A struggling dentist's life is turned upside down when a famous gangster moves in next door, and his wife convinces him to inform a notorious mob boss about the gangster's whereabouts.
Jimmy the Tulip's (Willis) quiet new life is shaken up by his old pal Oz (Perry), whose wife (Henstridge) has been kidnapped by a Hungarian mob. The Tulip and his wife Jill (Peet) spring into action.
Director:
Howard Deutch
Stars:
Bruce Willis,
Matthew Perry,
Natasha Henstridge
A private detective's protected female witness is murdered, prompting him and the victim's boyfriend to investigate the crime that leads to a corrupt politician and a crooked football team owner.
An aging alcoholic cop is assigned the task of escorting a witness from police custody to a courthouse 16 blocks away. There are, however, chaotic forces at work that prevent them from making it in one piece.
When a family is held hostage, former hostage negotiator Jeff Talley arrives at the scene. Talley's own family is kidnapped and Talley must decide which is more important: saving a family he doesn't even know or saving his own family.
Director:
Florent-Emilio Siri
Stars:
Bruce Willis,
Kevin Pollak,
Serena Scott Thomas
Coming from a police family, Tom Hardy ends up fighting his uncle after the murder of his father. Tom believes the killer is another cop and goes on the record with his allegations. Demoted then to river duty, the killer taunts Tom.
Director:
Rowdy Herrington
Stars:
Bruce Willis,
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Dennis Farina
A Special-Ops commander leads his team into the Nigerian jungle in order to rescue a doctor who will only join them if they agree to save 70 refugees too.
Montreal, Canada. A down-on-his luck dentist, "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry), discovers that his new neighbor is Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), former mob-contract-killer-turned-police-informant upon whose head the Hungarian mob has put a steep price. Egged on my his loathsome wife, Sophie (Rosanna Arquette), Oz sets off to Chicago to let the mob know where The Tulip is and hopefully claim part of the reward.Written by
grantss
When Oz recognizes that his neighbor is Jimmy "The Tulip", the newspaper's picture that says "His Two-Lips" are sealed is actually from Die Hard 2 (1990). See more »
Goofs
When Oz and Jill are at the café, Oz asks the waitress for a burger with no mayonnaise and the waitress is seen taking Oz's menu. In the next shot, Oz re-affirms to the waitress no mayonnaise and Oz hands her the menu again. See more »
Quotes
Jimmy:
[after finding out Oz slept with his wife]
I'll tell you one thing. You got balls.
Oz:
Yeah. Who knew?
See more »
Crazy Credits
At the beginning of the end credits, we see Niagara falls with traffic passing by it. We then see Oz and Cynthia dancing with each other. [fade to black] [fade in to band] Finally, we see the band we saw earlier in the film, with the singer, performing the song "They All Laughed." See more »
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Vienna Mozart Ensemble; Herbert Kraus, conductor
Courtesy of LaserLight Digital
By Arrangement with Source/Q See more »
Now here is a rare breed: a mainstream movie that works at just about every level without dumbing anything down or making the average viewer think too hard. "The Whole Nine Yards" is a great movie to simply sit back and enjoy.
Nicholas "Oz" Ozeransky (Matthew Perry) is a mild-mannered dentist whose stuck with a wife who hates him (Rosanna Arquette in a hilariously over-the-top performance) and a huge debt that his partner (his father-in-law) left him when he kicked the bucket. Then his new neighbor moves in. This neighbor, much to Oz's horror, is none other than Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), the infamous hit-man for the Gogolak gang. Oz's wife tells him that they should rat Jimmy out to the Gogolaks to get a "finder's fee." Oz obviously refuses, but agrees to go when his wife agrees that if he does this, she'll give him a divorce. Thus begins a hilarious story of double crosses, new romances, and hamburgers with mayonnaise.
The cast is first rate. Matthew Perry is in full panic-mode, and his reactions to the situations he finds himself in (and their resulting consequences) are hilarious. Bruce Willis is perfectly cast as Jimmy. It's a typecast role, but Willis plays him with a slight tongue-in-cheek. It works wonderfully. While it allows for plenty of laughs, it also gives him an air of menace, which adds another layer to the humor. We are aware of Jimmy's capacity for violence, but the way Willis plays it results in moments of laughter mixed with suspense. Natasha Henstridge radiates a cool sexuality mixed with vulnerability as Jimmy's ex-wife who falls for Oz. Michael Clarke Duncan is also well-cast as Jimmy's fellow hit-man, Frankie. Kevin Pollack and Rosanna Arquette are so over-the-top that their performances must be seen to be believed.
