The Job (2003)

I have been deceived. I haven't seen a ton of Daryl Hannah's work, but I've really liked what I have seen. My favorite movie that included her as an actor was Kill Bill. When I saw another movie featuring her as an assassin sitting on the shelf at Blockbuster, I rented it. I didn't think the summary on the back of the DVD case painted a good picture of the film. It had sounded interesting. But it was not. The story line started to get lost in Daryl Hannah's character, CJ, being a negative, often heavily intoxicated woman, going to bars and trying to get cheap sex, then cutting back to the young couple with the stolen drugs she's pursuing, with flashbacks of her life as a young child with a seemingly young unmarried hooker mother, and back to CJ dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, trying to abort the child, nausea and an ex-priest trying to help her.While watching this excuse for a movie, at the scene after CJ gives the pregnant female half of the drug couple, Emily, some requested toilet paper in a public bathroom and deciding not to shoot her, when she has the emotional breakdown and goes to give herself an abortion, the person I was watching this with was apparently fearful of how this scene would pan out, as I was asked to stop the movie.Now I normally love movies and will say everything positive of it I can think of, but other than Hannah doing a good job with a badly written character, I cannot find anything to compliment about this one. I don't mean to insult the creators or anyone involved in the movie, but, whether it was or not, it appeared slapped together. I only gave it a 1.5 as opposed to 1.0 because I didn't fully understand it, or finish it, and so didn't feel it fair of myself to give it that low a rating considering I didn't give it a full chance.

A friend lent me a bootleg DVD with Matrix Revolutions and Return of the King on, looking to remedy the appalling gaps in my knowledge of contemporary cinema. Apparently this is what the cool kids watch whilst I gobble down Myrna Loy flicks. Having consumed both of those films (one good, the other less so) I decided to watch The Job, included on the same £5 DVD. I was aware that it would be dreadful, and indeed it was.Daryl Hannah plays a hitwoman who encounters all sorts of problems whilst trying to carry out a hit. She is pregnant and spends much of the film lacerating herself in an attempt to kill her potentially adorable offspring. At the same time, she feels empathy for the wife of her target, also pregnant. So far, so crap, but it gets worse ... Hannah's boss is a borderline psychopath. We know this because he shouts a lot. He also asks her to undress, which she does, though you don't see anything, which seems rather cruel since the audience has to sit through enough risible dialogue before we reach this point. Hannah's boyfriend is an ex-priest whom she meets in a bar. After she is raped by a man with a shaven head (this scene is rather unpleasant and needn't have been shown by the director), she gets even more confused and angry than before. Brad Renfro plays Daryl's target. He is distressingly wooden and swears more than is healthy. He wants to sell the drugs Daryl is looking to reclaim, so that he can move to Phoenix with his girlfriend, an ex-hooker.The film is directed by Kenny Golde with something approaching incompetence, though screenwriter err ... Kenny Golde is largely to blame, leaving the actors with nothing but howlingly hilarious dialogue ("You knocked-up bitch", "F*** you!"). Hannah does as well as she possibly can with the script, which isn't very well at all.If the film is actually supposed to be rubbish, then I give it a ten.

This film obviously went directly into DVD, and cable and oblivion, but it merits a viewing. Although the director is not a familiar name, he has a flair for presenting this story with a eye for detail. Kenny Goode knows a thing or two about the underbelly of the "city of angels".The film presents us CJ March, an assassin for hire, who bungles the job she was sent to do and is drawn into a web of circumstances where she herself mirrors the same situation of one of the persons she is to liquidate. We understand by way of flashbacks that CJ, herself, has had an unhappy upbringing. She is a cold woman who has no problem killing until she gets herself in the same situation where she would never have dreamed of being.Daryl Hannah is CJ's is splendid. She is an underrated actress, but in here she shows a range that is not immediately associated with her work before. Brad Renfro and Dominique Swain are good as the couple CJ is pursuing; they elude her most of the time, until the final show down. Alex Rocco as the CJ's employer strikes the right note as the man without scruples who manipulates people into committing crimes for him. Also effective is Eric Mabius who is too good for CJ, and eventually, her salvation.As a moody film of suspense it proves satisfying as it keeps the viewer interested in every turn of the action.

(May have spoilers)I rented this one lured by the front cover of the box which showed Daryl Hannah pointing at the camera with a gun. Heck, this can be fun, I thought...As I put the movie in the player, my mind glided back to the movies I had seen her in... "Attack of the giant women" (or whatever)... CRAP!... "Kill Bill"... FUN CRAP!.... "Wall street"... great, but she has a meaningless role. A feeling of repentance arised from my depths.The movie starts fine. CJ MArch is meant to shoot a guy and retrieve half a million in drugs. She wipes out the guy rather coolly but the drugs aren't there. From here on everything tumbles to dust. The stuff is in hands of a teen couple. She goes to a bar to get laid and wake up alone at the other day, but all she ends up with is a devotional former priest.She later finds the couple but she can't bring herself to kill them because the chick of the couple is pregnant. Could this worsen anymore? YES, CJ IS PREGNANT TOO!!!!!The rest stinks too much to say anything else. Dominique Swain looks awful, Brad Renfro did better stuff and Daryl Hannah... read above. Only Eric Mabius seems to escape from this.Skip this one!2/10