MOVIE CONSENSUS This humorously amoral, oddball comic thriller features strong performances by Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear as a flamboyant, aging hit-man and an out of work suburban businessman, respectively.
MOVIE SYNOPSIS Pierce Brosnan is outstanding as an international hit man falling apart at the seams in Richard Shepard's dark comedy THE MATADOR. more...
MPAA RATING R, for strong sexual content and language
RELEASE DATES Theatrical: Jan 27, 2006 Video: Jul 4, 2006
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With his acting career on hiatus and his image in ruins, Gibson seeks to mount a comeback by playing it safe: yes, that's right, the Gibson-produced "Apocalypto" is yet another two-hours-plus epic about the end of the Mayan civilization.
Like the down-and-out version of his Tailor of Panama character, Brosnan’s performance here is a sincere treasure; possibly the most entertaining of his career.
Movie fans have seen any number of stories about hitmen, but it's a pretty good bet that even the most jaded of cynics will be unable to detect just where The Matador is going.
Pierce Brosnan's 'facilitator of fatalities' is a great character, but the story that houses him is as ersatz as the recording of 'In the Wee Small Hours' the assassin plays on the businessman's turntable (that's not Sinatra singing).
...plays a little classier, a little more hip than it otherwise might have due to Pierce Brosnan's rascally embracement of poking holes in his own image...
A hit man/buddy flick that has a heart? Not something I was expecting with this likable assassin-lite comedy that is both entertaining and darkly funny.
The general details and color of The Matador fade quickly from memory while Brosnan's gamy, inscrutable libertine is still exhaling Scotch vapor in your face.
The movie has a nicely modulated mix of comedy and pathos, but succeeds as much because of the two lead performances as Richard Shepard's writing and directing.
The movie's writer-director, Richard Shepard, balances the macabre and the sentimental, and understands that although his film contains questions like 'don't successful people always live with blood on their hands?' its real subject is friendship.