The Matador 2005

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: 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. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Unevenly paced yet darkly funny and consistently intriguing. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Funny and touching. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [A] really, really strong film. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A colorful, freewheeling tale that never gets beneath its darkly comic surface. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Let the good times roll, and take a run at The Matador. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Writer-director Richard Shepard's movie is just a sweet, broadly made buddy picture that happens to look a lot like an Almodovar production. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Now that hoopla surrounding the holiday blockbusters has peaked, audiences will have a better chance at not overlooking this poignant comic gem. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: In The Matador, Pierce Brosnan plays another man with license to kill, yet he gives a performance wildly unlike his suave superspy. In fact, it may be his best role yet. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film rapidly devolves into a lame buddy picture, part thriller, mostly goof. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: A tart comedy about economic duress and the mind-set of a soon-to-be downsized hit man, it's also a salty celebration of the romance and necessity of friendship. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The chief joy in this film is the balance of vulnerability and conniving slickness that [Pierce] Brosnan brings to his hit man and the easy kick that a middle-class husband and wife get out of knowing him. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The cinematography is consistently hipster handsome, the script is bracing in its lewdness, and Brosnan adds no unnecessary weight to Noble's meaninglessness. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: This comedy is as dark as it is oddly unpredictable -- and sporadically hilarious. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Maybe Brosnan is so shockingly good in this film because Kinnear gives him the sounding board and safety net that the actor never had in his sadly solitary spy-flick duties. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Eventually, you forget Brosnan's ongoing effort to set fire to his trademark creased-and-polished image and begin to share his apparent glee in traipsing through this seriocomic farrago of crime melodrama, buddy movie and sob story. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Stepping into the role was a bold step by the retiring James Bond, and Brosnan's smooth fit comes as both a shock and a pleasure. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The Matador is admittedly a trifle in the long view of cinema, but it's an amusingly adroit piece of work nonetheless. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: ... a dark comedy that is missing the laughs to be funny and the darkness to be, well, dark. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie has a nicely modulated mix of comedy and pathos, but succeeds as much because of the two lead performances as Richard Shepard's writing and directing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie's writer-director, Richard Shepard, balances the macabre and the sentimental, and understands that although his film contains questions like 'don't successful people always live with blood on their hands?' its real subject is friendship. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The Matador strives for an airy, merry amorality, but it never quite achieves liftoff, though at times it comes close. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Never as good as you'd hoped or as bad as you'd feared, The Matador is one of those of up-and-down experiences. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: There's a good movie in the general proximity of The Matador, but it only crosses paths with the one you're watching in a couple of scenes. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: Brosnan's irreverent charm makes this a welcome alternative to Bond nonsense, even if it's insufficient to compensate for dreary Kinnear ... Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: A quirky yet commercial commingling of black comedy, seriocomic psychodrama, heart-tugging sudser and buddy-movie farce. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: The general details and color of The Matador fade quickly from memory while Brosnan's gamy, inscrutable libertine is still exhaling Scotch vapor in your face. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Richard Shepard's noirish movie is constantly couched in quotation marks. Read more