Shooting Fish (1998)

I love this movie so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is the tale or two orphans with ambitions; as children geeky Jez dreamt of living in a stately home and brash American Dylan was already thinking of ways to make money. When they get together it looks as if they might just accomplish their dreams. Their methods are less then legal though as they plot to scam the wealthy out of their money. To help with one of their scams they employ the beautiful Georgie as their secretary; inevitably she quickly realises they are conmen but falls for their story about raising money for a home for orphans… to be fair it is true but she doesn't realise the orphans concerned are Jez and Dylan. Inevitably the two of them eventually caught and while inside they learn that all £50 notes are being recalled and their ill-gotten gains will be worthless… they will have to trust Georgie with the money… not realising that she has a pressing need for two million pounds; just what they have!I first saw this film years ago and couldn't remember much about it but vaguely recall enjoining it so decided to buy the DVD when I saw it at a bargain price. I'm glad I did as it was a lot of fun; it may be silly in places and the ending is overly sentimental but there are some laugh out loud moments along the way… the inflatable dolls in the crematorium were priceless!!! Dan Futterman and Stuart Townsend do fine jobs as Dylan and Jez and Kate Beckinsale is a delight as Georgie. The rest of the cast features quite a few well known British actors; including the new Doctor Who Peter Capaldi in a small roll. I like the fact that the creators didn't feel that just because it is set in London they would have to show all the landmarks that so many films do. Overall this film is a lot of fun… I'm glad I decided to watch it again.

As many people have mentioned on this page SHOOTING FISH had a lot of potential as it centered around loud mouthed American Dylan and geeky Englishman Jez who are a couple of scam artists . We British have a sort of sneaking respect for these type of con artists ( As long as they con other people of course ) and there's a lot of room for explosive comedy potential as we see Dylan revealing a new type of computer word processor that has a volcabury of hundreds of thousands of words in its database so I sat back ready to enjoy this British comedy but halfway through I was bored senseless It's very obvious what went wrong . Director and co-writer Stefan Schwartz has decided that a laddish comedy will only appeal to 50% of a potential audience so has made a movie that will also appeal to fans of soppy romance by introducing a love triangle featuring Dylan , Jez and Georgie . Unfortunately SHOOTING FISH will ONLY appeal to fans of soppy romance which probably makes up 3% of the audience . This actually seems to be a problem with Schwartz as his future films like THE ABDUCTION CLUB and THE BEST MAN also feature soppy romance in abundance. Fair enough if you want to make a gooey rom com then go ahead but make sure the central premise allows it . Watching very patchy funny scenes like " LESLEY IS DEAD MAN " convinced me that this would have worked without the lovey dovey stuff which seems to have been shoehorned in and it's this that brings the film down Interesting trivia point about Stefan Schwartz : He once had a walk on part in Battlefield , my least favourite DOCTOR WHO story

Poor acting. Poor directing. "Humor" that is weakly attempted and trite, not the English wit that I am used to - not once did I laugh, although half the lines in the movie are intended to make one do so. The plot is ridiculous, which I assume is intended to make for a zany romp, but it's not creative or inspired enough to justify its lack of plausibility. The "charismatic" actors are without charm and give uninspired performances to roles with good deal of potential. The music in some scenes is almost as dull and inappropriately chosen as the female lead, who is about as dull and inappropriate as you can get.All in all, the whole thing seems thrown together by a pair of adolescent males who were told by their $60-for-three-weeks scriptwriting class instructor that they were "talented" and so decided to go off and write and direct their own movie. This flick tries and fails at every turn to be cute. It is so bad it made me go through the IMDB.com registration process, in the hopes that I can save just one of you from having to watch it.Remember, just because your girlfriend tells you she thinks your script is cute, and that "you're so creative, you should become a filmmaker," it doesn't mean its true!

I have seen this film so many times and never get sick of it. The casting is brilliant with Dan Futterman and Stuart Townsend in fantastic performances.The plot is quite original following Dylan and Jez - two English con artists who are tricking people out of their money by selling voice recognition computers and other false devices. They need two million dollars to buy the house they never had - having grown up as orphaned children. On one of their scams they employ a secretary and medical student named Georgie, who is convinced they are raising money for an orphans project. This adds romantic themes into the story to make it even more entertaining. A stand out is the interesting relationship that Dylan and Jez have with each other, Dylan being the fast talking American and Jez being the British techno genius. I recommend 'Shooting Fish' to all movie-goers. It has a great soundtrack, is funny, romantic, creative and a great achievement for British filmmaking.