The Volokh Conspiracy - Thumbs Down on "The Matador":

Relying on generally good reviews, my wife and I hired a babysitter and went out to see "The Matador" tonight. It was a bad movie. Bad. Bad. Boring. Contrary to reviews, not funny [Update: A couple of guys in the back of the theater laughed heartily every time Pierce Brosnan copulated with a hooker, but those were the only laughs the movie received where we saw it]. Nor suspenseful. With a plot that makes no sense (click below for spoiler). Matchpoint was much better. Brokeback Mountain, though overrated in our opinion, was much better, though not as good as Matchpoint. But by far the best movie we've seen lately is Shrek 2 on DVD. Your mileage may vary.

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	[David Bernstein, January 27, 2006 at 9:02pm] Trackbacks Thumbs Down on "The Matador": Relying on generally good reviews, my wife and I hired a babysitter and went out to see "The Matador" tonight. It was a bad movie. Bad. Bad. Boring. Contrary to reviews, not funny [Update: A couple of guys in the back of the theater laughed heartily every time Pierce Brosnan copulated with a hooker, but those were the only laughs the movie received where we saw it]. Nor suspenseful. With a plot that makes no sense (click below for spoiler). Matchpoint was much better. Brokeback Mountain, though overrated in our opinion, was much better, though not as good as Matchpoint. But by far the best movie we've seen lately is Shrek 2 on DVD. Your mileage may vary. (show) In particular, would a normal person help an assassin he barely knows kill a stranger simply because they had a good man to man talk one night when he was drunk and depressed? Oh yeah, not to mention that the heart of the man to man was the assassin refusing to kill the other character's business rival, mostly to avoid future guilt feelings. So he'd feel guilty about that, but not guilty about helping the assassin kill someone else? (hide)