Jerry and Tom

Though forgettable in the long run, while it lasts "Jerry and Tom" is very enjoyable. Never has a movie about two ruthless hitmen had less on screen violence. Neither has brutal killing has ever been executed with such taste. While the humor is decidedly black, it's not morbid. There are many funny moments, but the overall effect is somewhat slight.

What makes it work is the Joe Mantegna/Sam Rockwell duo. They are both fine team players, especially when paired up with an unlikely other half. Rockwell has in the past partnered a variety of characters from uptight John Turturro in "Box of Moonlight" to precocious child Micha Barton in "Lawn Dogs" and always with much subtle off beat humor.

Mantegna is basically a one role actor. It's a turn he does extremely well, but we have seen it all before. Still, watching these two in "Jerry and Tom" is great fun and there's good support from Charles Durning, Ted Danson and Maury Chaykin.

There is a nice sense of whackiness about it all, not only in the dialog and characterization but also in the strange and unique manner in which some of the scenes smoothly segue into each other with unexpected camera moves.

Tom (Mantega) and Jerry (Chaykin) are experienced hit men waiting in a bar for a phone call to do their next job who currently is tied up before them. We then jump back 10 years to find a much younger Jerry and Tom, and we trace their development throughout the years.

And that's the plot. There isn't a huge amount of plot here but plenty of story if you appreciate the difference. The story follows Jerry from a car salesman who gets accidentally involved in his first hit, through the years as he develops more and more of a taste for the killing, while Tom is heading the other way as the more mature hit man who is losing his taste for the whole thing. However the thin plot is greatly enriched by making the characters the story.

Of the two leads Jerry is the most interesting to watch as he changes the most notably over the film, but Mantegna's Tom is as good as a more stable foil for Jerry. The strength is in the wealth of wonderful characters that surround them. The various victims all have their amusing quirks and are well played by good actors (William H Macy, Ted Danson, Peter Riegert), while other supporting roles such as Vic and Billy (Durning and Chaykin) are great.

The whole story is bristling with comedy and style. The stories the characters tell and the things they say are brilliant, including flashback stories of Elvis, JFK and others are really funny, while other conversations (such as who play them in a movie - "Don Knotts!") are inspired in their hilarity but also their normality.

The director Saul Rubinek is very clever in his direction. We skip through time to other stories using editing that gently glides one scene into another - it's really effective and always clever. In fact he brings clever touches to all the film. Even the closing credit sequences have a wonderful old-fashioned feel to them as each character appears onscreen to wave to the audience - it's also a bit surreal given what we've just watched. I also admire the way that very little violence is show on screen - because that's not what this is about. The killing is often hinted at rather than shown and this allows us to focus on the stories and the comedy rather than the moral difficulty behind what you're seeing.

The film is funny throughout but it does have it's thoughtful moments and the conclusion is actually quite moving. The only faults with this is that the hit man genre is not exactly new ground and this type of story has been done before. Also some may find the lack of plot to be frustrating or boring and find themselves unable to enjoy the stories within.

Overall though, this is a light little gem that draws it's comedy from the stories and the characters within the film. This is filled with clever and funny touches from the opening bar scene right down to the old-fashioned credit scene and Danson's accreditation as "man who loved Vicki".

This is part of my Scarecrow Video Guide inspired movie-trek, following "Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis".

"Jerry & Tom" is a fun little black comedy, but it reminded me a little too much of another fun little black comedy..."Coldblooded", starring Jason Priestly & Peter Riegert. (Oddly, Riegert shows up here in a similar role. And, as of now, both films have a 6.7 on IMDb.). I'm not sure which one is lesser known, but they both have something to offer.

"Jerry & Tom" is the "better" film, if only by virtue of the performances. Joe Mantegna is always good, and Sam Rockwell can't lose, IMHO. But nothing much happens here. "Coldblooded" was more fun, as I recall. (It's been at least 7 years since I saw it.) I could tell 10 minutes in that "Jerry & Tom" was based on a play. It's basically a series of conversations, some brilliantly funny, centered around a group of hit men. It would be a great play, but as a film it's a little lacking. There's an amazing series of creative transitions to show time passages (the story takes place over 10 years), and some hilarious flashbacks. But the scenes in between are incredibly slow.

Still, it's hard to fault a film with great actors reading great lines. Aside from Mantegna and Rockwell, Charles Durning is predictably excellent, and William H. Macy shines in a brief role.

Perhaps these two films would make a good double feature. Watch "Jerry & Tom" first and savor it, then have a few drinks and enjoy "Coldblooded".

Next on the trek- "Forbidden Zone"!

One has to have a morbid sense of humor to enjoy this wry black comedy about two used car salesmen who moonlight as contract killers. The comedy is very tongue in cheek as these two miscreants matter-of-factly whack a dozen or so marked men while bickering over trivialities.

The gag is funny at first, but wears thin as we are treated to minor variations on the same theme for an hour and a half. Other than some innovative scene transitions, the direction by veteran TV director Saul Rubinek was nothing special, except I suppose he made good use of a very limited budget. The story was taken from a play by Rick Cleveland, (`The West Wing' TV series) and Rubinek maintained the theatrical feel using simple sets and concentrating mainly on the actors.

Joe Mantegna is an excellent tough-guy character actor and conjures another terrific mobster. He is a tough but practical murderer who takes the task as strictly business and longs to get out of the game. Sam Rockwell is also good as his dim-witted cohort, who begins to like his work a bit too much. Charles Durning gives a droll performance as an over-the-hill hit man who wants to write a book about his targets. There are also cameos by William Macy, Ted Danson and Peter Riegert.

This is a better than average B movie with some acting performances that are worth seeing. I rated it a 6/10. It is funny in a perverse way, and Mantegna's performance is a treat.

A tedious, dialogue-intensive story about the vicissitudes of a mentor/protege hitman team, "Jerry & Tom" is a study in understatement with a pointless plot and an ending which may make you want to "whack" yourself for having watched the whole thing.