The Ladykillers (2004)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

First I do not understand why the movie was not rated well and receive poor reviews. The movie is simply hilarious and although I have seen it many times I still fall on the floor laughing at the Waffle house scene and the inevitable squabbling among the robbers, the donut robbery, and even the opening search for pickles. When I saw the grandmother walk down the street with an open umbrella on a hot but rain less day it reminded me of summer days in the south where parasols and umbrellas are used for dancing and portable shade. The Coen brothers are geniuses.

If the Coen Bros. were musicians "Ladykillers" would be like the B-Side of "Big Lebowsky" is funny, crazy, and a great comedy with great moments and remarkable interpretations of Tom Hanks, J.K Simmons and Irma P. Hall. It's also a great spin of the 1955 movie.It's unfair some of the bad reviews that said that this is the worst comedy of the Coen brothers, I think the 1st place still be for "Hail Caesar"Ladykillers works. His characters are sometimes like cartoons floating in dark sense of humor, that is the "copyright" of this two genius.Ladykillers is also a nice tribute of the decent and honest people to the black and white America,and his soundtrack is stunning!

Professor G.H Dorr (Tom Hanks) responds to an advert where an old lady Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) is advertising for a room to let at her home. However, he has an ulterior motive and intends to rob a casino located close to Marva's house. Dorr recruits a ensemble team to assist in the heist which will start in Marva's cellar. They use the pretence that they are a group of musicians and make Marva believe that they are practicing in her cellar. Although Marva is unsuspecting at first a serious of mishaps cause her to become more and more suspicious of this bunch of 'musicians'.Having not seen the original film, I'm going to have to just stick to reviewing this film and I must admit that I did find it very enjoyable on the whole. There were some minor issues I did have with this film; I didn't think it was particularly well paced; I felt the set-up was perhaps a little long given the fact that it has a relatively straight-forward plot, there were also odd occasions when the film seemed to have unnecessary deviations away from the main plot. The introduction of Mountain Girl also seemed rather pointless to me as her character added very little to the film. However, these were very minor problems and didn't cause too many problems whilst I was watching the film.The cast were all good here, but particular praise should go to Hanks & Hall; I've no idea what the original film was like, but the Coen's have given this a 'black comedy' feel to it and it works really well. Hanks enhances this effect by giving Dorr a creepy and weird feel to his character and at times he does give you that 'cringe' feel when watching him on screen - this is meant as a compliment and is a testament to both Hanks as an actor and the Coen's as writers. Hall is also very good here and manages to give her character a sort of naïve charm, but she's also quite ballsy and has no problem in keeping the men in line. Her comic timing & delivery was also fantastic. Tzi Ma doesn't speak much here, but he actually manages to be funny more for what he does than what he says but he does get some funny lines as well. Simmons & Wayans are both good for the most part and their constant squabbling and one upmanship was pretty funny to watch. On occasions, Wayans was close to crossing the line between being funny and being annoying, but I think he just about gets away with it here. Hurst for the most part is just the clichéd lumbersome jock although like Ma, the Coens do treat him to some good one liners.Like many Coen brothers film, the film is also excellent from a technical basis with editing, direction, score and cinematography all being superb.As mentioned, I haven't seen the original version of The Ladykillers, but I have to admit that I really enjoyed this Coen brothers remake. The characters are inherently quirky (as they are in most Coen brothers films). When it hits it is incredibly funny - it's very rare that I laugh out loud when watching any comedy, but this film achieved that result on a few occasions. The cast were all terrific with Hall & Hanks being notable standouts. Simply put this is a wonderful black comedy.

Im usually a huge fan of the Cohen brothers films but this one was definitely not one of my favorites. It was pretty good just not compared to a lot of their other films. Tom Hanks does a great job and so does the rest of the cast except for Marlon Waynes of course whos acting is annoying at best why they felt they needed to add him I will never know.This movie is about an old lady who one day has a knock on her door. There is a very educated intelligent man standing there wishing to rent the room she has. She brings him in and he invites his friends over where they plan to tunnel their way through the wall of the basement and rob a bank.This movie was pretty good and it had its funny moments but its not where near as funny as the big lebowski etc..