Only recently, I have purchased some of the DVD sets of the old TV shows from the 1980's, the great classics of entertainment and by today's standards as cheesy as they have ever been. Among them is the first season of "Remington Steele", about a detective named Laura Holt, who invents a male boss in order to attract more clients, until one day a strange con man takes over the imaginary part of Remington Steele and from that point on works with Laura solving cases of all sorts. That was the first big role of a young man named Pierce Brosnan, but when the show was taken off the air after six successful years, Brosnan's career kicked into really high gears. He played the famous British agent James Bond in four films, but after "Die another Day", almost a parody on the franchise, he was dismissed from the role and went on to star in other projects.
Pierce Brosnan, who coincidentally got a hold of Richard Shepard's script, not only agreed to take over the leading role but also became one of the producers, causing the film's budget to rise significantly. It seems as if this movie was exactly what he was looking for and after being the action hero for so long, and the stylish British gentleman, he finally gets to play an unpleasant, rude and bad ass character, who completely goes against anything he has played before. The result is an entertaining mix of comedy and drama about an unusual friendship that takes a couple of unexpected twists and turns.
Julian Noble is a professional hit man, who believes he has the greatest job in the world and travels all over the planet to take out his targets. He doesn't have a home, not a single friend and his romantic interests merely consist of one-night affairs with hookers. Danny Wright on the other hand is a regular businessman, who lost his only son in a school bus accident, is happily married with his high school sweetheart, and now travels to Mexico City to sign a contract that could save his career. The two men, that couldn't be any more different from each other, meet at the hotel bar one night and after a couple of rude remarks by Julian and immediate apologies the two begin to form somewhat of a friendship. Julian takes Danny to the bull fighting arena, where he reveals himself to be an assassin and even demonstrates how he would take out his target. But Danny is not appalled but merely fascinated by this strange man, and ultimately Julian even asks his new friend to help him with one of his jobs. As it turns out though, Julian begins to doubt himself and his unethical profession and after screwing up several of his contracts, his bosses put out a hit on him, causing him to seek the help of his only friend, Danny.
"The Matador" is a very interesting little film that made it lot out of its limited possibilities. Despite having Pierce Brosnan in the leading role, who is always a good candidate for a fast-paced action movie, there are very little action scenes in this film, and it is more of a buddy comedy and relationship drama. Although there are some funny scenes, mostly coming from the dialogs between Danny and Julian, especially when the latter makes one of his inappropriate comments, there are also some somber moments, especially involving Danny and his dead son. The film is R-rated, so you will find your typical use of several f-words, but I would be more concerned with the large number of sexual jokes. Richard Shepard, whose previous work mostly consists of B-movies wrote a dynamic script that mostly focuses on the strange relationship of Julian and Danny, two wonderfully constructed characters with their flaws and good sides to them. But he ultimately concentrates so much on them, that the characters and their dialogs completely dominate the film and the plot is somewhat neglected in the process. There is only a very fragile story attached to this 90 minute film, which causes it to run very slow for some time, especially once the setting shifts from Mexico City to Denver. The other issue with this film is the set design, which was very austere at times, and I had a hard time finding where the $10 Million of budget went.
Pierce Brosnan is at his very best in this film and this might be his finest work ever. He is unbelievably funny, and completely contrary to his usual image, does stuff like walking through a hotel bar lobby in underwear, make a rude joke after hearing about Danny's dead son and, of course, instead of the obligatory "shaken, not stirred" Vodka Martini he now drinks Margaritas, four of five of them in a row even. Julian Noble is an obnoxious, but likable character, and without Pierce Brosnan this film certainly would have lost a lot of its freshness and charm. Greg Kinnear plays Danny, a regular guy, who stands in complete contrast to Julian Noble. While he doesn't get to shine as much as Brosnan, whose role is simply better written, he does a fantastic job both as the nerdy businessman, and later the cool assistant of Julian. There is also Hope Davis as Danny's cute wife Bean and Philipp Baker Hall as Julian's handler, who appears in maybe two scenes for a total screen time of less than five minutes.
