Movie Review: The Whole Ten Yards
Starring: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Kevin Pollack, Natasha Henstridge and Amanda Peet
Directed by: Howard Deutch

This is an older movie, but one which I just saw in its entirety. Not only is this movie out on video, but its already seen its network television premiere. I’m behind the pace on this one.

This film is the sequel to 2002’s (more appropriately named) The Whole Nine Yards, where Willis plays mobster hitman Jimmy “the Tulip” Tudeski, who moves to Montreal to start his new life. He moves into a house next to dentist Oz (Perry) and the adventures begin as the Chicago mob learns of Jimmy’s new home, and enlists’ Oz’s help to try and eliminate Jimmy.

In the second film, we pick up right where the first left off. Both of our in-love couples are enjoying a comfortable (if not slightly paranoid) existence, always mindful of being tracked down by the remaining members of the Mob that survived the first film.
Promotions for Ten Yards showed Willis running around in an apron, wearing a housecoat and vacuuming. Its true, he does do this an awful lot during the first part of the film, but we certainly get lots of the cold-hearted killer behavior from the Tulip later on in the film.

Kevin Pollack returns as the father of the character of the film he played in the Whole Nine Yards. Good makeup creates a truly hilarious character, combined with Pollack’s great conception of the Hungarian mobster, complete with a barrage of mis-pronounced vowels.

The great downfall of this film is that the plot is secondary to the jokes which happen between its characters. The fun thing about this is that in this second film, these actors have perfected their relationships with each other (particularly Perry and Willis) and the one-liners are able to fly like crazy.
Being a bit of a fan for the first film, it is fun being able to watch these actors play with each other. You can tell it was a lot of fun for them to work together.
Sadly, they end up sacrificing cohesion and plausibility in the meanwhile.

What we end up with is a playful romp through the comical world of contract killers that is all candy but no meat. I suppose some wouldn’t care if the content of the film ends up being rather fluffy, but my mind is one that always hopes that despite any number of jokes (no matter how funny) that there will be a real story underneath it all.

This movie seems to just enjoy what it is: a dessert-styled film designed to let everyone enjoy the work of these actors without giving us any fussy plot to have to think about.

If I had paid for a ticket in the theater to see this movie, I would have to give it a bad grade, but since I watched this in the comfort of my own home and without cost to myself, the grade jumps up a little bit…

The Kill-Em-Dead-In-Their-Tracks Grade: C+