 The Matador is definitely not what you would expect. Its much better than you would expect. Its an incredibly dark comedy that presents Pierce Brosnan as the quirkiest hitman of all time, Julian Noble. Here's a man who is facing the trials and tribulations of life as a professional assassin. He's lonely, and he has no one to spend his time with. When he meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in a Mexico City bar late one evening, he immediately attaches himself to him. Julian sees a chance for true camaraderie and friendship, and he annoyingly pursues Danny constantly. Julian even unwisely lets Danny in on his secret life as a murderer for hire. Danny is initially reticent about this, but is eventually convinced and actually quite scared. Their relationship awkwardly ends.
Flash forward to months later. Danny is home in Denver, where he lives with his wife. Their lives are generally miserable, as they are still recovering from the death of their young son in a school bus crash. Its difficult to get through the days. On the other side of the world, Julian is in a similar situation. He's losing his touch, and he's freezing up on hits. This is beginning to worry his employers, and Julian is now in danger of having a contract put out on him, if he doesn't straighten up and fly right. He doesn't know who to turn to, but then it occurs to him. He will seek help from the only friend he's ever known, Danny.
So, one night Danny and his wife get a knock on the door, and guess who it is. Danny has told his wife of his interlude with a hitman in Mexico, and she is enthralled by the story. But when an inebriated Julian is banging on their door in the middle of the night, its a little bit scary. I won't ruin anymore of the plot for you, but its really cool.
Presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and encoded at 1080p, the Matador looks quite good, but suffers from a few problems. Overall, its a damn good visual presentation. Colors look great, and black detail is impeccable. Source material is in awesome shape. I did feel the image was soft in a few parts, though. Audio is Dolby Digital Plus 51 surround, and its quite impressive for a low-budget film. Surrounds are active during some scenes, but the mix is still often front heavy. Dialogue is never garbled, though. |
