The Job

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" 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+)

CJ (Hannah) is a sexy, cold-blooded, contract killer looking to get out of the business. She agrees to carry out one last hit before calling it quits to lead a normal life. However upon staking out the hit, she finds that, for the first time in her career as an assassin, she is unable to finish the job. But she has accepts a contract and is expected fulfill it.

Not bad, but also full of cliche, wannabe next 'Nikita'.

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.