Admittedly a review of a movie sequel should make a few references to the original. And I did see The Whole Nine Yards, the precursor to The Whole Ten Yards but I can't really say a whole lot about it. The thing is, I fell asleep when I watched it, but I got the general idea.
At first I felt bad about my lack of background in Nine Yards, but then I figured if it were a good movie worth noting, I'd have stayed awake for it. But I didn't, so it's probably not. So henceforth no reference will be made to Nine Yards but to say that the extra yard seems to have made a world of difference. Not only did I stay awake for this one, I liked it. A lot.
In Ten Yards we find hapless dentist, Oz (Matthew Perry), with new wife, Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), the hit-man's ex.
Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski, the hit man with a heart of gold (Bruce Willis) is presumed dead and left to rest in peace in Mexico with wife Jill (Amanda Peet), who has yet to pull off a clean hit.
Meanwhile, Oz lives in fear of being hunted down by the mob. Although his anxiety causes him to pull a gun on a Girl Scout selling cookies, his suspicions are not entirely misplaced.
Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollak), the head of a Hungarian crime family, is released from prison on parole and his first order of business is to kill Jimmy, who offed his son.
The plot takes several twists and turns from there, but suffice it to say, this sharply written black comedy pleasantly surpassed expectations. Matthew Perry's impeccable comic timing left the audience in stitches, and Kevin Pollak stole the show with his unplacable eastern European accent and side-splitting one liners. All in all: a delightfully wicked little movie certainly worth staying awake for.
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