Customer Reviews

The Ladykillers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hilarious! Perhaps those who hated this movie can be forgiven since they probably don't know anything about the Coen Brothers and their unique genius. Perhaps you don't appreciate the great and funny performances especially by Marlon Wayans and Tom Hanks. Perhaps you don't realize that a great actor like Tom Hanks may want to stretch and play different characters. Perhaps you know nothing about movies!

But then again, I'm glad you hated it, because if everyone loved the Coen Brothers as I do, and if they were rich moguls whose every movie was a huge mega-hit, perhaps they wouldn't continue to turn out quirky gems such as this, and perhaps I'd be the miserable one, instead of all you jamokes complaining about a funny and rare film such as this.

Lady Killers is one of Tom Hanks best performances to date.He plays an Articulate if somewhat snobby, petty small time crook looking to get into the big leagues. He rents a room from the devout southern Baptist soul sister Marva Munson(played brilliantly by the talented Irma P.HAll ["Nothing to lose"]in the hopes of tunneling underground to the Mississippi River Boat Casino located a little ways away.
He enlists the help of people who can help in this robbery, each with their own, very important purpose. A Chinese General, well versed in tunneling in his native Indo-China (played by Tzima) Garwayne McSam, the inside thug(played by Marlon Wayans)
the dynamite expert Garth Pancake(played by Jk Simmons) & the blunt instrument, The big dumb powerful owf played convincingly by Ryan Hurst. This team sets out to make this large heist in Marva's basement.The biggest problem the team faces is not stealing the money. The biggest problem occurs when the devout christian Mrs. Munson finds out and threatens to turn them in.
The team must find a way to keep the money and keep Mrs. Muson from squealing on them. The result is a dark comedy not short of ingenius.

I dont beleive artists who are consistently releasing good pieces should be written off or dismissed when they make a couple of stinkers.
The Coens are no exception and nor does this analogy excuse their last two films.
LadyKillers is bland,boring and banal.
All I have to say is that their next movie better be gold wrapped in silk cause they are dangerously close to losing their crown of odd and more importantly audience attendance on every level.

I love the Coen brothers, but this is probably their most disapointing offering. I always question why remakes are made when the original is so good. This movie has none of the heart or humour of the original

The Coen Bros have offered another hilarious flick. Tom Hanks does a great job in the role as well. The premis of the movie is simple and a good entertainment value. I would consider purchasing this on dvd - if I could show it to my family. However I give it only 3 stars because of the unnecessary profanity which all but ruined the film for me or the family. IF it was release minus the bad language, I would be the first in line to own it.

The plot is meaningless : a band of amateur burglars are emptying the underground « money reserve » of an offland casino in Mississippi with a tunnel, explosives, etc. They start from an old black very christian lady's cellar, pretending to be a group of Renaissance or baroque musicians rehearsing there. Banal. The ending is just as surprising as all the different moments of this plot and it is not the main interest of the film. The film is interesting in two elements. First Tom Hanks plays the role of a cultivated scholar specializing in Greek and Latin literature and Edgar Poe's poetry. He is an ephete, sophisticated snob that has a very strong charm on the black ladies of this neighborhood. His acting is just perfect. Second it is humorous but in what I will call a « southern comfort » style. It is slow, calculated, yet inspired and impulsive, responsive too, and never in any way exagerated, always underplayed, more humorous innuendo than hilarious fun. This creates an atmosphere that does represent what Mississippi might be for some people : a contained and always understated and underestimated play on words, circumstances and situations. He who knows or has lived in the South for a while will recognize this slow flow of words and events, as if the climate was making life and the world crawl along, but in style and correct appearances. As for me, I think it is a little too slow at times. The best character is the cat, and this cat is no Fritz the Cat, and yet, maybe it is in a way.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The two people who reviewed this movie so far must be either blind or stupid! This movie was great! There was a plot, and the acting was great! They must have a personal ax to grind or something. I plan to buy this DVD when it comes out September 13th. There was only one problem, which I overlooked. I was born and raised in Mississippi, and live here now. In the movie, Tom Hanks' character said he was from Hattiesburg, Mississippi where he worked at the University of Mississippi. U of M is in Oxford, MS. Hattiesburg is the home to the University of Southern Mississippi, two completely different universities.

Im sorry but this would have to be the crappiest movie tom hanks has ever made!!! there was no substance - no storyline, it s was plain (*&*^(!!!!!

It's a three film streak if you decide to include on of their contributions to the Garfield script, a film that has funny moments, but fails to capture the true fun, and charm of Garfield. This film comes after "Intolerable Cruelty" which had the potential to be a very good film, but wasn't. All of these movies had their moments, but "Intorlerable Cruelty" comes out on top as the most entertaining of the bunch as it actually gets you to feel certain emotions and then takes them away and makes you feel bad about them. "Ladykillers" had a terrific cast, a great film to base this upon and some great repetitive humor at times, but it doesn't add up because the Coen's don't trust the storytelling to bring out the humor and they had to add jokes that just didn't quite fit and they disrupt the continuity of the story. One such joke, or should I say character, is the bomb expert with Irritible bowel Syndrome played by J.K. Simmons. That he's a bumbling fool is one thing, and that he has attacks of the bowel at inopportune times is another, but that he also has a mountaineering fellow IBS wife named Mountaingirl. It was just too much. So was Tom Hanks character who simply talks too much and the Coen's take him seriously which is evidenced by their shot selection. A more cheesy actor could get away with this, but Hanks goes for the con man who's so good that he falls for his own cons when he talks about them. The problem is that they're too long winded to be considered funny by anyone and the fact that he plays them straight makes it worse. The Coen's could've at least cutaway frequently to show the disparate reactions among the people listening: his crew and the dupe's. I felt that the ending was at least more humorous than "Intolerable Cruelty's" with Cedric the Entertainer getting his own reality show which is beside the point. Hopefully, their next movie will focus more on the story because I think that they allowed the success of "The Big Lebowski," which had a plot that was, in and of itself a joke to get to their heads.