But as good as this cast is, and it's great, the film is stolen from all of them by newcomer Amanda Peet. It takes a great performer to steal scenes with actors at the top of their game. But Peet didn't just steal her scenes, she walked away with the whole movie. Peet is positively delightful as Oz's ditzy receptionist, who has more of a part to play in this than anyone realizes. Peet is hysterical; her performance should have at least gotten her an Oscar nod, if not a win.
"The Whole Nine Yards" is a mix of film-noir and screwball comedy. Director Jonathan Lynn has a lot of fun with the conventions of each genre, including mixing and matching the character traits of the femme-fatale and the "good girl" (you'll see what I mean when you watch the movie). What I really liked is that the humor of the movie is not over-the-top exaggeration humor (like The Farrelly Brothers). This is more about timing and dialogue; it's like a 1930's screwball comedy without the Hays Code. To be sure, the film does not leave out the trademark of the noir genre: the twisty plot. "The Whole Nine Yards" boasts plenty of surprises, and quite a bit of suspense. Just because this is a comedy doesn't mean you can tell where it's going.
Mixing these two genres would seem impossible because more often than not, one would dilute the other. But Lynn manages to walk the line between the two opposite genres and play them both equally well. The film is well-paced, and the timing on the jokes is perfect. There are no over-the-top visual effects, and that's a good thing.
"The Whole Nine Yards" may not be classic film material, but it's highly entertaining. And with a movie like this, that's just about all that one could ask for.
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Now here is a rare breed: a mainstream movie that works at just about every level without dumbing anything down or making the average viewer think too hard. "The Whole Nine Yards" is a great movie to simply sit back and enjoy.
Nicholas "Oz" Ozeransky (Matthew Perry) is a mild-mannered dentist whose stuck with a wife who hates him (Rosanna Arquette in a hilariously over-the-top performance) and a huge debt that his partner (his father-in-law) left him when he kicked the bucket. Then his new neighbor moves in. This neighbor, much to Oz's horror, is none other than Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), the infamous hit-man for the Gogolak gang. Oz's wife tells him that they should rat Jimmy out to the Gogolaks to get a "finder's fee." Oz obviously refuses, but agrees to go when his wife agrees that if he does this, she'll give him a divorce. Thus begins a hilarious story of double crosses, new romances, and hamburgers with mayonnaise.
The cast is first rate. Matthew Perry is in full panic-mode, and his reactions to the situations he finds himself in (and their resulting consequences) are hilarious. Bruce Willis is perfectly cast as Jimmy. It's a typecast role, but Willis plays him with a slight tongue-in-cheek. It works wonderfully. While it allows for plenty of laughs, it also gives him an air of menace, which adds another layer to the humor. We are aware of Jimmy's capacity for violence, but the way Willis plays it results in moments of laughter mixed with suspense. Natasha Henstridge radiates a cool sexuality mixed with vulnerability as Jimmy's ex-wife who falls for Oz. Michael Clarke Duncan is also well-cast as Jimmy's fellow hit-man, Frankie. Kevin Pollack and Rosanna Arquette are so over-the-top that their performances must be seen to be believed.
But as good as this cast is, and it's great, the film is stolen from all of them by newcomer Amanda Peet. It takes a great performer to steal scenes with actors at the top of their game. But Peet didn't just steal her scenes, she walked away with the whole movie. Peet is positively delightful as Oz's ditzy receptionist, who has more of a part to play in this than anyone realizes. Peet is hysterical; her performance should have at least gotten her an Oscar nod, if not a win.
"The Whole Nine Yards" is a mix of film-noir and screwball comedy. Director Jonathan Lynn has a lot of fun with the conventions of each genre, including mixing and matching the character traits of the femme-fatale and the "good girl" (you'll see what I mean when you watch the movie). What I really liked is that the humor of the movie is not over-the-top exaggeration humor (like The Farrelly Brothers). This is more about timing and dialogue; it's like a 1930's screwball comedy without the Hays Code. To be sure, the film does not leave out the trademark of the noir genre: the twisty plot. "The Whole Nine Yards" boasts plenty of surprises, and quite a bit of suspense. Just because this is a comedy doesn't mean you can tell where it's going.
Mixing these two genres would seem impossible because more often than not, one would dilute the other. But Lynn manages to walk the line between the two opposite genres and play them both equally well. The film is well-paced, and the timing on the jokes is perfect. There are no over-the-top visual effects, and that's a good thing.
"The Whole Nine Yards" may not be classic film material, but it's highly entertaining. And with a movie like this, that's just about all that one could ask for.