The Singing Detective')...the writers take a half-baked premise and clumsily retool it into a Murray vehicle.

Terminally unfunny, lazily unsuspenseful, uncertainly directed and full of good but stranded actors, [the film] isn't just a 'wrong man' comedy thriller.