Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)`Nothing Personal', as this movie was originally and more aptly titled, is a low-key, darkly funny and engaging depiction of a dysfunctional 'family' of professional assassins in the throes of an internal power struggle. Claire (Kyra Sedgwick) and Nick (Stanley Tucci), a killer team with a romantic past, are sent to retrieve a wayward money-runner who has sold-out their boss (Robbie Coltrane). Thrust into the middle of a plot involving shifting alliances, challenged loyalties and crooked self-actualization theory, the attentive veiwer will be rewarded with many small moments that add up to a movie more substantial than it appears at first blush.
Strong points: The Hoebers' taut script; Director Leitzes' willingness to allow us to deduce much of the movie's background story w/out condescending paint-by-numbers scenes or lame expository dialogue; an effective cast featuring Sedgwick and Tucci's gently expressed adult partnership facing an inexorable fate; Philip Seymour Hoffman's unctuously ambitious provocateur; John Ritter's brief but effectively weighty performance; and perhaps most impressive, Robin Tunney's momentum building depiction of the consistently underestimated `Kitty'.
Weak points: Coltrane's `Boss' seems a bit scattered and inexplicably motivated; a few loose ends in the plot; a vaguely un-anchored setting devoid of police, witnesses or collateral damage.
$8.50 moments: Response of two assassins to being ordered to kill Nick; Claire's turn-about at the tree (and the little boy who drops in); Nick's impression of Elmer Fudd.
This movie's outlook and humor is reminiscent of some of the lack of "honor among thieves" and violence-based humor seen recently in `Out of Sight' and `Grosse Pointe Blank' (admittedly better movies). So, if you enjoyed those `adult' comedies, I'd wager you won't regret spending ninety-odd minutes with `Montana'.
"$8.50 moment": the point in a movie when you feel you definitely got your money's worth (value determined by the current average cost of a movie ticket in NYC).
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