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 Chris' Review: This was good. No, really good. Not award winning good... but certainly better than most of the comedies out right now. To start with, this movie was clean. Good clean fun... or as much fun as a movie about grand theft and murder can be. The thing is, it's almost a squeaky clean movie... there aren't any gratuitous sex scenes... the closest thing that could even be considered off-color in that manner, the offender ends up getting fired from his job for... in essence punished for being bad. There is also a little bit of swearing, but again, the offender is punished. Even disobeying a house rule about smoking is met with a severe reprimand. Is that a novel idea in movies or what? Actually having people get punished for doing something bad? I loved it! The movie starts off with some artistic shots of ravens and a garbage scow... being pulled by a tireless old tugboat. This part actually bothered me. There is a shot where the raven and the scow are both in crystal focus... and it looked terrible. It looked unreal and fake and I actually found myself thinking, I really hope the rest of the movie isn't like this. But don't worry... within a minute, all cinematography missteps were completely redeemed. Irma P. Hall waddles, bowlegged, onto the screen and gives one of the most delightful monologues I've seen in a long long time. Irma MADE this movie. The rest of the cast, Tom Hanks, Tzi Ma, and especially J.K. Simmons... were excellent... but Irma stole the show in my opinion. The smile at the end of the movie alone gives her credence as a superb actress. I'm sure you all want to hear about Tom Hanks performance... and he was good... he's always pretty good. Unfaltering... yet his character was such a caricature that I'm not sure it was the best he could have done. Many times I found myself thinking about his performance during the movie... so my suspension of disbelief faltered... and that shouldn't happen... so it wasn't the best... but it was still good. J.K. Simmons was also excellent... another caricature... yet no dropped suspension of disbelief... so his character was way more fun. From beginning to end this movie has it all. Sophisticated, intellectual, literature humor; slap-stick; base humor; sarcasm; banal humor; satire... and quite a bit of irony. Granted a lot of it could be seen coming a mile away. It was quite predictable in spots... but the movie makes no bones about it and foreshadows everything... so you know it's coming and you don't believe it's going to happen and then it happens and you still can't believe it happened and then you find it so funny that you're suddenly writing insanely long run on sentences trying to describe the manic effect this movie has on your psyche. Really, it was good. So all in all, I have to give this movie at least 7 thumbs up... which means I'm definitely buying the DVD and watching it over and over until I can memorize all the lines.   Jim's Review: Few actors in Hollywood find themselves on the receiving end of more praise than Tom Hanks. We're always hearing about how he's a great guy, a dream to work with, the perfect everyman. It would get old if it wasn't so seemingly true. He's one of my favorite actors, posessed of superb range, depth, and delivery. And, as some of his recent roles have almost let us forget, he's also funny as hell. Hanks leads a superb ensemble cast in "The Ladykillers", a film written and directed by the reknowned Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan (with credit on the screenplay also given to William Rose), and based on the 1955 film of the same name starring Alec Guinness. Now, I'd be less than truthful if I tried to place myself in the Coens' fan club. I've enjoyed some of their other works (Fargo, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski), but I've never really understood what all the fuss was about, or why they seem to inspire slavish fandom from some. Their films are typically good, even better than average, but they always seem to strain, in my humble estimation, under the weight of their own quirky, forced pretension. Not so with "The Ladykillers." The Coens move the setting of the film far from the original film's British locale, to deep into the sultry south. Hanks nimbly portrays "Professor" Goldthwait H. Dorr, equal parts silver-tongued con man and classic southern gentleman. Dorr is a lover of language and literature, as well as a would-be criminal mastermind...Think Colonel Sanders meets Mark Twain, with a dash of Dillinger tossed in for flavor. One fine summer's day in a sleepy southern town, he raps on the door of Ms. Marva Munson (the delightful Irma P. Hall), a churchgoing widow who reserves equal reverence for Gaw-uhd, her dead husband, and the ridiculously dubious Bob Jones University. He politely inquires about her posted notice advertising an available room to let...but his real interest lies in her earthen-walled "root-cella", which happens to lie at the correct depth (and within a reasonable digging distance) relative to the subterranean counting-room/vault of a nearby riverboat casino. Via a classified ad, Dorr recruits a motley gang of miscreants to aid in his nafarious scheme. "Inside man" Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans), is a trash-talking thug who also happens to work on the custodial staff of the riverboat. Garth Pancake (the always-welcome J.K. Simmons) is the resident pyrotechnics "expert". "The General" (Tzi Ma) has a storied history of wartime tunnel-digging in "his native Indo-China", and last (also least), "Lump" Hudson (Ryan Hurst) is the goon, a dim-witted tower of muscle and muttering. Passing themselves off as a group of early-period Renaissance musicians (for whom the dirt-walled basement provides 'excellent acoustics' for purposes of 'rehearsal') These five set off to relieve the riverboat of their ill-gotten gains, and line their own pockets in the process...All under the nose of the busybody old lady upstairs. Does their plot go off without a hitch? Would it be a comedy if it did? The Coen brothers have a definite gift for character development, I'll give them that. Each personage in this film is as thickly-drawn as they come, making their misadventures all the more hysterical. The dialogue is also stellar, advancing the story and fleshing out those telling it. As the plot progresses, more of the absurdist touches the Coens have seemingly patented do manage to creep into the proceedings, but rather than seeming tacked on and obligatory, they press the accelerator to the floor from mid-point to finish, amplifiying and increasing the laughs as they go. "The Ladykillers" is laugh-out-loud funny, an exercise in contrast and character. And, while ostensibly an ensemble piece, it proves that Hanks can shine even in the midst of a strong supporting cast. I'm going to give it 7½ thumbs up. 7 points for being a truly funny, albeit black comedy, 2 points off for being yet another "based-on" redux, and the half-thumb in honor of Mr. Pancake. See the film, and the reasons for the truncated digit will become clear.  BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
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