Cinematography:
Roger DeakinsComposer:
Carter BurwellCast:
Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, George Wallace, Diane Delano, Greg Grunberg, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell, Blake Clark, Jason Weaver (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Underneath Professor G.H. Dorr's (Hanks) silver-tongued southern gentleman persona is a devious criminal who has assembled a motley gang of thieves to commit the heist of the century by tunneling through his churchgoing landlady's root cellar to a casino's vault of riches. But these cons are far from pros. As their scheme begins blowing up in their faces, their landlady smells a rat. And when she threatens to call the police, they figure they'll just bump her off. After all, how hard can that be? (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
An excellent comedy from the masters’ workshop. A small, cute statuette that will amuse, please and caress the soul. It is not worth building this statue next to large statues such as The Big Lebowski or Fargo. The Coen brothers simply experimented with a lighter genre and created a simple comedy full of great caricatures. You say that caricatures have no insides? Well, their magic is on the surface. In Professor Dorr's perfectly trimmed beard, Mrs. Munson's cheerful face, in the general's icy calm mask... Such are the true poetics of this film. Black as morning coffee, jolly as a gospel choir, linguistically perfectly tuned, and full of excellent caricatures. It is not worth looking for depth in the film, because it is a brisk gag, a funny situation and, as always, ironic directing by Joel and Ethan... What more could you want than pure entertainment with the hallmark of independent cinematography and the glory of a Hollywood star? What more could you want than wonderful actors led by the excellent Hanks and the natural Irma P. Hall? I was divinely entertained and I even forgot that the Coen brothers have made better movies.
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I like Joel Coen and Ethan Coen; they're among my favorite directors, but this one didn't quite work for them, and in my view, it resulted in their weakest film to date. It's noticeably weaker than the original version. Their characters this time are just superficial figures, and not even Tom Hanks in the lead role can save it. The biggest weakness is the screenplay overall; the quality of the dialogue is unsatisfactory, and the comedy simply lacks humor. Overall impression: 45%.
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Joel and Ethan Coen let Tom Hanks and Co. scream, run around, act weird, and perform various antics for so long that the viewer doesn't care anymore whether their plan succeeds in the end. Moreover, the ending is so desperately predictable that not even a number of malicious screenwriting ideas can help it. Placing this particular film between Intolerable Cruelty and No Country for Old Men in their filmography is literally a sin.
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The Ladykillers starts out quite promisingly, but the Coens gradually run out of steam. The jokes aren’t as effective as they would have liked, and since practically all of the key twists, including the final one, are based on them, the film jumps around on one foot until the closing credits. Only Tom Hanks and the old lady, who was excellent, deserve extra praise.
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One of the few remakes that is better than the original. It’s more brisk, more witty, more cynical, more black-humored... Just better. The Ladykillers is the perfect relaxing movie for me, a movie for every time of day, every season. The Coens knew exactly what the original film lacked.__P.S. I wonder how many people will get upset now when they read that I actually like The Ladykillers more than The Big Lebowski?
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