Without Pierce Brosnan, "The Matador" would have been a typical independent film without any stars, but a strong script that is shown on a couple of film festivals and then is never heard of again. But instead, this film has now turned into something bigger, changing the image of Pierce Brosnan's character repertoire forever, and providing its audience with a wonderful film about a friendship that is not always top-notch, but enjoyable nevertheless.
Pierce Brosnan, who coincidentally got a hold of Richard Shepard's script, not only agreed to take over the leading role but also became one of the producers, causing the film's budget to rise significantly. It seems as if this movie was exactly what he was looking for and after being the action hero for so long, and the stylish British gentleman, he finally gets to play an unpleasant, rude and bad ass character, who completely goes against anything he has played before. The result is an entertaining mix of comedy and drama about an unusual friendship that takes a couple of unexpected twists and turns.
Julian Noble is a professional hit man, who believes he has the greatest job in the world and travels all over the planet to take out his targets. He doesn't have a home, not a single friend and his romantic interests merely consist of one-night affairs with hookers. Danny Wright on the other hand is a regular businessman, who lost his only son in a school bus accident, is happily married with his high school sweetheart, and now travels to Mexico City to sign a contract that could save his career. The two men, that couldn't be any more different from each other, meet at the hotel bar one night and after a couple of rude remarks by Julian and immediate apologies the two begin to form somewhat of a friendship. Julian takes Danny to the bull fighting arena, where he reveals himself to be an assassin and even demonstrates how he would take out his target. But Danny is not appalled but merely fascinated by this strange man, and ultimately Julian even asks his new friend to help him with one of his jobs. As it turns out though, Julian begins to doubt himself and his unethical profession and after screwing up several of his contracts, his bosses put out a hit on him, causing him to seek the help of his only friend, Danny.
"The Matador" is a very interesting little film that made it lot out of its limited possibilities. Despite having Pierce Brosnan in the leading role, who is always a good candidate for a fast-paced action movie, there are very little action scenes in this film, and it is more of a buddy comedy and relationship drama. Although there are some funny scenes, mostly coming from the dialogs between Danny and Julian, especially when the latter makes one of his inappropriate comments, there are also some somber moments, especially involving Danny and his dead son. The film is R-rated, so you will find your typical use of several f-words, but I would be more concerned with the large number of sexual jokes. Richard Shepard, whose previous work mostly consists of B-movies wrote a dynamic script that mostly focuses on the strange relationship of Julian and Danny, two wonderfully constructed characters with their flaws and good sides to them. But he ultimately concentrates so much on them, that the characters and their dialogs completely dominate the film and the plot is somewhat neglected in the process. There is only a very fragile story attached to this 90 minute film, which causes it to run very slow for some time, especially once the setting shifts from Mexico City to Denver. The other issue with this film is the set design, which was very austere at times, and I had a hard time finding where the $10 Million of budget went.
Pierce Brosnan is at his very best in this film and this might be his finest work ever. He is unbelievably funny, and completely contrary to his usual image, does stuff like walking through a hotel bar lobby in underwear, make a rude joke after hearing about Danny's dead son and, of course, instead of the obligatory "shaken, not stirred" Vodka Martini he now drinks Margaritas, four of five of them in a row even. Julian Noble is an obnoxious, but likable character, and without Pierce Brosnan this film certainly would have lost a lot of its freshness and charm. Greg Kinnear plays Danny, a regular guy, who stands in complete contrast to Julian Noble. While he doesn't get to shine as much as Brosnan, whose role is simply better written, he does a fantastic job both as the nerdy businessman, and later the cool assistant of Julian. There is also Hope Davis as Danny's cute wife Bean and Philipp Baker Hall as Julian's handler, who appears in maybe two scenes for a total screen time of less than five minutes.
Without Pierce Brosnan, "The Matador" would have been a typical independent film without any stars, but a strong script that is shown on a couple of film festivals and then is never heard of again. But instead, this film has now turned into something bigger, changing the image of Pierce Brosnan's character repertoire forever, and providing its audience with a wonderful film about a friendship that is not always top-notch, but enjoyable nevertheless.