The Matador

2005 "A hitman and a salesman walk into a bar..."
6.7| 1h36m| R| en| More Info
Released: 12 May 2005 Released
Producted By: Irish Dreamtime
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The life of Danny Wright, a salesman forever on the road, veers into dangerous and surreal territory when he wanders into a Mexican bar and meets a mysterious stranger, Julian, who's very likely a hit man. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, as Wright is suddenly thrust into a far-from-mundane existence that he takes to surprisingly well … once he gets acclimated to it.

Genre

Drama, Action, Comedy

Watch Online

The Matador (2005) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Richard Shepard

Production Companies

Irish Dreamtime

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial
Watch Now
The Matador Videos and Images
View All
  • Top Credited Cast
  • |
  • Crew

The Matador Audience Reviews

More Review
Alicia I love this movie so much
Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
nellstellhill I can't list this movie as one of my favorite movies but it does have two of my favorite actors reminding me why they are. I have always loved Pierce Brosnan as far back as Remington Steel. I feel he was robbed of the James Bond gig in his prime but was still glad when he finally was cast as 007. I have found Greg Kinnear to be a most versatile actor. He really has a true range. If he was a singer he would be Mariah Carey in her heyday.I did not find this move to be action packed but what it lacked in action it made up for in content. I truly enjoyed the friendship these men had. I also can understand the way their friendship developed and feel that in the given circumstances anyone could end up following the same sequence of events.I did not like this movie enough to watch it again alone but I would watch it with someone else so that they could experience both the interesting story line and two great actors working together to offer a quality product.
dromasca Should I feel a little bit guilty for having enjoyed this film? It's not the greatest action movie around, it lacks special effects and car chases. Credibility is not really the strong argument of the story. We are asked and we end by sympathizing with a couple of guys who do very bad things. And yet The Matador produced and acted by Pierce Brosnan worked for me better than I expected. Now I need to find why.Julian Noble is a hit-man and the most irregular guy on Earth. He kills people for money, has no home or even a fixed address, getting drunk and buying sex seem to be his only pass-times. Danny Wright is the most regular guy on Earth, a businessman from Denver, he does have a house and a beautiful and loving wife, but his professional and personal life seems to have entered in an unavoidable dead-end. Their getting together is an improbable event, the only less probable one being them becoming friends. Yet, this is exactly what happens in The Matador and their friendship takes a path that is unpredictable and hidden from the viewer or the viewer is sent to wrong tracks for much of the time.So why does the story written and directed by Richard Shepard work? One of the reasons is that each of the three characters has a lot to identify with. Of course, hard to resonate with the professional killer day job, but certainly easy to feel compassion for working permanently under pressure, getting tired of the accelerated (corporate!) rhythm, not getting a listening ear from your boss. With the other two characters (Danny and his wife) it's much easier, they are us, but here comes the second principal reason of my liking this film - acting. Both Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis not only give fine performances, but they are sincere and feel the roles. They are us, and make us understand that. Pierce Brosnan is nothing but perfect, this is the best role I saw him in, his switching acts from the cool killer to the lost kid in town, from cynicism to vulnerability are masterful and the comical register fits him as well as the James Bond jacket. Last reason, the film carries some problematic or bad ideas (friendship as a good excuse for killing for example) but also a great one - beware of what regular people can do when you push them with the back to the wall! Eventually the combination of these three arguments wins.
Abrar Raza Please don't expect our regular Brosnan. No Shattered(2007), no After the Sunset(2004), and definitely not a 007. He plays his age. And do does the same with panache and the class.Plot Sum: A hit-man meets a regular person(Kinnear). A regular, out of the league of the characters, friendship develops. Leading to a regular end.It Says: The human nature knows no bound in representing their inherent character of being social, which actually, is situational. Anyway, when the so called frequency matches-up, the acceptance leads to expectation. And that expectation threads-up one more purpose of being there. Life is not always about the defined relationships. Sometimes you can also invent a new name of any sort of bonding. Don't restrict yourself, but with caution... :)Enjoy!
Boba_Fett1138 In a way this movie is being like the crime version of "Lost in Translation". It uses a very similar concept of a burned out, aging hit-man meeting an average Joe, in a foreign country and decide on spending their time together. It even somewhat uses the same approach of mixing comedy with serious drama. Not saying that this is a bad thing, or something that really matters but it was just a fun observation I made.The movie is still good and original to watch on its own though luckily. It's a movie with some hits and misses in it but overall I still consider it to be an above average one.The movie does feel a bit awkward at times with its comedy, that just seems to come and go within this movie. The one moment it's a real goofy movie to watch, while the movie mostly is still made in a very serious fashion and tone. But still it helps to make the movie pleasant and easy to watch. And this is a good thing, since it isn't exactly the movie its story that is being its strongest aspect.It's as if the director himself also didn't had really enough confidence in his own written script and tried to spice things up more with an over-stylized, hip, modern style that instead more often came across as too desperate and too wannabee. All of the sings of an inexperienced director but Richard Shepard actually isn't that inexperienced at all, which makes it odd that he really made some wrong choices at times with this movie.One thing that bugged me for instance was that we never saw the Pierce Brosnan character kill anybody in this movie, even though he does supposedly kill a whole bunch of people. Again, to me this was a sign that the director just didn't had enough confidence in either his script and actors. He must had been worried that we wouldn't care or sympathize with the Pierce Brosnan character if we saw him killing people in cold blood.And there absolutely was no reason for that, since it really are the actors that pull this movie and its story through. They do such a good job and I think I have to admit that I have never seen Pierce Brosnan act so well within a movie. He's very convincing and they also did a great job at aging him up. Yes, he of course was already in his 50's but he seems to be a guy that simply ever refuses to start to look old, until this movie came along, in which he really looks like a burned out guy, at an age when everything seems to go downhill for him from now on.So it really is far from a perfect movie, or a must-see but it's a good movie to watch if you happen to catch it on TV when nothing else is on. You probably won't regret watching it, despite of all of its flaws and weaknesses (such as also its editing, which I forgot to mention before) that are in it.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/