Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Produced by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Josephson, & Barry Sonnenfeld

Cast: Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall, Ryan Hurst, & Stephen Root

Released: March 26th, 2004

Comedy and Crime/Gangster 1 hr. 44 min. The plot of an eccentric professor-turned-criminal-mastermind (Tom Hanks) to commit the massive heist of a New Orleans riverboat casino appears to be thwarted by the actions of Mrs. Munson, the seemingly-innocent little old landlady of the house that he and his three accomplices are staying in, and which is integral to their scheme (they want to dig a tunnel from it to where the casino's money is kept). So they decide that they need to remove her from the equation, but doing so might prove to be more difficult than they expect.

The Ladykillers is one of the most foul-mouthed, predictable, and bland comedies this year and quite a disappointment coming the same team that brought us the creative masterpiece, O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? Right off the bat, the use of offensive language came as one of the biggest surprises from this film, it not being a good one at that. Never had there been such a ridiculous usage of the words f*ck and the “n-word” in recent memory, or at least since Bad Boys II graced us with its abhorrent presence in July 2003. The detestable language served no real purpose in the plot of this film and seemed to hinder it more then anything else, though that is not to say that had the word usage been tone-downed that it would have helped out all that much. The plot itself may seem a neat concept on paper but watching it acted out on screen can be excruciating with the relatively simple story feeling dragged out longer then it actually is. And the fact that the events after the midway point of the feature become extremely predictable doesn’t help out much either. Bottom-line is that this film will be a mixed bag … some may come out of this disappointed while others will be laughing in stitches, it’s all depending on the point of view and whether or not they have had experiences with the Cohen Brothers in the past. Fans of their work will certainly be disappointed by this outing … Here’s hoping they take a year off to rejuvenate those creative juices of theirs.