The Whole Ten Yards (2004)

Directed by: Howard Deutch | 101 minutes | comedy, crime | Actors: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollak, Natasha Henstridge, Frank Collison, Johnny Messner, Silas Weir Mitchell, Tasha Smith, Elisa Gallay, Tallulah Belle Willis, Johnny Williams, George Zapata, Carlo Zapata, McNally Sagal, Carl Ciarfalio, Doc Duhame, Buck McDancer

This film is a sequel to ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ (2000) and most of the characters from that film also return in this movie. Former hit man Jimmy ‘The Tulip’ Tudeski now lives with fellow hit man Jill and seems to have finally said goodbye to his former life. He even seems to be comfortable in his new role as a houseman, who focuses on preparing elaborate and exclusive meals and keeping his house and furniture sparkling clean. Oz, the neurotic dentist, also lives a comfortable life with Cynthia, Jimmy’s ex-wife. This changes, however, when a top executive of the Hungarian mafia and also an old acquaintance of Jimmy, Lazlo Gogolak, is released from prison and decides to kidnap Cynthia in order to find out Jimmy’s whereabouts. From that moment on, a fast-paced and entertaining cat and mouse game unfolds in which nothing is as it initially seems.

Although ‘The Whole Ten Yards’ certainly has the necessary funny moments, the film (as is the case with other sequels) rarely reaches the level of the first part. The jokes are slightly less original, there is clearly less attention paid to the elaboration of the story. Furthermore, the ending is downright weak and Matthew Perry plays a less funny Oz than in ‘The Whole Nine Yards’. Bruce Willis is more convincing as Jimmy Tudeski, someone of the rough-and-tumble, white-spirited type, but his performance as a disguised and somewhat effeminate houseman in the first part of the film is occasionally a bit much. Kevin Pollak is virtually unrecognizable, both outwardly and vocally, as Lazlo Gogolak, but his performance also has a high ‘over-the-top’ quality and despite the reputation he has in the film, no viewer will be impressed. that we are dealing here with a top criminal to be taken seriously. Amanda Peet and Natasha Henstridge were also more convincing in the first film, respectively as the wildly enthusiastic but also naive aspiring assassin and the gangster woman of the femme fatale type.

It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say that this film is little more than a superfluous sequel to ‘The Whole Nine Yards’, because ‘The Whole Ten Yards’ is certainly not a bad comedy, but as a viewer you get the feeling that had significantly more residents.