Editor Reviews:

Description:
This hip and hilarious dark comedy finds boorish, on-the-job hit man Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) in a Mexico City cantina where he meets mild-mannered Denver businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), both of whom are at a crossroads in their lives and careers. Over too many margaritas, they form a strange friendship built on the dark and drunken honesty shared among strangers who believe they will never see each other in the light of day. However, months later, back in Denver, the doorbell rings at the Wright residence, and Danny and his wife Bean (Hope Davis) find Julian on their doorstep, a desperate, broken man. What else can they do, but to take him in?

Amazon.com:
Pierce Brosnan gives one of his finest performances in The Matador, a low-key buddy comedy with an agreeably sinister twist. Light-years from his former James Bond image, Brosnan is unshaven, unnerved and unpredictable as freelance assassin Julian Noble, who encounters desperate businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in the bar of a modern Mexico City hotel. Danny is intrigued when Julian reveals that he's a "facilitator of fatalities," and his wife "Bean" (Hope Davis) is equally fascinated when Julian shows up unexpectedly, six months later, at Danny's home in Denver. Having lost his touch as a reliable hit-man, Julian needs Danny's help with "one last job," but the logistics of Julian's lethal profession (involving an employer played by Philip Baker Hall) are secondary to writer-director Richard Shepard's offbeat, slightly uneven character study, which gives Kinnear and Brosnan a memorable opportunity to riff on their established screen personas. In making Julian a likable yet tormented drifter who's made a habit of "running from any emotion," Brosnan creates an edgy yet sympathetic character as mysterious as he is fun to be around; if you're going to befriend a hired killer, you could do far worse than a guy like Julian. As Brosnan plays him, he's worthy of a sequel, but The Matador is the kind of entertainingly quirky movie that's a hard act to follow. --Jeff Shannon

Rating : - A Different Kind of Buddy Movie
Richard Shepard's The Matador presents a new take on the assassin film. No longer the stuff of the Steven Segal movie of the week, Shepard presents his gunman as a man on the verge of total collapse looking for a friend and loooking for a way out of his profession.

Pierce Brosnan gives a career defining performance as Julien Noble, a burned out hitman, on his way to collapse. After four James Bond films this is the ultimate anti-Bond film. The character is disheveled, unsure of himself and definately not the ladies man we are used to seeing Brosnan play. The other side of the pair is Greg Kinnear as Danny Wright a mid level businessman on the verge of losing his job and possibly his wife played by Hope Davis.

Far from the normal buddy film, Shepard allows his characters to develope slowly so that the audience truly understands their plight. This is a character driven film with intelligent dialogue and few thrills. Give time the audience begins to care about these people and the lives that they lead.

The are fine performances on both sides of the camera. David Tattersall, who shot the last Star Wars film does a great job making the film look like a much more expensive affair than it actually was. Robert Pearson's production design effectively doubles the Mexico City shooting location for many cities keeping things interesting.

The DVD comes packed with many extras including a making of featurette, two complete radio shows in which Shepard discusses the writing of the film and its reception at the Sundance Film Festival, two commentaries featuring Shepard and his stars and a trailer.

Check out this small gem of independant filmmaking.