Worth sticking with for Hanks' and Hall's superlative acting -- and a rollicking gospel score assembled by T. Bone Burnett.
Ladykillers (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:182
Fresh:100
Rotten:82
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Hanks' performance in the lead role is inspired, but this is a relatively minor offering from the Coen brothers.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: It is always difficult to try to recreate a classic movie, so Joel and Ethan Coen took the premise of Alexander Mackendrick's beloved 1955 Ealing Studio caper comedy, THE LADYKILLERS, as the basis... It is always difficult to try to recreate a classic movie, so Joel and Ethan Coen took the premise of Alexander Mackendrick's beloved 1955 Ealing Studio caper comedy, THE LADYKILLERS, as the basis for coming up with their own entertaining and bizarre remake. Tom Hanks stars as Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, Ph.D., a would-be professor who talks his way into the root cellar of Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall), where he and his supposed band will practice their "Renaissance music." But they are actually plotting to tunnel through to steal a mint from a riverboat casino. The motley crew of incompetent criminals includes Marlon Wayans as Gawain MacSam, a hip-hoppity thug pretending to be a janitor; J.K. Simmons as movie prop man and demolition "expert" Garth Pancake, who has problems with intestinal bowel syndrome; Tzi Ma as the General, a Vietnamese tunnel rat with a Hitler mustache; and Ryan Hurst as a pathetically dumb football wannabe named Lump. Just when they think all is going well, they run into a curious Mrs. Munson, who smells something funny. The film includes several exhilarating Gospel scenes set in southern churches, and lots of riotous site gags. The Coen brothers have done it yet again. [More]
Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons
Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, Diane Delano, George Wallace, Stephen Root
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenwriter: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Producer: Barry Josephson, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld
Composer: Carter Burwell, T-Bone Burnett
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Reviews for Ladykillers
[The Coen brothers have] made a broad comedy out of a black comedy and completely lost its charm in the process.
Always wildly signaling for us to notice it. Not content to be funny, it wants to be FUNNY! Have you ever noticed that the more a comedian wears funny hats, the less funny he is?
If you set your expectations low enough there are real laughs to be had, but coming to the Coens with low expectations somehow just feels wrong.
Those carpetbagger auteurs, the Coen Brothers, have descended again on Dixie and brought back a heapin' helpin' of Southern caricature and racial condescension...
like Hanks' verbose professor, the Coens continue to justify some of the simplest ideas through heaps of complexity.
The Ladykillers is the first comedy of the year that isn't playing down to the teen market.
The Ladykillers may not rank among the Coens' most excellent films, but I bet it still ends up as one of this year's best comedies.
Such a slight effort compared to the original Ladykillers and past Coen works.
The Ladykillers is filled with laughs, great characters and a twisted, black tale that stands the test of time 50 years after it was first conceived.
The Coens have been better, yes, but that doesn't make The Ladykillers any less entertaining.
A comedic tidal wave that gains momentum and mass as it goes along, engulfing contrived story twists and thin characters in an all-out rush.
Pious, earnest, and broadly drawn, Marva is the first black character in a Coen brothers movie to occupy center stage. For a minute, anyway.
...watching [the Coens'] version of The Ladykillers really made me want to see the original again
O Coen brothers, where art thou? Where is your deft touch, your perfect balance between the affected and the authentic?
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