The Job (2003)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The Job I will admit, is a movie I rented, only because of Daryl Hannah. The 1st 45 minutes or so,are very interesting, and fairly entertaining. I enjoyed the development of all the characters, and liked how the story was evolving, but it completely fell apart, the rest of the way. The film is very grainy, with an extremely limited budget, and it shows. Each of the 3 main characters,are very sympathetic at 1st,even Emily|Dominique Swain| is likable. Then the film goes A-Wall in the finale,with everything all over the place. The ending itself left me very confused. What happened to the development of CJ and Rick,did they end up together?. Or how bout, Emily's whereabout's? did she manage to raise the child successfully? it left so many questions unanswered. Alex Rocco's performance as the main villain, Vernon is laughably overacted. It has more effort, then the usual DTV film,with Daryl Hannah giving a very good performance. The Job is just too ordinary for it's own good, to really succeed.Performances. Daryl Hannah is pretty good here. Nothing brilliant of course, but for a DTV film, it's better then it has any right to be. She manages to be cold and calculating, yet sympathetic at times too. She clearly puts effort into her role. Brad Renfro is excellent as troy. He was always an intense actor,and here is no different. His chemistry with Swain, was on the ball. Dominique Swain is not a favorite of mine, but she does OK here. The 1st half she is likable, and sympathetic, but she becomes a typical whiny pregnant woman at the end, who I had no sympathy for, especially after the dastardly deeds she pulled. Eric Mabius is your typical love interest,with not much character, bland and uninteresting. His goody two shoes talk, also grated me. Alex Rocco is laughably bad. He gives a throwaway performance, becoming hammy and unbelievable.Bottom line. The Job had potential, and it started off well. Its just too bad, it became messy, boring and inconsistent,when all was said and done. This is a film you will find in many bargain bins. My suggestion, let it be.4/10

I like movies that put seemingly insignificant events right in front of your eyes but in a way that you don't notice them, and later return to those events to show you why you should have payed more attention. "The Job" has one such scene within the first 5 minutes (the suitcase exchange), which made me optimistic about this script. If you're expecting a slam-bang action ride with a female professional killer eliminating targets left and right, you won't find it here. This is more of a slow, melancholy drama where there are no obvious "good guys" (except for Eric Mabius' character). Daryl Hannah tries hard to look as unglamorous and harsh as possible, and gives a convincing performance. So do her co-stars, although Dominique Swain has to struggle with an inconsistently written character. A little after the 1-hour mark, the movie starts spiraling out of control, and the final image is a cheat. So it loses half-a-star and ends up at **1/2 out of 4.

"The Job" is all about Hannah as a beautiful contract killer with a really bad attitude. This lame flick builds its story around her reluctance to make a final "hit" for reasons we're never really given to understand. We're led to believe she's killed often before but now, for whatever vague reason, she just doesn't want to "off" Renfro and his slutty girlfriend (Swain) to recover some drugs. And, if she doesn't fulfill her obligation and do the deed, her boss (Rocco), who looks too old to be able to pose a threat to anyone, will do something bad to her. And, if all that wasn't enough, she also has to contend with a young man (Mabius) who is falling in love with her in spite of her bad attitude, constant rejections, and a little problem with incipient motherhood. This far fetched bad idea conjures some decent performances and is adequately lensed and scored but can't escape its preposterous plot. It's asking us to care about a killer for no good reason and to believe she can't escape her over-the-hill boss even though she could simply point one of her many guns at him and pull the trigger instead of doing away with Renfro. Hey, what the hell, she could just kill them all but then we wouldn't have all the angst and misery we're supposed to be experiencing as we ponder this turkey. A slightly above average B flick, "The Job" is cinematic couch potato junk food currently on broadcast. (C+)

ART?? by far one of the worst movies I have ever had sat thru. SIX gun shots throughout an "action" flick does not make an "action" flick!! Hannah has not aged well thanks to the photography in this piece and the other actors.... what? TERRIBLE ACTING throughout. Sorry!I am usually the type of person who manages to find at least one thing in every movie and use that one good thing to form an opinion... COME ON!!! In labor one minute... giving birth another... and then running the next??? The story BLAND. The cast crap. The soundtrack non-existent. The filming added nothing. Low budget F-rated movie. I'm just thankful my buddies didn't beat me up for picking it. What was the point of this movie? ART??