The Coen Bros. humor is very dry. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re supposed to be laughing or not. This works in films like FARGO, but in a film like THE LADYKILLERS, which is clearly a comedy, it really doesn’t work. This film falls into the canon of Coen somewhere along with RAISING ARIZONA, which I am not a super fan.
This film is a remake of a far better Alec Guiness comedy that also starred Peter Sellers. Professor G.H. Dorr (Tom Hanks, THE ‘BURBS) is a ringleader of a heist team that is trying to rob a riverboat gambling company. He takes a room at the house of Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall, SOUL FOOD), a highly religious woman who complains to Sheriff Wyner (George Wallace, LITTLE NICKY) on a regular basis about the local youth playing that hippity-hop music too loudly. Mrs. Munson’s house will allow Dorr and his cronies to tunnel into the riverboat’s shoreline money room and steal the cash. The gang consists of foul-mouthed inside man Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), special effects specialist and explosives man Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons, SPIDER-MAN), tactical master and silent assassin The General (Tzi Ma, THE QUIET AMERICAN) and dimwitted, failed football player and the gang’s muscle Lump Hudson (Ryan Hurst, REMEMBER THE TITANS).
On the page, each character looks hilarious, but the execution seems to fail. Hanks’ mannered performance isn’t bad, but it’s not as funny as I think it is meant to be. The highlight of the film is Hall, whose character is really well written. Some parts are funnier than others, but some moments are silently unfunny. However, I was never bored with the film and I liked all the performances. The way the plot plays out your interested in what will happen next. I think the true failure is that it didn’t have the manic screwball pace that it needed. I recommend this for Coen fans and fans of the actors only. Others should stick with the original.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
