Married couple Bean (Hope Davis) and Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) are still recovering from their son's death three years earlier. Danny on a Mexico City business trip encounters Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan). He is surprised that Julian is actually a hired killer and refuses to help Julian on a job. Julian continues his jobs but his lonely womanizing killing lifestyle starts to take a toll. His failures force his handler Mr. Randy (Philip Baker Hall) to consider terminating him. It's Christmas in Denver when Julian shows up at the Wright home.Pierce Brosnan delivers a fun assassin. Julian and Danny in Mexico City is loads of fun. The problem is that it never gets any better than that. It would be much better to have the guys join up from Mexico and continue a wacky killing road adventure all the way to the end. This has the parts to make for a fun killer duo but it doesn't completely deliver.

With so many mindless movies coming out of Hollywood these days, what a refresh to see this film. An affirmation that movies are still being written and filmed by intelligent people. The dialog is superb. The acting is superb and the plot is genius.Pierce Brosnan is one of the most underrated actors of his time. It's easy to write this "pretty boy" off, but he just simply delivers time and time again. Greg Kinnear as well, but he does seem to be "hit or miss" in movies these days. This is definitely a hit! Speaking as a middle aged, white suburban male - it's all our dream to one day break from the mundane day to day life we hold and be pulled into something more exciting (with or without our consent). The kind of excitement we only fantasize about. As human beings we're meant to do so much more with our lives than just wake at 6am and go to an office each day. This movie plays out the "all too common" man losing a grip on his own life, and marriage, only to be resurrected by an odd and completely unexpected acquaintance. Pierce Brosnan nails the role of an eccentric and crazy man searching for meaning in his life. The relationship that develops between Brosnan and Kinnear is developed and written/acted to perfection. By the end of the movie you're wondering if these two completely polar opposite men are brothers.A really well written movie with excellent acting. Very much worth a view.

The main character, a hit-man, is played by Pierce Brosnan, most famous for his roles in several James Bond movies. Now, most of us with a few IQ points realize that a real-life James Bond would've been cashiered from HM Secret Service for indiscretions, breaches of protocol, breaches of discipline, breaches of procedure, and incipient alcoholism early in his career. Likely before he was thirty. If not shortly after graduation from spy class.Now, what would this hypothetical Bond type do for a living for the rest of his life, having no other real skills than killing people? Enter Julian Noble. the main character. About 50 in physical years, likely close to 70 in terms of punishment his body has taken from hard knocks, alcohol, drugs and likely STD's, and barely out of Freshman college level in terms of emotional development and maturity, he makes a living killing high-priority targets for the world's most ruthless businessmen.In between assignments, he spends his time drinking and having sex with younger and younger partners, who are the only thing that get his blood going (and also, the only ones who match his level of maturity.) He makes a very odd connection in a hotel bar, the closest thing he has ever had to a friendship, with a down-on-his-luck businessman who absolutely needs to make his next deal. Danny, the businessman, is shocked when his new acquaintance calmly reveals his line of work and explains tips of the trade with him. The two part amicably, and Danny thinks this was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and simply stocks it as a source for the greatest "Cool Story, Bro!" ever material. But Julian has other plans...

Strange little film this one, it feels a balancing act between being a run of the mill easy watching comedy and a painful experience. There appears a lack of chemistry between all the actors involved as if they have only turned up to collect their pay cheques and yet the film still seems to work, in parts. Both Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear have their moments, but together there is an awkwardness that you can never work out if its designed or not.The simple story of an ageing hit-man (Brosnan) meeting down on his luck business man (Kinnear) and forming a sort of friendship starts to develop nicely and had a chance to emerge in a few interesting directions, but instead it seemed to hurry itself through to a pretty lame finish. All in all, this film lacks a depth of character and plot to make it anything other than a film that once watched will gather a lot of dust on the shelf.