PG-13
Stars: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Kevin Pollack
When contract killer Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudesky (Bruce Willis) moves to a Montreal suburb and right next door to mild-mannered and henpecked dentist Nick ‘Oz’ Oseransky (Matthew Perry), all hell breaks out.
This is a pleasing comedy and Willis and Perry work quite well together. In fact, I was more impressed with Perry here than I’ve been watching him on the small screen in “Friends”.
Oz is unnverved when he recognizes Jimmy’s telling tattoo and a chance comment to his discontented and badgering wife Sophie (a loopy, French-accented Rosanna Arquette) leads to murder and mayhem in a most humorous manner.
When Jimmy’s old crime boss Yanni (Kevin Pollack) finds out that Oz knows where Jimmy is, the pressure is on and Oz finds himself in the middle of a mafia squeeze involving Frankie Figgs (the behemoth Michael Clarke Duncan, the giant from “The Green Mile”), Jimmy’s old wife Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge) and Oz’ own wife Sophie who thinks this is just a great opportunity to get Jimmy to kill Oz for the insurance money.
But the scheme involves more money than just Oz’ insurance. Jimmy, Cynthia and Yanni are co-signers on an account with $10-million cool ones in it. So who gets whacked first becomes a big issue. Also in on part of the scheme is Oz’ dental assistant Jill (Amanada Peet, with some obligatory nudity). Directed by Jonathan Lynn, whose previous work includes the super hilarious “My Cousin Vinny”.
Lotta says “The Whole Nine Yards” goes the distance.