Bill Murray is a funny guy, but he can only do so much to try to save a picture. Just ask anyone who saw "Kingpin."
Still, he gives it the old college try in "Larger Than Life." and he does manage to inject some solid laughs here and there.
Most of the way, however, this is just another soft-and-squishy, not-very-funny family picture about a guy who gets stuck with an elephant as he tries to get him from point A to point Z.
And if you've seen very many of these pictures — from Oliver Hardy in "Zenobia" (1939) to Burt Reynolds in "Smokey and the Bandit II" (1980) to last year's "Operation Dumbo Drop" — you know they have too many elephant jokes and run out of steam too soon.
Which begs the question: Why did Murray and his buddy, director Howard Franklin ("Quick Change"), think they could make it anything more?
The by-the-numbers first-time screenplay, by humorist Roy Blount Jr., casts Murray well as a repressed motivational speaker. Though effective on the lecture circuit, his life is a mess — he can't seem to break free from his prissy fiancee or smothering mother.
During his engagement party, Murray is opening congratulatory telegrams when he comes across one that says his father has died. Since his mother told him his father died years before, it's a bit of a shock — especially as he realizes that he knows nothing about him.
So Murray flies off to collect his inheritance and try to find out more — only to discover that Dad was a circus clown and left him his only possession, an elephant named Vera.
Murray is on a deadline, of course — the most important speaking engagement of his career is right around the corner. So he tries to get Vera across the country to sell her to either a sympathetic big-animal handler (Janeane Garofalo) whose budget is blown or a manipulative circus star (played by unbilled Linda Fiorentino) who is offering more money. You guess which way he goes in the end.
Along the way, Murray meets the usual weirdos, capped by an all-stops-out, zany performance from . . . of all people . . . Matthew McConaughey, the up-and-coming hunk from "A Time to Kill." He's certainly hyper, but only intermittently funny.
The rest of the cast — including the usually reliable Garofalo — just don't have anything to do.
Murray gets lots of comic business, however, and his antics — much of which feel ad-libbed — are often very funny. Sadly, as with the rest of the film, it's hit and miss — with far too many misses.
There is a nice little moment early on when, during his engagement party, Murray feels cloistered by all the attention and slips away. His fiancee goes looking for him and discovers he's in a bedroom, being playful with a young boy. That tells us a lot about the character — and the tug he feels to break out of his stuffy life.
Too bad the moment isn't played up and that there aren't more.
"Larger Than Life" is rated PG for comic violence, a couple of profanities and a few vulgar gags.