Are you thinking of faking an illness to get that final exam deferred? Don’t read any farther then, because this shocking news may just push you over that edge. New comedy The Whole Ten Yards opens this Friday, starring the comedic talents of both Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. This story picks up where the prequel, The Whole Nine Yards, left off some three years ago.
Tough-as-nails hit man Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudeski (Willis) has retired from his former business of killing to inhabit a cozy and quiet beachfront bungalow south of the border in Baja, Mexico. This arrangement came about after he narrowly escaped the wrath of the Gogolak family crime syndicate, and cleverly fooled the pursuing Feds by faking his own death with phony dental records supplied to him courtesy of his friend and onetime neighbour Nicholas “Oz” Oseransky, D.D.S. (Perry). Tudeski is happy to leave his hit man days in the past, and has taken up an appreciation of the simpler things in life, like dusting his furniture. However, this painless life is soon to become quite complicated.
Without warning, Tudeski’s new life is invaded by his past. Oz appears out of the blue, desperate for the ex-hit man’s help in rescuing his new wife, who has been kidnapped by the paroled Gogolak matriarch, Lazlo (Kevin Pollack). Lazlo, bent on avenging the death of his favorite son, Yanni, who died at the hands of Tudeski, has secretly followed the distressed Oz right to the front door of Jimmy’s Mexican hideaway.
Got all that? Considering that the prequel debuted almost four years ago, and grossed a modestly successful $57.3 million at the box office, it seems odd that anyone who saw the first film would still care enough to insist on the production of a sequel. Correction-odd anywhere other than Hollywood. The demand for a second picture came not from a grassroots campaign staged by screaming masses of die-hard fans of The Whole Nine Yards, nor did it come from a selfish writer who had penned a trilogy in advance. It would appear as though the collective will of the original cast was behind the creative bootstrapping that led to the production of this film.
“The Whole Ten Yards was a result of spontaneous combustion when the original cast reconvened at the press junket for The Whole Nine Yards,” explains the production notes for the film. “They immediately fell into their old rapport and began to reminisce about the good times they had together shooting the film and developing their quirky characters.” That’s it? That’s all it takes to get a sequel made these days? The cast saw each other for the first time in a year, actually got along, and had some vague ideas for a sequel? If that’s all it takes, then please, please, someone get Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn back together and see if they can write the script to Navy Seals 2!
Whatever the case, there is no sidestepping the fact that Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry are big names at the box office. Perry has just ended his ten-year relationship with Friends and Willis has starred in such theatrical masterpieces as Look Who’s Talking, Look Who’s Talking Too, The Fifth Element, and The Sixth Sense.
The two, who have enjoyed a lot of success apart, say that they are not afraid to collaborate: “We’ve got good chemistry between us, and I say that-and I’m as straight as they come-but I do have good chemistry with Mr. Bruce Willis,” quips Perry on the line from Los Angeles. He’s promoting the film in tandem with Willis, who jokingly adds, “We do have fun. We kind of know each other’s timing and have been fooling around for two films now, and in real life.” So are plans in the works for The Whole Eleven Yards? Perry would only speculate: “We would love to work together in the future. We have a blast together”.
