This is one of those movies that just didn't look good to me, a friend rented (thanks Ben), and I found myself pleasantly surprised. It is a great black comedy that features some of the best physical comedy in years, courtesy of Matthew Perry, one of the few actually funny people on television's Friends.

Perry plays Oz, an American dentist who had to move to Montreal with his evil wife Sophie (Rosanna Arquette) and her mother after his partner, Sophie's father, embezzled millions from their practice. She is like a cat that had its tail stepped on; they trade angry barbs, she tells him she hopes he dies on the way to work, etc. He hates Montreal (they always put mayonaisse on things that don't need it), and the only real bright spot is his new assistant, Jill (Amanda Peet), who urges him to get laid and get rid of his wife.

One day, he goes to greet his new neighbor and discovers that it is Jimmy the Tulip (Bruce Willis), a mob hitman who ratted on the mob and is in hiding. The scene where he realizes who the neighbor is had me laughing the whole time. When he alerts Sophie as to who lives next door, she books him a flight to Chicago and an appointment with Yanni Gogo (Kevin Pollack), a badly accented mobster who Jimmy ratted out. Yanni wants to kill Jimmy and his estranged wife, Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), because of the betrayal and because their deaths would mean he gets $10 million that is sitting in a joint account with all three names on it. Also present is Frankie (Michael Clarke Duncan), another hitman who escorts Oz back to Montreal but turns out to be working with Jimmy. Meanwhile, Oz has fallen in love with Cynthia. To use a little-used word, hijinks ensue.

Perry saves the movie from being another tired mob comedy. His scenes with Duncan and then Henstridge in his hotel room in Chicago are uproariously funny, especially a very subtle vomit joke (not the Farrelly brothers variety). I never thought I'd find myself praising vomit jokes, but they work here. Bruce Willis is also a nice surprise, pulling off the straight man to Perry's mugging. It gets a little too serious and violent toward the end, but I forgive it because it didn't completely blow the fun of the first three quarters.