the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

With so many mindless movies coming out of Hollywood these days, what a refresh to see this film. An affirmation that movies are still being written and filmed by intelligent people. The dialog is superb. The acting is superb and the plot is genius.Pierce Brosnan is one of the most underrated actors of his time. It's easy to write this "pretty boy" off, but he just simply delivers time and time again. Greg Kinnear as well, but he does seem to be "hit or miss" in movies these days. This is definitely a hit! Speaking as a middle aged, white suburban male - it's all our dream to one day break from the mundane day to day life we hold and be pulled into something more exciting (with or without our consent). The kind of excitement we only fantasize about. As human beings we're meant to do so much more with our lives than just wake at 6am and go to an office each day. This movie plays out the "all too common" man losing a grip on his own life, and marriage, only to be resurrected by an odd and completely unexpected acquaintance. Pierce Brosnan nails the role of an eccentric and crazy man searching for meaning in his life. The relationship that develops between Brosnan and Kinnear is developed and written/acted to perfection. By the end of the movie you're wondering if these two completely polar opposite men are brothers.A really well written movie with excellent acting. Very much worth a view.

The Matador is a unusual mix of a buddy movie and an assassin movie that you shouldn't take seriously yet is totally dead serious, almost realistic.The good. Interesting novel story with surprising turns. Where you think the story will go one way, it goes an other. Well built characters if very shallow. A few laughs. Nice ending.The actors. Pierce Brosnan plays here a rare role that strays surprisingly far from his usual hunting grounds. He's very crass, not in control of the situation, with few social skills, and suffers from failure. Greg Kinnear plays his total counter part, respectable, affable, loving. And Hope Davis is charming as well as surprising.The bad. Unsound assemblage of scenes, but maybe it's just a result of flawed transitions.The ugly. Large colorful fonts for city names just plastered in. Two transition handled with awkward black screens.The result. An offbeat almost serene kind assassin flick. Not for those looking for action, although there's a bit of it.

Brosnan's performance of a lifetime. Utterly compelling, beautiful and tragic. If only more people would give this movie a chance. Comparable to Grosse Point Blank on many levels it contains the same multiple layers of character detail and deeper message behind the surface detail, minus the action. The movie's title may have contributed to its relative quiet box office performance, acting more as a metaphor for the movie's protagonist than an exciting description of the splendid script. Real, honest performances grace this movie and even gives us an ending John Hughes would have been proud of in his 80's pomp. I would have loved to have seen Brosnan receive the big accolades for his performance, and to be honest it exasperates me to know it was largely ignored by the big awards, a best supporting actor nomination at the Golden Globes the only real acknowledgement.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit more than I necessarily expected to. I remember seeing some things about it around the time it was released and it sounded somewhat interesting but not like something I needed to rush out and see. After all, it's not like Greg Kinnear is the king of any sane person's film universe, although I used to enjoy him on "Movietime" and "E" doing the Talk Soup. Pierce Brosnan is somebody who I hadn't seen in a movie until a few years ago when I saw the excellent "Seraphim Falls", since I tend to avoid James Bond movies. But something about the pairing of these two guys seemed appealing, and the movie bears out that instinct. These guys are fun to watch together, they have a real natural chemistry that makes even some of the film's weaker scenes flow very neatly.I like the fact that this is sort of a tough, violent movie that has a decent amount of blood and sex in it, but it's not raunchy in the way that Quentin Tarantino's movies are, not in a sort of way that's designed to appeal to 15 year old boys. The whole joke and premise of the movie is basically that this guy who Brosnan plays is no longer hardcore, he's basically a self-appointed failure in the middle of a nervous breakdown. In the end the Kinnear character is more hardcore than he is, and that's a great premise I think to hang the movie around since it's ultimately only a 90 minute piece of fluff anyway. Nobody should go away hoping for any kind of revelations on the human spirit, and although I liked Hope Davis in the role I thought the movie could have done with maybe a bit less dramatic scenes with her and Kinnear. It's great to see how well Kinnear can handle drama though, and the other major reversal inherent in the premise is to have Brosnan play the goofier character and have Kinnear play the more serious role. I think a lot of times when you reverse expectations that way you get a very fresh movie with fresh performances.It'll never be known as a classic or anything, but this is going to be one of those movies that gets brought up at a party or in a bar and maybe the 2 or 3 people who did see it will all chime in with "hey, yeah that was pretty good wasn't it?". Not quite "the greatest cocktail party story you ever heard" but not too far either. I like the fact that Julian, the Brosnan character, was quite the prick and the movie didn't go out of its way to make him likable. It's interesting to see a charming actor like Brosnan basically tread water and try to pull through a character like that and make him appealing in some way.