The Man Who Knew Too Little: Difference between revisions

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'''Wallace:''' Enormously. "My dog is dead." ''[pokes himself in the eye]'' "My dog is ''dead''." }}

 

 

It should be noted that, beyond the <s>similar titles</s> title which is obviously a [[Shout-Out|reference]] (and [[Mistaken for Spies|superficial plot similarities]]), this film has nothing to do with Hitchcock's thriller ''[[The Man Who Knew Too Much]]''.

* [[And You Thought It Was a Game]]

* [[Anticlimax Cut]]: In one scene, Wallace tells Lori that he's not completely a good guy, that if she wants his help, she'll have to do something for him. The dialogue is set up to make the viewer think Wallace is talking about sex... then the scene cuts to Wallace driving Lori's Cooper Mini.

** For extra points, he uses a croquet mallet, which is what Jack Torrance used in the original novel.

* [[Balcony Escape]]: Wallace prefers doing this for the film because its much more dramatic than the more conventional method. Since he isn't that strong, he has trouble doing it.

* [[The Baroness]]: Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin averts the superficial aspects of the "evil torturer lady" stereotype. But Wallace's [[Wrong Genre Savvy|familiarity with that particular trope]] leads him to mistake the first septuagenerian dominatrix he meets for Dr. Kropotkin.

* [[Black Comedy]]: Referenced and played with. Wallace Ritchie is just having fun gawking at the elaborate "sets" and the performances of his fellow "actors", but Lori interprets his lighthearted demeanor around so much death and danger as a sign that he is an [[Lack of Empathy|emotionally-stunted]] hitman with a [[Laughably Evil|seriously depraved sense of humour]].

* [[Born Lucky]]: Wallace

* [[The Butcher]]: Boris Blavasky. In this case, it has a dual meaning- "Butcher" because his work as a spy/hitman is so brutal and messy, but also because "butcher" is ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|actually his day job]]''.

'''Boris''': I ''like'' being butcher. You know exactly who you are killing... and ''why''. }}

* [[Cleanup Crew]]: Averted. Boris wants to use his favorite "messy" interrogation technique, but his assistants dissuade him, because "It is fun for you, but ''we'' have to ''clean up'' afterward!"

* [[One Dialogue, Two Conversations]]: Ninety-four solid minutes of this trope.

* [[Performance Anxiety]]:

* [[Professional Killer]]: Spencer, Boris, and The Plumbers. All are Hitmen rather than Assassins.

* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: Viewing the events of the movie from the point of view of the actual spies can lead to a wildly different interpretation of Wallace. He comes off as an absurdly skilled (even by badass standards) rogue agent who is doing everything he does just for laughs, and that it's so easy for him, he can afford to goof around and just do whatever amuses him at the time. Among his many deeds include pretending like he's going to execute Lori, [[For the Evulz|for no reason whatsoever,]] playing with a dead body and applauding it for being so remarkably dead, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and running over traffic cones]] while fleeing assassins, simply because he's always wanted to do it and now seemed like a good time. Basically, to those not in on the joke (Everyone but Wallace), he might as well be the super-spy version of [[The Joker]].

* [[They Look Just Like Everyone Else]]: Wallace expects Dr. Kropotkin, the "evil torturer lady", to look the part. She doesn't.

* [[Truth Serum]]: Except [[Cassandra Truth|no one believes Wallace when he's under the influence]].

'''Boris the Butcher''': Damn! They train them so well! }}

* [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]]: Sir Roger and Sergai's motivation.

[[Category:The Man Who Knew Too Little]]

[[Category:Film]]