The Whole Ten Yards Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)April 9th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "The Whole Ten Yards" (Warner Bros.)
Back in 2000, "The Whole Nine Yards" was a comedic hit, pairing Bruce Willis, as the notorious hit-man Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski, with "Friends" Matthew Perry, as his California neighbor, Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky, D.D.S.. Now they're back again in a new escapade.
Jimmy's happily retired in a secret hideaway in Ejutla, Mexico. He's heavily into domesticity, much to the chagrin of his wife and protégé Jill (Amanda Peet), Oz's former dental assistant, who wails, "I thought I married a contract killer, not Martha Stewart!"
Meanwhile, back in Brentwood, Oz's newly-pregnant wife Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), Jimmy's ex-wife, is kidnapped by revenge-seeking Gogolak gang. Just-paroled Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollak) figures that Oz, who was always paranoid and is now panicked, will lead him directly to Jimmy, which is exactly what happens. So will Jimmy shelve his recipe file and drop his apron to join Oz to rescue Cynthia and get back in the crime game?
Director Howard Deutch, who was able to hone his improvisational skills and comic timing with old pros like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in "The Odd Couple II" and "Grumpier Old Men,"does his best to revive the cinematic chemistry. Bruce Willis wearing bunny slippers is a sight to behold, but writer George Gallo's script sticks to one-liners and juvenile antics which may elicit chuckles yet there's no laughing-out-loud. And Kevin Pollak, whose character of Yanni Gogolak was bumped off by Jimmy in the original story, is barely recognizeable as the elderly, word-garbling mob boss. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Whole Ten Yards" is a flawed 5. It's yet another sequel that's just not as good as the original.
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