Larger Than Life

Plot synopsis:
The film opens at a convention of recliner salesmen, where Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) gives a motivational speech based on his book Get Over It. Jack shares the example of his father dying before he was born as a difficult circumstance that must be overcome to succeed. At Jack's engagement party, his agent (Jeremy Piven) updates him on all of his upcoming speaking engagements, and the pair hope that one of the engagements is high profile enough to lead to an infomercial.
As the party winds down, Jack reads telegrams from well wishers. One of the telegrams is from an attorney in Baltimore about the large estate of his recently deceased father Kirk. Jack's mother, Vera, shortly admits that she lied about his father's death. In truth, she left him because she felt he would be a bad example for Jack.
The attorney in Baltimore shows Jack a contract which mentions $35,000. Thinking this is the size of his father's estate, Jack signs the contract. In fact, it is the amount of property damage that the attorney has suffered because of Vera, Kirby's elephant. Vera and Kirby were a traveling circus act, and she is a highly trained elephant. Kirby left a note for Jack that instructed him to call "Blockhead" in Kansas City if there are any problems with Vera. Jack contacts Mo (Janeane Garofalo) at the San Diego Zoo, who happens to be transporting a herd of elephants to Sri Lanka in a few days. She helps Jack ascertain that Vera is a breeding age female, and she agrees to pay $30,000 for the elephant.
Jack and Vera board a train bound for San Diego, but the conductor (Keith David) insists on a bribe. Jack's $600 only gets them as far as Kansas City, where he looks up Blockhead, who is an old circus buddy of Kirby's. Blockhead shows Jack the extent of Vera's training, including a photo of Vera standing on her hind legs, which was a trick that she would only do for Kirby. He puts Jack onto an animal trainer in Los Angeles named Terry Bonura (Linda Fiorentino) who works in show business. Terry offers Jack $40,000 for Vera. So, he and Blockhead attempt to drive to L.A., but his truck breaks down. Jack rents a semi-truck and continues on his own. With no experience driving a big rig, Jack blows out the transmission.
Stuck at a truck stop, he encounters Tip Tucker (Matthew McConaughey) who is a fast-talking, deeply paranoid trucker bound for L.A. Jack slips outside to call Tip's mobile phone, and he tricks Tip into thinking his load has been canceled. Tip agrees to take Jack and Vera to L.A. instead. Along the way, Tip makes a phone call and realizes he has been tricked by Jack. He attacks Jack with a tire iron, but Vera intervenes and saves Jack from a beating. Tip drives off threatening to come back with the police.
Jack and Vera walk into New Mexico to evade Tip. They stumble into a monsoon that is threatening to tear apart a village church. As the villagers struggle to hold the walls up, Vera intervenes, holding the wall up with her head. The wall still threatens to collapse, and Jack gets her to stand on her hind legs to brace the wall for good. The villagers help Jack and Vera board a train that will finally take them to L.A.
As he is about to sign the contract to sell Vera to Terry, Jack realizes that she subjects her animals to a grueling workload, and he witnesses one of Terry's trainers abusing another elephant with an electric goad. He steals one of Terry's trucks and drives to San Diego. Tip found Terry's business card in the cab of his truck, and he arrives just as Jack leaves.
At the San Diego airport, Mo is loading her elephants onto a cargo plane. The tarmac security guard will not let Jack and Vera in because they are not on the manifest. Jack pulls the truck into the passenger drop-off in front of the airport and races through the terminal with Vera. At gate security, Tip finally catches up to them, waving Terry's electric goad. Jack convinces the security guards that Tip is more of a threat than Vera, and they deal with Tip while Jack and Vera catch up to Mo on the tarmac.
Mo explains that she has spent her entire budget and has no money for Vera. Jack confesses to Mo that he will miss Vera, but he knows she would be better off with other elephants. The film ends with a series of captions that indicate Jack left his fiancee for Mo, and the couple witnessed the birth of Vera's first calf in Sri Lanka together. Jack's ex-fiancee married his agent and Jack's mother ran their life. Tip Tucker also managed to get away and is still roaming the roads of America. The captions conclude by saying that Get Over It never made it to a 2nd printing, but Jack's memoir of his cross-country trip with Vera was a runaway besteller.

Tags: comedy

Review:
Kids and adults both will enjoy the elephant and the occasional outdoor scene, as Bill Murray and his new friend trek across the beautiful American countryside.
Bill Murray is funny as usual and Matthew McConaughey puts in an unusual and funny performance.
This movie isn't going to win any Oscars, but provides good entertainment, without resorting to sex or violence.
It takes about 30 minutes before it really gets going, when Bill Murray and Vera hit the road.
Janeane Garofalo is well-used in a small role, but Matthew McConnaughey makes the most vivid impression in truly goofy part as an insane truck driver.
