Monday 22 November 2010

THE WHOLE TEN YARDS

CONTAINS VERY MINOR SPOILERS, AND THERE'S NOT THAT MUCH ELSE I CAN TELL YOU

If I'm a little bit in the dark regarding this movie, it's probably because it's a seven-year-old sequel to a film that came out about ten years ago, and which I haven't seen since its initial UK theatrical release. The Whole Nine Yards was okay but it wasn't a film I've had any burning desire to revisit in the interim, and I never managed to catch this followup when it hit British cinemas. In other words, in the years between seeing The Whole Nine and Ten Yards I'd forgotten all but the basics of the setup, and that includes whatever Natasha Henstridge and Amanda Peet were doing.

In The Whole Ten Yards, they're married to Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis respectively; Willis's character faked his death at the end of Nine and is now living incognito in Mexico where Peet is trying to become a hired assassin but isn't very good at it. Meanwhile Henstridge is kidnapped by a gangster (Kevin Pollak unrecognisable under a lot of makeup and using an incredibly weird accent) who wants revenge on Willis for the previous killing of his brother; Perry seeks out Willis to get her back but Willis isn't interested, partly because Henstridge is his own ex-wife. But there's something else going on.....

Frankly, whatever. It's hard to care and there's little in the way of laughs to be had (the level of humour is best illustrated by an old woman repeatedly farting and a scene in which Perry thinks he and Willis might have had drunken gay sex), although it's always nice to see Willis basically doing the standard Willis light comedy performance. The plot has a couple of completely unbelievable twists in it and the central MacGuffin is pretty well thrown away at the end. Bordeline tolerable at best and if you don't see it, you're honestly missing nothing.

**

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