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The Ladykillers - 3/26/04 - R - 104m - remake
Tom Hanks - Prof. G. H. Dorr
Irma P. Hall - Marva Munson
Marlon Wayans - Gawain MacSam
Director: Ethan and Joel Coen
Written by: William Rose
Studio: Touchstone
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JEF
Well, I saw this film right after seeing “Secret Window” and was really hoping this would be the “good” film. I was a little disappointed and although I’m not going to give it a red light, it is just barely making a yellow.
Storyline: Another Hollywood remake from a 1955 film by the same title. Side note: What do you think, should it be mandatory that a film put a little symbol on the trailer or movie poster like the mpaa rating that states upfront that this is a remake? I think they should. Anyway back to the storyline… In a small southern town in a small quiet neighborhood sits a house owned by Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall). Marva is a widow and a church goin upstanding citizen. As it happens, her house is in a perfect location for Professor G.H. Dorr’s (Tom Hanks) devious plot to rob a nearby riverboat casino. The Professor gathers a ragtag group of criminals posing as a classical music troupe who would like to hold practices in Marva’s basement, and then tunnel into the Casino vault to rob the place. Like most Crime movies things start to go wrong, and the story follows the events that ensue.
Well, for the pluses of this film, that just barely brought the enjoyment level up for this movie was the music #1. One of the best parts about several of the Coen brother films is their excellent choice of music. The music throughout most of the film is Gospel Music that really gets your toe tappin. I almost felt like breaking into dance down the aisle in the manner of Dan Akroyd from the Blues Brothers, but I held myself back ;)
The other element that I enjoyed was Tom Hanks. Even though his character was starting to wear on me by the end of the film, I was enjoying his portrayal of a quirky heavily southern accented very eloquent spoken gentleman, and yes, a criminal. Tom really brings every bit of talent that he has to his roles, which I enjoy.
I also enjoyed the role of Marva Munson played by Irma P. Hall. She just seemed like a woman who as long as you didn’t cross her would be the kindest sweetest woman. Irma did a great job of playing this role as a strong yet somewhat naive widow.
The downsides… The storyline was predictable from the get go. You have a bunch of bumbling crooks like “Lump” Ryan Hurst who played the “muscle” and the dumb goon. To the Quirky pyrotechnics animal trainer of Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons) to the strict no-nonsense “The General” (Tzi Ma) who I’m not really sure what role he was supposed to represent in the group, and lastly Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans) who played the younger hip-hop character who was the “inside man” as a janitor in the Casino. The movie really disappointed me in the hip-hop representation. It was almost like watching too different movies, one that had a classic old southern town feel, and the other extreme of foul language, modern day gangsta stereotypes. The foul language was pretty extreme in some cases, and really kinda bothered me, as it didn’t seem to fit in with a “Tom Hanks” movie.
Even though the film was a remake, it still had that “Coen Brothers” feel to it. Which I think I am still a fan of in spite of this film.
As we were leaving the theatre I overheard a man behind me say, “This film really needed an audience” which may be true. There were only about 12-15 people in the theatre when we saw it, and many of the jokes did not bring a laugh. Some I thought were simply not funny; others kinda made me chuckle, but nothing that I would consider “Laugh out loud”. Perhaps if I had been a full theatre, where the crowd was laughing out loud, it would have lightened the mood? That would be interesting to know if a crowd can influence your enjoyment of a film.
So, all in all, I’d say skip this film, and maybe wait for the DVD release. Don’t expect a whole lot, and if foul language doesn’t do it for you, then skip this movie all together.
Jef
