The Matador (2005)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 147
Fresh: 111 | Rotten: 36
This humorously amoral, oddball comic thriller features strong performances by Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear as a flamboyant, aging hit-man and an out of work suburban businessman, respectively.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 11
This humorously amoral, oddball comic thriller features strong performances by Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear as a flamboyant, aging hit-man and an out of work suburban businessman, respectively.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 73,098
Movie Info
A chance meeting between two middle-aged men leads one into a life of crime in this offbeat comedy. Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) is an American businessman whose life has been going through a sour patch after he and his wife, Carolyn (Hope Davis), lost their young son. During a business trip to Mexico City, Danny strikes up a conversation in a hotel bar with fellow out-of-towner Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan), and while Julian's loud and brassy manner initially puts Danny off, in time the two
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Cast
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Pierce Brosnan
Julian Noble -
Greg Kinnear
Danny Wright -
Hope Davis
Carolyn "Bean" Wright -
Philip Baker Hall
Mr. Randy -
Adam Scott
Phil Garrison -
Dylan Baker
Lovell -
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The Matador Trailer & Photos
All Critics (157) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (111) | Rotten (36) | DVD (26)
... a dark comedy that is missing the laughs to be funny and the darkness to be, well, dark.
Top CriticNever as good as you'd hoped or as bad as you'd feared, The Matador is one of those of up-and-down experiences.
Let the good times roll, and take a run at The Matador.
It's painful to watch as the movie basically destroys itself in the second half, slipping from its elegant thriller setup to tired sitcom shenanigans.
[A] really, really strong film.
Unevenly paced yet darkly funny and consistently intriguing.
Absurd and quirky at times, The Matador plays like a "Bizarro World" variation of a James Bond film. It's beautifully shot, strange and deeply meaningful.
Brosnan's sleazy, broken-spirited hitman Julian Noble nabs the spotlight in Richard Shepard's generally pleasing comic thriller.
...a hip and hilarious dark comedy.
Brosnan's work as a monster who'd like to become human, but has no idea how, is painfully funny.
A chemistry-free buddy flick.
Get past the stunt casting, and The Matador has very little to offer, despite all the hubbub surrounding it.
But the gold star here goes to Brosnan. His performance digs deep into Julian's soul and it is that depth that makes the performance stand out.
in an ideal world, The Matador would be the movie to watch on a late Friday afternoon to start relaxing for the weekend
... it does give Brosnan a chance to show his comic skills in an edgy comedy that is perhaps not dark enough for the subject matter.
Thrives on its sleazeball hero being so colorful that you forget its thin, vacuous, amoral and improbable hit man story.
Brosnan is performing his own high-wire act here, daring us not to like his sleazy, vulgar, insensitive, immoral character.
Casting Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) to play the straight man to Brosnan's wacked-out whack-man was a stroke of genius.
An amusing and original comedy that skips along with the quirky, charismatic shake-shake-shake of maracas.
Ole! for this off-kilter buddy pic with a darker side.
Pierce Brosnan oferece, aqui, um dos melhores desempenhos de sua carreira.
Demands to be loved in spite of itself and refuses to sugar-coat its characters for its audience. And that'll make it a love it or leave it film; there'll be no sitting on the fence after seeing this.
A strangely funny dark comedy with Hitchcockian overtones.
It's quirky (everyone says so, but it's absolutely accurate) and chock full of real live heart and truth and human connection.
Even though it's a little too enamored with its edge and so obviously symbolic it could be called "The Metaphor," Brosnan is at his best, and the movie's got more on its mind than guns, giggles and a weenie-meets-warrior vibe.
The Matador is a delight. Brosnan displays a wonderful flair for comedy, while Kinnear is perfectly in tune as his shocked, straight-arrow foil.
Audience Reviews for The Matador
Super Reviewer
If the image of a moustachioed Pierce Brosnan wearing cowboy boots and a speedo intrigues you, then this is a movie for you. Brosnan is delightful as Julian, and you can tell he's having fun making little jabs at his tenure as James Bond. As Danny, Greg Kinnear makes for a solid foil against Brosnan's Julian, and he's good, though overshadowed. Hope Davis is also rather funny as Danny's loving wife who reacts to Julian in a surprisingly funny way.
The film is a dark comedy, with some elements of action and intrigue, and it mostly works, but even then, the tone is all over the place, and it seems difficult to sometiems tell what the film wants to be. It's still pretty agreeable and very entertaining though. The story isn't spectacular, but the performances and likeability of the characters make it work.
If you want something fun and different, then check this out.
Super Reviewer
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Movie: ID: 24471 Title: The Matador Release Date: 2006-01-27 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- The Matador (2006) (DE)
- The Matador (2006) (CA)