I think, if you take a moment, you can actually see that this movie is an interesting metaphor for the grieving process.Grief can be seen as a big uncontrollable thing that you didn't even know was yours until you have it laid in your lap.
He travels out to collect to find that his father was a clown and his inheritance is substantial -in fact she's an elephant.
Now he has less than a week to get across country to deliver the elephant to one of several interested parties.Around about this period Bill Murray films kinda sunk to a bit of a low in terms of money making and quality.
The message about loving animals etc are a little sentimental and don't sit well with the idea that we are actually watching an animal that belongs to a movie organisation such as the one being shown here as evil!The comedy is also predictable  we know the elephant will knock things down and lift things up etc, but it's not overdone and is amusing to a point.
For adults the physical nature of this comedy is tempered by a world weary Murray who really does make the film worth watching.
He is a funny guy and although he is on auto-pilot here, he is still very good.The film rests solely on his shoulders and he just about carries it off.
People like Piven, Garofalo, Fiorentino, Jerry Alder, Presnell etc are all round the edges making it look tidy but really do little.
This is mainly due to Murray doing his usual world-weary cynical act  we've seen it before but that doesn't mean it's not still funny..
I thought it was Great, as an animal film and as a comedy.
Classic film making, one of Murray's best and what a grand sidekick!.
Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) is a small-time motivational speaker whose manager (Jeremy Piven) is trying to get him bigger gigs.
A lawyer contacts Jack by letter to tell him his father recently passed away and left him an inheritance.
But, Holy Dumbo Batman, Jack has just inherited a circus elephant named Vera.
It seems papa's last job was with the circus and his great act included a trained elephant.
After spending the night in a junkyard with Vera, Jack finds out that a zookeeper in Los Angeles would like Vera very much, as she is returning some elephants to their natural habitat.
From raiding a whole salad bar for the elephant's meals to riding in cattle car, Jack and Vera try to make it to the west coast in time.
If you enjoy a good guffaw, watch this movie..
But it works, mostly because of Bill Murray's performance.A man who has to unload his father's trained elephant does not make for a promising story, comic or dramatic.
What makes this film work is Murray's generally laid-back performance.
(I suspect Roy Blount was consciously writing such a story.) When a reviewer states that the film misses the obvious sight gags its premise suggests -- well, that's the point of it, right?This isn't a film that demands a second viewing.
It's a perfect film when you don't want to watch anything demanding.PS: I just love the parents who say this (and other films) are good family films because they lack sex, violence, adult language, etc.
No sex, violence and only a small amount of language help Larger Than Life accomplish its victory as a great family film.
Just look at a sampling of the names: Matthew McConaughey, Janeane Garofalo and Linda Fiorentino.
Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) is a struggling motivational speaker.
When he gets a telegram that his absentee circus father had passed away, he doesn't know that he left him a giant elephant and $35k in damages.
He could get $30k with Mo (Janeane Garofalo) who's sending elephants to Sri Lanka for a breeding problem, or at least $40k to Terry (Linda Fiorentino) who has an animal circus.It was probably a hilarious pitch to put Bill Murray with an elephant.
- rather than go all 'im so special artsy iconoclastic' type) Bill Murray (who plays Jack Corcoran, the son of a professional clown - D'OH!
If it was _anybody_else_ in this role it would have been only a "family" movie and not be worth watching unless your kid is watching it.
But because of Mr. Murray, this movie takes off.
Kids will like this also because it has an elephant in it.Kudos to every other actor who played smaller parts:Blockhead - Pat HingleTip Tucker (luny as a jaybird) - Matthew McConaughey (Matthew gets an extra set of kudos b/c his performance was over the top.
Murray's ride with him is hilarious)Mo - Janeane GarofaloTerry - Linda FiorentinoLawyer - Harve PresnellTrain Conductor - Keith DavidJunkyard Guy - Greg Lewis, andlast but not least,dear sweet Vera,played by Tal.
Larger than life is a really great movie.
Bill Murray stars alongside an elephant.!
He's no ringmaster in the circus, but rather inherits the elephant named Vera (after his mother) from his recently deceased father.
Essentially, Larger than Life is a comedy road movie, wherein Bill Murray's character Jack must travel by any means necessary to facilitate Vera.
It's a great movie about family connection's and doing what's right.When originally released, Larger than Life was not very well liked by critics, the fanbase was even small.
Over time though, the film has become somewhat of a favorite among Bill Murray fans.
Released in late 1996 and directed by Howard Franklin, "Larger than Life" is road movie/comedy/animal flick starring Bill Murray as a motivational speaker who receives a huge inheritance from his father whom he never met.
