The Ladykillers
Cast
Tom Hanks .... Professor G.H. Dorr
Irma P. Hall .... Marva Munson
Marlon Wayans .... Gawain MacSam
J.K. Simmons .... Garth Pancake
Tzi Ma .... The General
Directed by
Ethan Coen and
Joel Coen
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
6/10. O Coen Brothers, Where Art Thou? You leave your partially indie roots
to make commercial movies like The Ladykillers and Intolerable
Cruelty. Although I don't consider myself to be a huge Coen Bros. fan
(the oldest movie of theirs that I have seen is Fargo), I enjoy their
movies, and often find their brand of dark humor very funny. However,
Cruelty had just one dark moment that had me in stitches, and The
Ladykillers doesn't start up with the dark until it's too late.
Tom Hanks is G.H. Dorr, a professor who is like a cross between Col.
Sanders and Foghorn Leghorn. He rooms in the house of Marva Munson
(Irma P. Hall), supposedly just to room while he's studying, and use
her basement to practice Renaissance music with his band. However,
the real reason why he needs to be in that house is because it's
adjoined to a casino that Dorr and his posse are planning to rob.
Munson isn't exactly a milquetoast person, and her strict views
damper the successfulness of their mission.
Throughout the first hour and fifteen minutes or so, The Ladykillers
seemed to just be generic and bland. A few laughs here and there, but
nothing spectacular. It drew on stereotypes of the south and of race,
but wasn't really anything amazing. But then the final part of the
movie came, which were some of the funniest moments I've witnessed in
a movie theater for a long time. THAT'S where it started getting
good. The darkness in the Coens's humor came out, and put a whole new
perspective on the movie. However, to get there, we needed to go
through over an hour of generic movie. Some of that part even seemed
like a teen comedy (I'll just say loose bowels and leave it at that).
Although commended for his over-the-top performance, Hanks's
character just seemed to bug me. Not only was he hard to understand
(actually, almost everyone in the movie was hard to understand), but
the way he laughed didn't go with the character, and I don't really
think he was right for the role. Hall, however, was good in her over-
the-top role. All of the crew involved with the robbery did what they
needed to do, but Marlon Wayans's character seemed to belong in a
completely different movie. Although occasionally funny, his
typical "angry black guy" role just didn't fit in.
Some scenes seemed dragged out, especially in the church, and some
meaningless scenes went on for fifteen minutes without even
attempting to make us laugh. And that's the point of a comedy, isn't
it? The Coen Brothers know how to make comedy. They just need to do
it all the way through.
Rated R for language including sexual references.
Running time: 104 minutes
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