| | | A Hitman and a Salesman Walk Into a Bar...
Features: Widescreen
Lonely hit man Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan in a Golden Globe-nominated performance) and struggling salesman Danny Wright (Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear) form an unexpected bond during a chance meeting in a Mexican bar. Six months later, when the self-proclaimed "facilitator of fatalities" turns up on the doorstep desperate for help, Danny and his wife (Hope Davis) are both horrified...but intrigued enough to oblige. Together, the two men set out for the most thrilling adventure of Danny's life and the most critical kill of Julian's career. Deftly mixing explosive action with savage with, The Matador is "effortlessly entertaining" (Rex Reed, The New York Observer).
"It's sort of like Sideways with sniper rifles and hookers." E! Entertainment Television
"A 151-proof tequila shot of sharp comedy." Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
"An unusually comic and moving hit man thriller." Los Angeles Daily News
Editor's Note
Pierce Brosnan is outstanding as an international hit man falling apart at the seams in Richard Shepard's dark comedy THE MATADOR. Brosnan, riffing on his success playing the very well groomed and genteel James Bond and Remington Steele, stars as Julian Noble, a no-longer-noble hit man who spends his free time getting drunk and chasing impossibly young skirts. In Mexico he meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), an average Joe trying to land an important business deal. Jealous of Danny's simple life, Julian becomes friends with the Denver suburbanite, who married his high school sweetheart, Bean (the very good Hope Davis), but lost his young son in a terrible accident. One day at a bullfight, Julian tells Danny what he does for a living, but Danny doesn't believe him--until Julian shows him an example of his expertise. But when Julian asks Danny to help him with his next assignment, Danny is dead-set against it, and ready to end their brief friendship. Little does he know that he has not seen the last of the rather unique hit man.Writer-director Shepard, whose previous work includes the indie films OXYGEN, MERCY, and THE LINGUINI INCIDENT, shows a deft hand for offbeat comedy in THE MATADOR, a very funny movie with a razor-sharp edge to it. Brosnan and Kinnear make a great duo, the latter the straight man to the former's reckless abandon. Shepard keeps the laughs coming with huge titles announcing the different locations as well as with a brilliant soundtrack featuring songs by Tom Jones and Asia in addition to the Jam, the Killers, and the Cramps--whose "Garbageman" anchors a hysterical scene involving Julian, a can of beer, a pair of Speedos, a hotel lobby, and a shark.
| Features | Audio Commentary With Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear & Richard Shepard | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scenes | | Feature Audio Commentary With Writer & Director Richard Shepard | | Featurettes: Making The Matador & The Business & The Treatment - Feature Radio Programs Discuss The Matador | | Interactive Menus | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Scene Selection | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound | | TV Commercial |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: WEINSTEIN COMPANY |
| Release Date: 12/19/2006 |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 79707 | | UPC: 00796019797078 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2006) | | | Golden Globe, Pierce Brosnan, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy |
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| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "The fakeouts are fun; Greg Kinnear, in the regular-guy role, is a perfect foil....Hope Davis is hilarious..." 11/01/2005 p.49Movieline's Hollywood Life
"Pierce Brosnan gives his best performance yet....It's fast, funny, and intoxicating....It's an almost obscenely entertaining look at two men on the verge of a nervous breakdown." 11/01/2005 p.100-102 Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "Writer-director Richard Shepard gives Brosnan his meatiest role ever, and he digs in with relish." 12/15/2005 p.162 Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he cinematography is consistently hipster handsome, and the script is bracing in its lewdness..." -- Grade: B 01/20/2006 p.50-51 Sight and Sound
"The film's main asset is an astoundingly loose and energised performance by Brosnan....There's an undeniable charge to watching someone obviously having so much fun." 02/01/2006 p.71 Uncut
3 stars out of 5 -- "There's some great, dark-hearted farce in the first hour....Shepard shoots with the freewheeling, laid-back charm of Soderbergh circa OCEAN'S 11..." 03/01/2006 p.124 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]ts best moments -- basically all scenes between Brosnan and Greg Kinnear -- are achingly enjoyable." 07/01/2006 p.106 ReelViews 8 of 10
"It's not hard to be enthusiastic about The Matador, an uncommon buddy film starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear. 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. This is an audience-pleaser through-and-through, but one wonders whether the title (which is appropriate but not catchy) may fail to entice viewers. In fact, it may keep some sensitive animal-lovers away...Together, Danny and Julian make an appealing pair - something that's mandatory for the story to work. They're an odd couple, to be sure, but each fills a need for the other. It can be difficult to find the right mix of comedy and drama in a movie of this nature, but Shepard does a solid job. There's nothing edgy or groundbreaking about The Matador, but it's funny, touching, and ultimately endearing - and it's tough to ask more of this sort of film." - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"I walked into ""The Matador"" expecting one film, and saw another. On paper, this sounds like a formula thriller, and the casting seems to confirm that: Pierce Brosnan as a hit man, and Greg Kinnear as a businessman who meets him in a hotel bar. But Brosnan redefines ""hit man"" in the best performance of his career (""I facilitate fatalities""), and Kinnear plays with, and against, his image as a regular kinda guy...[Brosnan, Kinnear and Davis] do something that is essential to this kind of comedy: They refuse to be in on the joke. It's not funny for them. They never wink. 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." - Roger Ebert
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