As they trek across the country, Jack meets circus friends of his dad, a zany truck driver (Matthew McConaughey) and a village of Hispanics in need of a miracle.
Keith David is on hand as a train conductor.I love elephants, circuses and road movies; I also appreciate Murray's subdued brand of humor now and then.
That takes time and money, of course, which the producers unfortunately didn't want to spend.The movie contains scene after scene that hold the promise of great entertainment, one way or another, but they're never milked for their potential.
Also consider the wacky truck driver with the mullet: He has the promise of being a great comedic side character, but he ends up just being over-the-top weird and inscrutable.Still, there are several laughs & amusing moments and the road trip is entertaining to a point, which makes "Larger than Life" worthwhile for some.The film runs 93 minutes and was in St. Louis, Missouri; Denver, Colorado; Moab, Utah; Wrightwood & San Jose Airport, California.GRADE: C.
Bill Murray plays a motivational speaker whose circus clown father passes away and leaves him an elephant.
Ridiculously far-fetched premise with a lifeless performance by Murray and a supporting cast that seems hellbent on outshining him, making themselves look like a bunch of hams in the process.
Not really a family movie despite the corny animal buddy plot.
I think I laughed out loud once the whole movie and chuckled maybe twice.
(In fact, I stopped watching it halfway through, which is something I rarely do...) -- Bill Murray plays Jack Corcoran, a second-rate motivational speaker who is bequeathed an elephant by his father (whom he had presumed to be dead before he was born) ; he then has one week to get the ponderous pachyderm across the country.
This is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life.
Bill Murray + an elephant + no script (was there a script?
This is a kid's movie but any self-respecting smart child would not want to see this inflammatory pile of elephant droppings..
Murray Only Has An Elephant To Bounce Off - It Doesn't Work....
The over-riding problem with this film is that it can't possibly use Bill Murray to the best of his abilities, simply because of the co-star.If this was a road movie with another comedic actor, it might work.
As it stands, Murray is left talking to an elephant who cannot answer back with witty banter.
Essentially, it means that Murray is talking to himself, and this makes the film more boring than it could have been had he had another character to bounce off.Kids would enjoy this movie,simply because of the elephant, but anyone wanting to watch Bill Murray's biting delivery and enjoy an excellent script needs to look somewhere else..
Larger Than Life is a film that can be enjoyed by all ages.
It stars Bill Murray, Janeane Garofalo, and a barely recognizable Matthew McConaughey as the paranoid truck driver.
The story of 'Larger Than Life' is a by-the-numbers buddy/road affair with an elephant, and as such there is little to recommend it.
He makes even the most uninspired material funny -- even when he's not really trying as here.'Larger Than Life' does have its funny moments (Murray's spoof of motivational speakers stands out), and it is worth sitting through a TV showing of it.
Well, I think that the main problem of the movie centers around the fact that pretty much all the events of the movie center around an elephant.
Even Murray, who has been quick and funny in other movies, seems overwhelmed.
When he's paired with the elephant, the energy immediately fades away.One question that's never answered in the movie is: Why doesn't Murray's character just hire someone to take the elephant to the west coast?
The fact that Murray's character doesn't do the obvious thing helps point out that the premise this script had was deeply flawed even before writing began..
Bill Murray, who is hilarious, and a lot of the other characters are great.
I don't know how many people care about this film or will look it up but all the reviews missed the magic here.
As the movie progresses his life is changed, the problem becomes like a cosmic force guiding him, to a new less cynical life.Maybe its just me projecting my personal stuff going on but sometimes when the universe will not stop pushing us, we have to change, we know deep down we should, and the thing we view originally as a pain or a problem isn't at all...
Good solid family film with some seriously (really) laugh out loud scenes so I highly recommend making the effort to find and watch it.
Bill Murray is his usual droll, understated great self and one of the best scenes comes when he is driving a big rig-I laughed so hard my ribs hurt...no joke.
It truly seems that most of the time a camera crew is simply following him around as he finds odd situations to get himself into and then without a bit of effort, make us laugh and feel that special something in our hearts.This is one of those movies and the odd situation he finds for himself is trying to get rid of an elephant left to him by his estranged and recently deceased father.
This results in most of the movie being Bill talking to the elephant, not too much response from the big gray co-star but he does have a presence.
And despite some of the other reviews saying otherwise, it works, and it works great for Bill Murray fans.
It's as if he really is playing it off-the-cuff and it makes it all work.I really liked sprocketbox' metaphor of the elephant being the grieving process.
That elephant is still there no matter where I turn.This is a movie well worth seeing and not just for Bill Murray fans.
A man inherits an elephant from his father.
I have always liked Bill Murray in films like Lost in Translation, and the trailer for this film looked really good, but the result was very disappointing.
