In case you haven't heard of it, The Matador is a comedy about a professional assassin, played by Pierce Brosnan, who gets burned out on his job and befriends a regular guy, played by Greg Kinnear, who he meets in a hotel bar in Mexico City. It's not being marketed very heavily so you may not have heard of it--Juliette and I only heard about it when Pierce Brosnan was nominated for a Golden Globe. It's a rather odd film. These days, comedies tend to beat you over the head with the humor but this one is quite a bit more subtle; the humor mostly springs from the ridiculousness of the situations, but the film never goes over the top. I liked it, and not just because it made me laugh--which it did--or because the actors did a good job--which they did. It was also really nice to see a movie that wasn't just the same old formula all over again. As Juliette pointed out about halfway through the film, it was really difficult to predict where the movie was going and I found that to be a welcome change of pace.

Viewed: 1/27/2006 | Released: 12/29/2005 | Score: A

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