Matador

Herald rating: * * *

Pierce Brosnan, dumped as James Bond, has responded well by finding himself a role that firmly allows him to leave behind his suave spy legacy, take the mickey out of himself as international hitman, and leave us with one of his more memorable performances.

Brosnan's ironically named Julian Noble is more like Bond's poor cousin. With an address book filled with whorehouses, an appetite for teenage girls, no home and no mates, Noble is a foul-mouthed, socially inept and worn out hitman heading towards a midlife crisis.

Desperately in need of a holiday, which would mean involuntary retirement, Noble struggles on. In a bar in Mexico City, he meets Danny Wright (Kinnear) who is on a business trip. Danny's a nice, straight guy from suburban Denver, is married to his childhood sweetheart Bean (Davis), and has had a bit of bad luck. The two don't hit it off, but Danny finds himself accompanying Noble to a bullfight the next day, where Noble discloses he's a hitman, or as he puts it, "I facilitate fatalities".

Danny enjoys the distraction from his financial worries, but if he thought that meeting Noble was just a good story he could tell at dinner parties, he was mistaken, because if Nobel is to get through his midlife crisis then he's going to need Danny's help.

An oddball comedy that hits and misses, Matador is more of a buddy movie about Danny and Noble's friendship than it is an action-packed thriller. Kinnear and Brosnan feed off each other well, and since neither takes the moral high ground the film's dark humour is able to prevail.

If Brosnan intended to shake his Bond image from our minds he's done a good job, although his female fan base might wonder if he had to be so sleazy and crass along the way.

CAST: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis
DIRECTOR: Richard Shepard
RUNNING TIME: 96 mins
RATING: R13, sex scenes & offensive language
SCREENING: Rialto