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Back in the late 90s, I used to be a programmer in a New Jersey wireless software company where my 6×5 cubicle was located in the midst of a sea of identical 6×5 cubicles. When Office Space came out I realized my company was Initech. But instead of loathing the laser printer, my programmer cohorts and I loathed Sales Guys. The sales guys would come swooping into the office from some recent trip to Vegas and let us know how they are “really close” to making a “big deal”; this usually translated too, programmers work overtime to make a 1,000 painful modifications to the software, and no sale is made. The company paid all the sales guys well, except for the one sad clueless sap, Dave, who the programmers all liked and rooted for. And Greg Kinnear totally nails this “Dave” role in The Matador. He’s brilliant.

The true star of the Matador is definitely Pierce Brosnan. Who could have guessed his career would go so well after Remington Steele? The ex-007 star plays an outgoing alcoholic over the hill hitman with no home and no real friends who is on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown. Meanwhile Kinnear is this pathetic salesguy on a trip to Mexico trying to close the “Big Deal”. The sales does not close immediately (heck, it really had no chance of closing at all with this sales guy at the lead) and he ends up hanging out with the hitman at the bar. It’s an “Odd Couple” film about polar opposites who become friends out of serendipity. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense who your friends are, but I am hoping the Dave I worked with made lots of friends on his business trips (he was going to need them, I don’t remember him selling anything, and like all sales guys at my Initech he was fired eventually).

-Ed