The Matador Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)January 17th, 2006
THE MATADOR
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
In his new film, Pierce Brosnan plays a globetrotting hitman who beds beautiful women (often for a price) and likes his cocktails shaken, not stirred. But "The Matador" isn't the 21st James Bond film (or anything close to it). It's a wry buddy movie from writer/director Richard Shepard ("The Linguini Incident") and Brosnan is wonderful in it, shedding his 007 image as gracefully and effortlessly as a reticulated python sloughs its skin. Greg Kinnear, that nicest of nice guys, plays businessman Danny Wright and he and Brosnan's Julian Noble first cross paths in a neon-lit bar in Mexico City (Julian's in town for a hit; Danny's there for a critical sales pitch). Julian, drunk, foul-mouthed, and unsympathetic, counters Danny's eventual soul barring about a family tragedy with a crude midget joke causing Danny obvious chagrin. But the next day Julian apologizes and takes Danny to a bullfight, where the hapless salesman finally learns the true nature of Julian's 9-to-5 profession. Six months later, following a botched Manila job, Julian now finds himself the target of his disgruntled employers and shows up at Danny's Denver home claiming to need his only friend's help in one final elimination. Brosnan has already shown, with films like "Evelyn" and "The Thomas Crown Affair," that he's not one to suffer typecasting as a suave and sophisticated licensed killer lightly. But in "The Matador" he goes one step further, successfully dismissing his former role even though the terrain is oddly similar. Kinnear, of course, is the perfect foil, and although Shepard's writing is sometimes uneven the chemistry between his two leads is anything but. Simply put, "The Matador" is a hit!
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
