Unfortunately, the magazine has just become the part of a larger company in a corporate takeover, and he’s been “demoted” (which has to be better than being “downsized”) in the shakeup. To make matters worse, his new boss Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is half his age and thinks he knows everything. He is about to find out that he doesn’t.

Carter comes into the office and thinks that his business school theories will carry over to the magazine where Dan has been operating on handshakes for longer than he’s been alive. Unfortunately the cross-promotion ideals that Carter and the new organization hopes will make things work don’t seem to be taking off, and to make matters worse, Carter’s new wife dumps him just as he receives his promotion.

Dan isn’t immune either. As if losing his nice position to someone like Carter isn’t the worst news he could receive, his wife is pregnant with a new child (evoking echoes of Father of the Bride II) and Carter, fresh off his dumping, looks to Dan for insight, and when he comes home with him for dinner one night, meets Dan’s daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson), which doesn’t make Dan any happier at all – especially when Dan finds out they’ve been secretly dating.

When the pressure gets on to get sales going or get fired, however, Dan and Carter team up and land a big account just in time, only to find out that the magazine has been sold again, and both Carter and the management team are out and Dan is back in charge, almost as if nothing happened.

There’s really no explanation of why Carter and Alex don’t see each other, except perhaps in respect to Dan’s wishes, which is the only downfall to the movie – other than that, it’s an enjoyable ride all around.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and drug references.

Julian Noble is a Fatality Facilitator (his words). In other words, he is a hit man who takes care of situations for people who needs things done. Nothing so fancy as a spy or a mafia Wiseguy. His clients are from the corporate world, or so he says, and they come to him as they have for 22 years. The only problem is that it’s his birthday and he’s left without a soul in the world to talk to, so he heads to the bar, and there he finds Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), in Mexico City trying to make the sale of a lifetime.

Of course, the two don’t hit it off right away. Julian looks like he’s trying to make a pass at Danny – and perhaps he is. Danny tries to share a difficult memory of his son dying and Julian makes a joke about a midget and a well-endowed man. And perhaps the relationship doesn’t get much better from there. But it turns out that Danny’s sale takes longer than expected, and he and Julian spend some time together, he finds out what Julian really does for a living, and becomes the only friend Julian has in the world.

After returning home to his wife (oddly named Bean), who he tells everything, even Julian’s true profession, things return to normal – until Julian shows up six months later, explaining that he’s unable to do his work, and he needs Danny to help him finish one last job, which will get him off the hook forever.

As it turns out, the job isn’t quite as Julian portrays, but it does seem as if it will get him off the hook, if not quite in the same way, and a tidbit of both Danny and Julian’s and Danny and Bean’s relationships are saved until the last moments of the movie, making for an interesting ending. Even as I write this, I’m not sure how I feel about it. More than likely, if the movie were on one weekend afternoon, I’d watch it. Maybe not repeatedly, but every now and again.

Rated R for strong sexual content and language. Though he’s a contract killer, there really isn’t much killing in the movie (there is one car explosion, and some implied killing), a good bit of adult language, and plenty of sex, both implied and actual, so keep the kids away from this one.

Starring Sean Connery and Ed Harris, the film is set almost entirely on Alcatraz island, currently taken over by Harris’ band of Marines, intent on securing honor for their fallen comrades who have managed to miss out on military recognition because of the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Oh yeah, and they’d like $100 million too.

It’s the job of Connery, a political prisoner for 33 years, to infiltrate The Rock with a band of counter-commandos (and a chemical expert, played by Nicolas Cage) and make sure that the city of San Francisco isn’t ground zero for the release of a deadly nerve gas (that’s why they have Cage along – he isn’t especially good at much else, being a scientist-type).

As you may surmise, there’s lots of action to be had, and with Connery and Harris, there’s a fair amount of decent acting to be seen too, but make no mistake – this is a Bruckheimer production, so you won’t see any awards won along the way, unless it’s for blowing stuff up. It’s a full-speed, non-stop thrill ride, nothing more. That doesn’t make it bad, it just means that you aren’t likely to find it playing in any art houses anytime. Ever. And that’s okay, as long as you know what to expect.

Rated R for strong violence, language and a sex scene.