The Whole Ten Yards DVD: Review By justincase

Matthew Perry, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollak and Bruce Willis all return from the first film to revisit the dentist, the hitman and their respective spouses in this follow-up to the 2000 sleeper hit, The Whole Nine Yards.

As the film opens, we find Jimmy and Jill (Willis and Peet) hiding out in Mexico, where Peet is pursuing her haphazard career as a "hitter". Willis' Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski has become a latin Martha Stewart of sorts, cooking and cleaning and eschewing his bad luck at only "shooting blanks" as he and Jill try to have a baby (check out the rather heinous mobile he constructs for his spawn). At the same time, we note that Perry's Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky is a successful L.A. dentist in a high-rise and is still happily married to Natasha Henstridge, although he makes their life (and home) a paranoid-geek fantasy. When Lazlo Gogalak (played hilariously by Pollak) is released from prison and is hell-bent to avenge the death of his son, Yanni, he nabs Oz's wife Cynthia (Henstridge) and attempts to follow Oz to Jimmy. As Gogolak's pursuit of Jimmy kicks into high gear and Oz pursuades Jimmy and Jill to strike-out at Gogolak, the gang spins nearly out of control along with the little (not-so-subtle) twists in the plot and the assorted hilarious mishaps.

We don't have, in this film, the comedic gem that we got in the first pic. Willis over-acts his part and, whether by coincidence or design, Peet's character loses her alluring quirkiness. Similarly, Henstridge's Cynthia is not as classy and Perry's Oz drops in just as if he never left the role. Of course, Oz is not terribly different than his F-R-I-E-N-D-S character, Chandler...can you say "typecast"? Pollack is pretty funny here, though. Like everyone else in the film, he's not as funny as he was in the first. The speech impediments are there (kind of old now) and in his "old-suit", he just seems like a bit of a parody. Oh well...it's still kind of fun to watch (and listen to) him.

If you can put aside the transparent twists in the plot and ignore Willis' over-reaching performance, you might find this one amusing. I found it a good late-night piece of entertainment. This is a movie you won't mind falling asleep in and picking up tomorrow.

I didn't like it as much as the first one, but I guess I found the first one to be a welcome surprise. I went into this one hoping to leave with the same feeling and you rarely ever get to revisit that with a sequel.

Zero, nada, zip, zilch...

How many other ways can you say it? This disc has nothing!

Yeah, there's a director commentary that includes the screenwriter. Not even worth talking about it. BUT, with this cast, there should have at least been a blooper reel. Hell, Perry could have populated that whole thing himself, I'm certain.

Lazy, careless DVD preparation at its most glaring.

This all said, I don't really care. If you read many of my reviews, you'll know that I rarely pay attention to the Special Features, anyway.

Mindless and somewhat fun. Not as funny as The Whole Nine Yards, this is a decent bit of entertainment. If you don't over-critique the thing, you'll take a few laughs away with you. As to buying it... Well, unless you need both of them on your shelf, I'd pick-up only the first and leave this one at Blockbuster.