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DVD REVIEW FOR
"THE WHOLE NINE YARDS"

(2000) (Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis) (R)

Length Screen Format(s) Languages Subtitles Sound Sides
99 minutes Letterbox (1.85:1)
Full Frame
16x9 - Widescreen
English
French
English
French
Dolby Digital 5.1 2

PLOT & PARENTAL REVIEW

AUDIO/VIDEO ELEMENTS:
Other than some brief instances of pixelation and some scenes purposefully bathed in too much color, the image here looks great, features plenty of detail and rich colors. The audio track is also solid, with dialogue, a handful of songs and the film's score making up most of what's present, although various sound/spatial effects are included for good aural measure.
EXTRAS:
  • Scene selection/Jump to any scene.
  • Running audio commentary by director Jonathan Lynn.
  • Cast and Crew listing. Interview gallery (Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Michael Clarke Duncan, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet and director Jonathan Lynn talking on a variety of topics related to the film).
  • COMMENTS:
    The whimsical and near black comedy, organized crime caper is revisited once again and gets the big star treatment in "The Whole Nine Yards." The more humorous and irreverent side of mob-related films was an inevitable but somewhat welcomed result of the more serious and hardcore mafia films such as the "Godfather" trilogy and violence-heavy flicks such as "Scarface" that dominated the past several decades. Yet, that comical approach and the resultant films have been done so often now that they've become a bit too familiar and predictable to stand out like they once did.

    In essence, this moderately enjoyable and successful effort is rather similar in its underlying premise as 1999's "Analyze This" and "Mickey Blue Eyes." In all three films, an innocent and often bumbling layman unwittingly gets involved with an initially benevolent, but seemingly explosive mob figure. From that point on, the protagonist must contend with the mobster's various plans and presumably face his wrath should he not completely participate.

    As directed by Jonathan Lynn ("Trial and Error," "My Cousin Vinny") and written by Mitchell Kapner (his first produced script), the film is different enough from those other genre entries, and offers enough amusing moments from its charismatic cast, to make it a worthy alternative, as well as a complementary addition, to those other films.

    Here, the hit man, wonderfully underplayed by Bruce Willis ("The Sixth Sense," "Armageddon"), isn't the typical "Godfather" type thug, and the setting takes place - of all the odd locations for such a story - in Canada. While the latter doesn't really add anything to the proceedings, Willis' droll performance and double entendre-laced dialogue (where his comments could mean one or more things to the understandably nervous protagonist) provides for most of the film's laughs.

    As such, the plot unfolds in a moderately amusing and interesting fashion, but doesn't quite come off as clever as the filmmakers probably envisioned or wished. While enough double crossing is present to keep the film from becoming too predictable, a bigger heaping of it probably would have resulted in a far better, wittier and more enjoyable experience.

    For instance, I kept imagining and waiting for various characters to turn against those presumably on "their side" (perhaps even several times), and for a subplot -- dealing with the protagonist's wife trying to hire a hit man to "whack" him -- to be more closely intertwined with the main plot. What's present works, but it never quite feels like it attains nor maintains its maximum momentum or fully realizes its potential.

    For the most part, the performances are delivered in a winning fashion. Beyond Willis who obviously steals the show, Matthew Perry ("Three To Tango," TV's "Friends") is decent as the nervous and bumbling dentist who's suddenly in over his head, but - as in most of his other work - pretty much plays the same sort of character he always does. While that's not a horrible thing - unless you can't stand such characterizations - it would be nice to see Perry stretch his thespian wings a bit. Of course, that wouldn't have worked for this role, and he does give the character enough neurotic ticks and tendencies to keep him amusing.

    Fresh off his Oscar nominated performance in "The Green Mile," Michael Clarke Duncan (who also appeared in "Armageddon" with Willis) does a fine job in a comic turn, while Amanda Peet ("Body Shots," TV's "Jack and Jill") is refreshingly fun in a comical gender twist on the typical hit man story.

    While Kevin Pollak ("Deterrence," the "Grumpy Old Men" films) and Natasha Henstridge ("Species," "Maximum Risk") do the best with what they've been given to work with as the chief mobster and the hit man's estranged wife respectively, Rosanna Arquette ("Desperately Seeking Susan," "Pulp Fiction") simply doesn't work as the protagonist's manipulative and vindictive wife (her French Canadian accent is irritating at best and embarrassedly distracting the rest of the time).

    Although the film won't play to everyone's tastes - it's another of those mob comedies where violence and murder are portrayed in a droll and nonchalant fashion, when not used as a basis for intended comedy - and isn't as clever and funny as it could and should have been, it will probably play rather well to non-choosey viewers looking for a mostly lighthearted black comedy.

    Decent and moderately entertaining mainly due to the winning performances from the charismatic cast, "The Whole Nine Yards" might not exactly deliver what the title promises, but at least gets more than halfway there. As far as the technical merits go, the audio and video components are just fine, while the disc includes my favorite supplement - the always informative and insightful running audio commentary from the film's director.

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