Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Matador is an off kilter comedy that works by expertly playing on the audience's expectations without being overly manipulative. Erstwhile 007 Pierce Brosnan plays the the low down and dirty version of JB, a hit man for hire with very bad people skills. He's coming to the end of his run at the top, and has enough money to retire, but nothing or no one to retire to, not a single friend or any other human connection. While on a job in Mexico he runs into Danny, played by Greg Kinnear, who's also in town on a business trip, albeit ina different line of work! The two strike up as mcuh of a friendship as Brosnan's Julian allows, and inevitably when Julian's bosses decide he's more of a lliability than an asset Kinnear's Danny is the only friend he can turn to for help.

Brosnan's status as a former 007 is just the first of this clever movie's misdirection plays, all of which I found effective. The movie never quite goes the direction you think it will, and yet works on both levels as a comedy and a thriller. Brosnan is fantastic, and does an excellent job of being weird, humanly vulnerable and dangerous at the same time. Being somewhat aware of the discomfort he causes in those around him is the only thing that separates him from Rupert Pupkin. Kinnear is the perfect straight man, who's perfect as an every day nice guy who's lost a son and loves his wife, but also good at hinting that he's not quite what he seems either. This movie is clever and funny, and n underrated gem that shouldn't be missed.

The 1080p video is crunched with MPEG-4/AVC and the results as played back on Toshiba's HD-XA2 were nothing short of excellent. The detail is oustanding, and as is becoming increasingly typical on next-gen releases there are virtually no compression artifacts or any other distractions. The video is quite pristine overall, even if the color palette is a bit overdone in some respects. Still, this could be an artistic choice and has nothing to do with the technical quality of the rpesentation, which is as outstanding as I've come to expect from HD DVD.

The Dolby Digital Plus track here is mostly subtle, only occasionally exploding into a robust, discrete surround experience. The dialog is always clear, and while this isn't demo matieral it serves the material perfectly well and certainly doesn't get in the way. Solid if not spectacular.

Let me add too that while i've read reports online of this disc having playback issues, I experienced none with the Toshiba HD-XA2. It booted slowly, but played back without a hitch.

The Matador is fairly loaded with extras, including a wonderful commentary with Brosnan, Kinnear and writer/director Richard Shephard as well as another with only Shephard. The deleted scenes are good, and there is also a (very) short featurette on the making of the movie and some radio material that I didn't have time to dig into. A TV commercial and a trailer are also included.

I watched this at night when my wife and kid had gone to bed, and I can't wait to watch it again with my wife, who's a fan of both Brosnan and Kinnear. It's worth at least a rental, but I'm happy to own it and will defintely be watching it again. A lot of people missed this one on theaters, but don't let it get by on HD DVD.

Picture: 9 out of 10

Sound: 7 out of 10

Video reviewed on Marantz VP-11S1 1080p DLP projector, 80" wide Stewart Filmscreen Studiotek 130 screen and Toshiba HD-XA2 player via HDMI to Anthem AVM 50. Audio sent as PCM over HDMI to Anthem AVM 50. Ayre MX-R monoblocks and Theta Dreadnaught power amps, and Vandersteen loudspeakers. All video cables by Bettercables, all audio cables by AudioQuest