What About Bob? Reviews

Hey everyone, I'm back with my first review in many months. This time I will give my two cents on What About Bob?. Now, after Frank Oz directed one of the greatest movies of the 80's (perhaps all time), I was hoping this to be of similar quality. Was it so? Not quite.

On one hand, if any other movie had a character like Bob, they would come off as annoying and unsympathetic. But the writing in this one doesn't take that low road as Bob seems no worse than pitiable for the most part. And while it treats the subject of mental illness with tact (including a 12-year-old boy's thanatophobia), it also loses grounding in reality as the movie progresses. On the other hand, the comedy can be really funny. Bill Murray as the title character made me laugh a good number of times. This alone would make it worth a watch.

I think it's a movie people should see at least once. Although sharp in a few places, the movie might be an acquired taste for some.

My rating: 7.5/10

Even though Frank Oz is not really an amazing director, I always had a weak spot for his movies so I was really eager to check this one out. Before his career took a new turn with movies such as 'Broken Flowers', 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', 'Lost in Translation' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums', Bill Murray was mostly famous for such laugh-out-loud performances. In this movie, I thought he was once again pretty good and made me laugh more than once. I also enjoyed Richard Dreyfuss who gave a pretty good performance as the straight guy slowly getting crazy. Together, they had a great chemistry. Unfortunately, even though the concept (a deranged man stalks his psychatrist while he is on holiday) was pretty good, they didn't really develop it and just used it as an excuse to throw as many jokes as possible. As a result, the whole thing is really entertaining but also rather predictable and it never reaches its full potential. It could have been even better if they went into darker territories instead of playing it safe all the way. Still, it remains a solid and mostly funny comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Bill Murray's work.