For this week’s episode of CBS’ S.W.A.T., Jay Harrington made his directorial debut — and be brought longtime friend Taye Diggs along for the ride.
In the episode “All that Glitters” (airing Friday at 8/7c), Hondo’s longtime friend and former Marine squad leader, Danny Wright (played by Diggs, fresh off his All American run), turns to Hondo for help when his daughter goes missing. Elsewhere, the team, following a string of violent home robberies, rushes to stop a crew that is targeting elderly victims.
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In the episode “All that Glitters” (airing Friday at 8/7c), Hondo’s longtime friend and former Marine squad leader, Danny Wright (played by Diggs, fresh off his All American run), turns to Hondo for help when his daughter goes missing. Elsewhere, the team, following a string of violent home robberies, rushes to stop a crew that is targeting elderly victims.
More from TVLineSurvivor 44 Recap: Best Laid Plans Will Go Astray -- but Whose Plan Worked...
- 5/3/2023
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
PARK CITY -- The Matador gets a 151-proof tequila shot of sharp comedy from the droll byplay between Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear. Brosnan is the ironically named Julian Noble, a margarita-soaked hit man with degenerate tastes and disgusting habits, while Kinnear plays Danny Wright, a grown-up Boy Scout, who married his high-school sweetheart and lived happy ever after -- except it hasn't worked out that way.
Writer-director Richard Shepard's quirky black comedy never quite figures out where to do with these unlikely soul mates. Then a lame third act leaves one with the feeling of a great barroom joke, elaborately told, that lacks a solid punch line. At least the comedy is wonderfully off-kilter and the performances, including Hope Davis as Danny's faithful wife, Bean, contains buoyancy to give The Matador definite commercial potential.
After a lackluster feint in that direction with After the Sunset, Brosnan has hit upon the perfect anti-Bond role here. The ignoble Mr. Noble travels the world eliminating people for unseen corporate interests, whiling away the hours between jobs by fornicating with whores or underage girls and gulping down huge quantities of liquor. Meanwhile, Kinnear's Mr. Wright has seen his life go wrong in a devastating "losing streak" that began over three years before with the loss of his son and then the loss of a job.
Each man finds himself in Mexico City, pursuing career opportunities. For Julian, it's a big hit commissioned by his handler, Mr. Randy (Phillip Baker Hall). For Danny, it's a competitive pitch to a Mexican firm for an assignment that will pull his wife and him out of severe financial distress. The two wind up in the same starkly modern but soulless hotel bar.
The initial get-acquainted bar talk goes seriously wrong right from the start. But Danny's deal grows complicated, forcing him to stay on a few days, so Julian, suddenly lonely when he realizes it's his birthday, takes Danny under his wings for a trip to the bullfights and into his confidence when he reveals his occupation as a "facilitator of fatalities." He, of course, must prove this to Danny, and it is only a matter of time before he requests Danny's help as a co-facilitator.
The comedy may be character-driven, but the vehicle stalls frequently. The extremes between the two buddies cover up most deficiencies, but eventually audiences may wonder if Shepard has a point or a destination. It's a movie-long struggle to find a meaningful way for the lives of two disparate characters in a hotel to intersect as they did in, say, Lost in Translation.
Scenes grow dialogue-heavy and the thriller aspect to the tale never takes hold. One also becomes aware that despite the fact the movie jets away to Manila, Budapest and Vienna, it clearly never leaves Mexico City. (The U.S. sequences and designer Rob Pearson's sets for the Wrights' suburban Denver home, build at Churubusco Studios, are much more effective.)
Which is not to say that production values aren't excellent for a movie made for much less than a studio would spend. Pearson, cinematographer David Tattersall and composer Rolfe Kent give the film a definite sheen.
Ultimately, just in a nick of time, the movie does discover a destination, one that gives the comedy something of a moral lift despite the fact Danny does indeed briefly become a facilitator of a fatality. And, if nothing else, no one seeing The Matador will ever quite forget the indelible image of the former James Bond striding through the hotel lobby, clutching a beer and wearing only a black Speedo and boots.