Basically Murray plays Jack Corcorin who has recently found out that his father died, and he is expected to hear his will.
He finds out that his father was a clown, because he left a large shoe, his squeaky nose, and his main inheritance, an elephant!
The only way that Jack can get rid of this elephant is to travel 4000 miles in four days and give him to a safe zoo for $30,000.
LTL is the kind of formulaic, hopeless comedy to be enjoyed by the sort of sheep that stop and listen when they come across a band playing in a shopping mall.I remember Murray promoting LTL on Larry King's crappy CNN show, where he said something like "if this movie doesn't become a hit I'll stop making movies (or comedies)".
He wasn't being nearly as jovial as one might think; he must have felt that LTL was a sure-fire hit and that its failure would mean his status as a star had markedly fallen - hence a sort-of ultimatum live-on-air to his fans to spend their hard-earned money on a dumb elephant comedy.
"Go see it, it really is good!" Actors are prostitutes inter-bred with car salesmen.LTL is the sort of lousy project that comes from the "Friends" school of comedy; their motto: "If you ever run out of ideas - or if you never had any in the first place - then stick an animal into the plot and that will at least inject an element of cuteness".
The other motto "Friends" had was: "always include pointless, dull sentimentality", which this movie so predictably ends with, when Murray rather pathetically says: "what they forgot to tell you is that you never forget an elephant".
I was suddenly reminded of it when I saw a scene from it on TV today (hence this equally pointless review).Murray wastes his talent on this turkey (disguised as an elephant), but he isn't nearly as uninteresting/bad as McConaughey (or however that man's name is spelt); one would think that M.M. would have an easy time playing himself, i.e. a hick, but he is so painfully unfunny and unconvincing that I could barely stand to watch him make such a jackass out of himself.
This piece of crap marked the end of a string of good and great movies Murray made in the early- and mid-90s, such as "Groundhog Day", "Quick Change", "Mad Dog & Glory", "Kingpin", "What about Bob?" and "Ed Wood".
Larger Than Life (1996): Dir: Howard Franklyn / Cast: Bill Murray, Matthew McConaughey, Janeane Garofalo, Linda Fiorentino, Keith David: Has there ever been a comedy starring Bill Murray that contained fewer laughs than this?
Dreary plot regards a man who learns that his father was a circus clown and has left him an elephant in his will.
Viewers will likely find watching elephants on wildlife programs to be more entertaining.
Garofalo is true blue to the elephant's needs while Fiorentino isn't so upfront about it.
Animal rights theme stranded within horrible road movie clichés and a screenplay that isn't so large.
"Quick Change" director Howard Franklin and comedian Bill Murray have literally got a white elephant on their hands in the highly forgettable juvenile critter comedy "Larger than Life," co-starring Matthew McConaughey, Janeane Garofalo, Pat Hingle, Jeremy Piven, and Linda Fiorentino.
Murray plays a motivational speaker who finds himself saddled with Velma, a female elephant that belonged to his recently deceased circus clown father whom he never met.
Now, pop's attorney (Harve Presnell of "Fargo") wants $35-thousand to cover the damages that Tarzan's best friend has chomped up while he waited on our hero to claim his inheritance.The only way that Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray of "Ghostbusters") can get off the tusk is to take the animal across country to a zoo, specifically to Mo (Janeane Garofalo) who is willing to buy Velma as part of a breeding experiment in India.
The dilemma that Jack faces is who to sell the beast to, either the sympathetic but homely zoo keeper (Garofalo had a similar role in "The Truth about Cats and Dogs") or temptress animal trainer Terry Bonura (Linda Fiorentino), who uses electric prods to make her beasties behave.Getting the elephant there comprises the bulk of Roy Blount, Jr's lackluster, lead-footed plot.
The grateful villagers idolize the elephant and helps Jack finish his cross-country jaunt.
Either Bill Murray desperately want to produce a flop movie for tax purposes or he needed to return as a regular to NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live.".
One of the Dullest Road-Movies, Buddy-Comedies, Kids-Adventures Ever !.
(Bill Murray) is one of the best actors and comedians in the last 20 years.
So why to make a lame movie with an elephant?
I think the "Trip" just affected the lead in a way to learn more lessons about life or to know what he really wants, and to discover more credibility around him.
So speaking of ironies I think the biggest of them all is that you have (Murray) with some trained lovely (Vera) through 3000 miles coast to coast 5-dayes odyssey and there isn't more than one laugh along the way !???
This movie got the very little, very cursory to present : touching moments (the elephant picks up tenderly the funny nose of her dead friend), comic time (Murray trying to choke McConaughey out of tedium), thrilling situations (the truck's one, and maybe the climax) and, sadly more than surprisingly, that was it !
The only Larger Than Life thing in this movie was its title !