Larger Than Life

With the warmth of Elliott Davis' cinematography and The Band and the Staple Singers on the score, Larger Than Life has much that's appealing for an older, old-fashioned crowd.

Larger Than Life isn't as bad as it sounds, mostly because Murray is so likable and fundamentally incapable of not being funny.

Not terribly funny, but the intimations of an older, saltier America in the picaresque plot make this watchable.

Disgracing itself only with McConaughey's over-extended bit as a psychotic trucker, the film delivers more or less comfortably on what you'd expect, then sits down for a rest.

Although the screenplay by Roy Blount Jr. comes up with some potentially sidesplitting situations, the director, Howard Franklin, who shepherded Mr. Murray through the equally limp Quick Change six years ago, methodically subverts them.

Not much happens of comic consequence. [01 Nov 1996, p.D5]

One might think that a movie featuring Bill Murray, Matthew McConaughey, Janeane Garofalo and an elephant couldn't be all that bad. Think again. This is a terrible, terrible movie.