625. The Matador (2005)

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis

Director: Richard Shepard

Running Time: 96 mins

The Matador is an American film about a washed up, drunkard hitman who crosses paths with a businessman down on his luck in Mexico City, and the two form a connection that they would never have otherwise thought of.

This is largely a brilliantly dark comedy, with a fantastic central character, well performed by Pierce Brosnan, and that manages to keep you entertained for the majority of the film, however at some points, it leaves everything a little bit empty.

The main character is not your average hitman. Sure, he gives off the style of a typical hitman, but he’s actually mentally disturbed, constantly drunk and very rarely gets his jobs done, or rather ‘delivers the portfolio’. That’s what I really liked about him, he was totally unpredictable from the off and wacky enough to be hugely entertaining, not to mention Pierce Brosnan’s great performance, doing something completely off-colour after his Bond era.

Despite that depth and intrigue, you didn’t get that at all from any of the other aspects of the film. It may be largely about the hitman, but the supporting characters were extremely dull and unfunny, totally predictable, and lacked any sort of motive, namely Greg Kinnear’s character, the businessman, who partakes in the hitman’s crazy schemes for no reason whatsoever, in some completely out-of-character moves.

Moving away from the characters, this film was pretty funny. Again, it was largely due to the sort of madness and unpredictability of the hitman, but there was a good mix of simple farce and pure black comedy to keep you well entertained throughout.

The story was also relatively strong. Although it ends up being a bit of a cliché, it’s definitely a lot more exciting than you’d expect it to be, and at some points, where the film leaves the comedy alone for a few minutes, you get wrapped up enough in the plot to go with it, apart for some five minute-long dialogue scenes that really are tedious.

Overall, this gets a 7.4, because it’s a largely entertaining and interesting film, despite lacking a certain depth for it to really be intriguing.