The Job

"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+)

I just saw this movie and I thought it was awesome. The movie gives great concept and reality through the film. I bought it right after I saw it. Dayrl Hannah is absolutely gorgeous, not to mention sexy as a hit woman. Brad Renfro and Dominique Swain gives great performances as their parts and Eric looks so innocent and sweet as his part. The only parts that I would think audiences would not be happy with is the ending or towards the ending, but that's because the movie is harsh on some parts and reality is like that sometimes. Reality isn't all fun and happy. And this movie proves that. I like movies like that because they have good points.

My Rating: 7/10......definitly worth watching

Carol Jean "CJ" March (Daryl Hannah) is a professional killer that works to the mobster Vernon Cray (Alex Rocco). CJ fails in her last work for Vernon, when she kills a man to retrieve half-million dollars in drugs, but she realizes that his briefcase that is empty was switched by another man. CJ hunts the man down to finish her job and discovers his name, Roger Washington (Shawn Woods), and address. Meanwhile Roger is murdered by the punk Troy Riverside (Brad Renfro) that wants to sell the drugs to move to Arizona with his pregnant girlfriend Emily "Em" Robin (Dominique Swain). CJ, who is the daughter of a prostitute and orphan since she was seven, finds that she is pregnant and she tries to have an abortion in a clinic. Then she goes to a bar to get drunken and laid and she meets the former priest Rick (Eric Mabius) that gets closer to her. When CJ finds Roger murdered, she seeks out Troy and finds Emily. However she is not capable to kill her because Emily is pregnant. Will CJ finish her last job?

"The Job" is an action movie with a dramatic story with a promising beginning. CJ is very well developed and consistent in the beginning as a cold-blood killer with a traumatic childhood. When she finds that she is pregnant, she wants to abort the baby keeping the consistence of the character. However after meeting Rick and Emily, the story becomes corny but the plot is still acceptable since pregnancy makes women more sensitive and fragile. Therefore it is still possible to swallow the changing of CJ's character. However the corny last scene is incoherent and spoils what could have been a good film. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Assassina por Natureza" ("Killer by Nature")

I don't care what anyone else here says, this is Daryl Hannah's best work yet, and I've seen a lot of her material.

It may start off looking like just another hard edged femme fatale female assassin film (there have been plenty of those), but this is as a much a unique character study as it is a story. The closest quasi example that comes to mind at the moment is "the Assassin Next Door". Even though the stories are quite different, the uniqueness of the circumstances, and the dark intrigues that got these women into their current situations does add an element of depth that is so much more than just another "girl with a gun" crime movie.

In the midst of all this are the young teenage couple that become her "targets", but their twists and turns are an interesting character study in itself, particularly on how the girl finds her own, well . . . self serving solutions to her problems, of which Daryl's deadly pursuit is only a piece of a larger puzzle.

I give this production 9 stars without hesitation. Are there flaws and less than spectacular production quality aspects here? Yes, of course . . . but that's not what I generally watch a film for. Call it a B movie if you wish, but as a story, and Daryl's character in it, it's 9 stars for me.

THE JOB follows in the tradition of great movies such as CHEATS and RUN RONNIE RUN that end up either premiering on cable or going direct-to-video. However, unlike CHEATS and RUN RONNIE RUN, THE JOB made its debut at Cannes. Just like a lot of the movies that debut at Cannes, no theatrical release was given to THE JOB and thus, it came direct-to-video. Perhaps the first question any viewer will ask themselves upon watching this movie is, "What happened to Daryl Hannah's career?" Yes, she appeared in KILL BILL this past fall, but that wasn't necessarily a huge comeback for her. While I didn't care that much for KILL BILL, I loved THE JOB, mainly due to Daryl Hannah. Regardless of how far down her career has gone, I still love her. She is a great actress and a hell of a good-looking one too. Here she plays CJ March, a female assassin who has decided she wants to put her days of killing behind her, but before she can call it quits, she has one last job to do. It's not the best premise it the world, but that doesn't stop it from being a great action/crime pic with tons of blood and gunfire. If blood and gunfire is what you like, be prepared to have a ball watching this flick. I know I did.