THE MATADOR
Stratus Film Co. and DEB Productions present in association with Equity Pictures Medienfonds a Furst Films/Irish Dreamtime production
Credits:
Writer/director: Richard Shepard
Producers: Pierce Brosnan, Beau St. Clair, Sean Furst, Bryan Furst
Executive producers: Bob Yari, Mark Gordon
Director of photography: David Tattersall
Production designer: Rob Pearson
Music: Rolfe Kent
Costume designer: Catherine Thomas
Editor: Carol Kravetz-Akyanian.
Cast:
Julian Noble: Pierce Brosnan
Danny Wright: Greg Kinnear
Bean: Hope Davis
Mr. Randy: Phillip Baker Hall
Phil Garrison: Adam Scott
Lovell: Dylan Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 96 minutes...
Writer-director Richard Shepard's quirky black comedy never quite figures out where to do with these unlikely soul mates. Then a lame third act leaves one with the feeling of a great barroom joke, elaborately told, that lacks a solid punch line. At least the comedy is wonderfully off-kilter and the performances, including Hope Davis as Danny's faithful wife, Bean, contains buoyancy to give The Matador definite commercial potential.
After a lackluster feint in that direction with After the Sunset, Brosnan has hit upon the perfect anti-Bond role here. The ignoble Mr. Noble travels the world eliminating people for unseen corporate interests, whiling away the hours between jobs by fornicating with whores or underage girls and gulping down huge quantities of liquor. Meanwhile, Kinnear's Mr. Wright has seen his life go wrong in a devastating "losing streak" that began over three years before with the loss of his son and then the loss of a job.
Each man finds himself in Mexico City, pursuing career opportunities. For Julian, it's a big hit commissioned by his handler, Mr. Randy (Phillip Baker Hall). For Danny, it's a competitive pitch to a Mexican firm for an assignment that will pull his wife and him out of severe financial distress. The two wind up in the same starkly modern but soulless hotel bar.
The initial get-acquainted bar talk goes seriously wrong right from the start. But Danny's deal grows complicated, forcing him to stay on a few days, so Julian, suddenly lonely when he realizes it's his birthday, takes Danny under his wings for a trip to the bullfights and into his confidence when he reveals his occupation as a "facilitator of fatalities." He, of course, must prove this to Danny, and it is only a matter of time before he requests Danny's help as a co-facilitator.
The comedy may be character-driven, but the vehicle stalls frequently. The extremes between the two buddies cover up most deficiencies, but eventually audiences may wonder if Shepard has a point or a destination. It's a movie-long struggle to find a meaningful way for the lives of two disparate characters in a hotel to intersect as they did in, say, Lost in Translation.
Scenes grow dialogue-heavy and the thriller aspect to the tale never takes hold. One also becomes aware that despite the fact the movie jets away to Manila, Budapest and Vienna, it clearly never leaves Mexico City. (The U.S. sequences and designer Rob Pearson's sets for the Wrights' suburban Denver home, build at Churubusco Studios, are much more effective.)
Which is not to say that production values aren't excellent for a movie made for much less than a studio would spend. Pearson, cinematographer David Tattersall and composer Rolfe Kent give the film a definite sheen.
Ultimately, just in a nick of time, the movie does discover a destination, one that gives the comedy something of a moral lift despite the fact Danny does indeed briefly become a facilitator of a fatality. And, if nothing else, no one seeing The Matador will ever quite forget the indelible image of the former James Bond striding through the hotel lobby, clutching a beer and wearing only a black Speedo and boots.
THE MATADOR
Stratus Film Co. and DEB Productions present in association with Equity Pictures Medienfonds a Furst Films/Irish Dreamtime production
Credits:
Writer/director: Richard Shepard
Producers: Pierce Brosnan, Beau St. Clair, Sean Furst, Bryan Furst
Executive producers: Bob Yari, Mark Gordon
Director of photography: David Tattersall
Production designer: Rob Pearson
Music: Rolfe Kent
Costume designer: Catherine Thomas
Editor: Carol Kravetz-Akyanian.
Cast:
Julian Noble: Pierce Brosnan
Danny Wright: Greg Kinnear
Bean: Hope Davis
Mr. Randy: Phillip Baker Hall
Phil Garrison: Adam Scott
Lovell: Dylan Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 96 minutes...
- 1/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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