DVD Movie Rating for: Whole Nine Yards

3 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Whole Nine Yards

Oz is a Montréal dentist, paying off debts so he can divorce his wife: the dislike is mutual. When she learns their new neighbor is hit man Jimmy the Tulip, with a price on his head, she sends Oz to Chicago to earn a finder's fee telling Mob boss Yanni where to find Jimmy. To get his wife off his back, Oz goes, his assistant Jill urging him to get laid while there. One of Yanni's men awaits Oz at the hotel; Oz's now in too deep to avoid telling Yanni what he knows. Meanwhile, Oz's wife rats on Oz to Jimmy, hoping Jimmy will kill Oz and she can cash in on life insurance. Oz meets Jimmy's wife (Yanni's captive), flips for her, and the double-crosses mount. Even Jill isn't whom she seems.

DVD Production Details of: Whole Nine Yards

Starring: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Release Date: July 18, 2000
DVD Features:
Commentary by director Jonathan Lynn

Cast and Crew Interview Gallery

Gag Reel

Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats

Cast of the movie: Whole Nine Yards

• Bruce Willis .... Jimmy 'The Tulip' Tudeski/Jimmy Jones
• Matthew Perry .... Nicholas 'Oz' Oseransky
• Rosanna Arquette .... Sophie Oseransky
• Michael Clarke Duncan .... Franklin Figueroa (A.K.A. Frankie Figs)
• Natasha Henstridge .... Cynthia Tudeski
• Amanda Peet .... Jill St. Claire
• Kevin Pollak .... Janni Pytor Gogolak
• Harland Williams .... Special Agent Steve Hanson
• Carmen Ferland .... Sophie's Mom (as Carmen Ferlan)
• Serge Christianssens .... Mr. Boulez
• Renee Madeline Le Guerrier .... Waitress (as Renée Madelaine Le Guerrier)
• Jean-Guy Bouchard .... Mover
• Howard Bilerman .... Dave Martin
• Johnny Goar .... Hungarian Hood
• Deano Clavet .... Polish Pug

Photo Gallery of the movie: Whole Nine Yards

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Whole Nine Yards

Reviews of the movie: Whole Nine Yards

Have a little patience with this agreeably convoluted caper, and in the end you'll find it a modestly entertaining yarn. But forbearance is necessary because, truthfully, the first half-hour of the movie promises a train wreck of epic proportions.

Matthew Perry stars as a mild-mannered Montreal dentist, married to a French-Canadian shrew (Rosanna Arquette), whose new next-door neighbor (Bruce Willis) just happens to be a notorious mob hit man out on parole. The wife, catching the whiff of easy money and probably just hoping to put hubby in harm's way, orders her henpecked schnook to rat out the gunman to his former employers, who have many compelling reasons to want him dead. Needless to say, complications--and plenty of them--ensue.

Perry is serviceably harried as the beleaguered Everyman whom, as nice as everyone around him agrees that he is, just about everyone wants to kill. Willis, much as he did in The Sixth Sense, gets better mileage out of not trying so hard; his irksome smirk is almost held in check. Amanda Peet has some funny scenes as a hit-man groupie--it's when her true role in the proceedings is revealed that the movie finally kicks into comic gear. Michael Clarke Duncan is fine as yet another hit man to cross Perry's path; however, Arquette seems to be in a contest with Kevin Pollak (playing a mob boss) to see who can uncork both the most ludicrous accent and the most obvious performance. That kind of unevenness ensures that the pleasures that do exist within The Whole Nine Yards remain fairly minor.

tepid gangster comedy
Coming as it does so hot on the heels of the recent `Analyze This' and `Mickey Blue Eyes,' `The Whole Nine Yards' is, regrettably, not as fresh as it might otherwise have been. Here again we have the tale of an Average Joe/ Everyman type, who, through a set of quirky and bizarre circumstances, finds himself, totally against his own will and better judgment, knee-deep in mob-centered activities.

The film's chief strength, beyond the uniqueness of its French Canadian setting, rests in the cleverly convoluted plot writer Mitchell Kapner and director Jonathan Lynn have concocted centered around a Montreal dentist named Oz whose life takes a decidedly dramatic turn when a hit-man-turned-informer known as Jimmy `The Tulip' Tedeski moves in next door. This happenstance sets in motion an amazing roller coaster ride for Oz as he becomes enmeshed in internecine squabbles between assorted gangster hit men, marital entanglements involving himself and Jimmy's beautiful wife and burgeoning true love.

Unfortunately, the weakness of the film also rests in its screenplay whose humor is often too broad, too self-conscious and too reliant on conventional double takes - particularly on the part of the understandably befuddled and flabbergasted Oz - to be truly funny. There is no denying the fact that the film does generate an impressive amount of raucous energy – but without the wit necessary to bring out the subtle nuances of the material, the movie ends up tiring us out long before the midpoint of its 100-minute long running time.

The acting, too, seems rather uneven. As Oz, Matthew Perry tries hard to nail down the part, but he simply lacks the charisma necessary to pull off a role of this magnitude. He ends up delivering a one-note performance consisting mainly of non-stop dithering. And how long ago was it that Rosanna Arquette once seemed to be a fine actress? As in most of her recent performances, she simply relies on superficial mannerisms to build her character – that of Oz's utterly amoral (and unconvincingly French-accented) wife whose villainy must be a crucial element in the film's overall credibility. She seems to be playacting rather than truly exploring the subtle depths of her character. Even comedy requires an edge and this Arquette will not (or perhaps cannot) provide.

On the positive side, Amanda Peel provides spunk and energy as a neophyte `hit woman' who literally salivates at the thought of meeting her `hero,' the world-renowned Jimmy `The Tulip.' Which brings us to the real quality element of `The Whole Nine Yards' - Bruce Willis' first-rate interpretation of the killer-next-door. In a performance of sustained multi-leveled complexity, Willis provides the perfect combination of sly devilishness, steely-eyed seriousness and understated affability essential to making Jimmy a truly likeable comic villain. Willis really seems to be having the time of his life in this role. Unfortunately, thanks to an overall lack of originality in the film's conception and a script that seems less humorous than it might have been, the same cannot be said for the audience.