|
Ladykillers,
The
(2004)
Starring:
Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans
Directors: Joel and
Ethan Coen
Rating: R
Studio:
Touchstone
Release Date:
03.26.04
Review
Posted: 04.02.04
Spoilers:
None
By
Christopher T. Bryan
"Ladykillers" Too Intelligent,
Stupid For Its Own Good
With The
Ladykillers, the Coen brothers have taken their love of making
movies with eccentric and odd characters a step too far by throwing
stock characters together for no apparent reason other than the sheer
brashness of it.
The Ladykillers
is a remake of a 1955 film starring Alec Guinness. Tom Hanks is
mastermind Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, Ph.D., an Edgar Alan Poe quoting
Colonel Sanders look-alike who snivels when he laughs. Goldthwait has
plotted to rob a riverboat casino of its loot by tunneling from a
little old lady’s (Hall) root cellar through the back of the safe with
the help of a gang of mismatched hoodlums, each with their own
specialty. Gawain (Wayans) is the inside man, Garth Pancake (J.K.
Simmons) the explosives expert, the General (Tzi Ma) the tunneling
expert, and Lump (Ryan Hurst) is the muscle. The group poses as
musicians in order to use Mrs. Munson’s cellar as a practicing area.
Instead of practicing, they begin the long process of burrowing their
way towards riches.
I initially saw the
trailer for this film and felt mixed emotions over the prospect of Tom
Hanks in a movie with one of the terminally underwhelming Wayans
brothers. Unfortunately my bewilderment was not misdirected. Wayans is
as out of place here as Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Shakespearean play.
He looks as though he wandered directly out of the latest Scary
Movie film to pause momentarily at Ladykillers on his way
to a role in a movie that promises to prove that there is no statute
of limitations as to how many times a plot can be regurgitated, namely
White Chicks. Throughout the film I was waiting for him to
utter the catch-all token black character phrase, “that shit is
whack!” Alas, it didn’t happen, but he managed to drop the F-bomb
repeatedly.
Here-in lays the
obstacle of Ladykillers that I simply could not wrap my mind
around. Hanks’ character prattles on and on with lines straight out of
classic prose, while Wayans spouts contemporary slang, and an old
Baptist lady bemoans “Hippity Hop.” These stereotypical characters do
not belong in the same film. Whereas standing alone they have certain
strengths, together they simply play up each other’s weaknesses, and
strip themselves of all humor. I haven’t even mentioned the over-acted
and abrasive character of Lump or the cheap use of Irritable Bowel
Syndrome for laughs (previously put to much better effect in Along
Came Polly).
The best scenes in
the film are between Hanks and Hall. The two play off of each other
very well with Hanks displaying a fantastic southern drawl and Hall
falling snugly into the mammy character with deep religious
convictions. Eliminate the other characters, tinker with the
storyline, perform some major recasting, and the film would have
worked much better.
The Coens wanted to
have their cake and eat it to, and in the process overshot their goal.
The film is at once too intelligent, and too stupid for its own good,
leaving the audience somewhere in the middle, and left me personally
disinterested in either aspect of the movie.
Film Rating:
ę (out of
4)
Home | Back to Top |
