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The Ladykillers
Movie Stats & Links

Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Touchstone Pictures
Web Site: ladykillers.movies.com
Kiddie Movie: Leave them with the babysitter.
Date Movie: Bring them along.
Gratuitous Sex: Nah.
Gratuitous Violence: Some quality kills.
Action: Just chasing a cat.
Laughs: Lots of dry humor.
Memorable Scene: The General's demise.
Memorable Quote: "Did you fart?", and a bunch more.
Directed By: Joel & Ethan Coen
Produced By: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson

The Ladykillers
A Movie Review

MPAA Rated - R

It's 1:44 Long

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
There was a point during "The Ladykillers" when I got a little sick and tired of Tom Hanks’ accent he was giving to Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, Ph. D., but then something funny happened and that feeling went away. Let’s get to the story.

Tom Hanks plays Professor Dorr. We find him first on the doorstep of Marva (Irma P. Hall), letting Pickles the cat climb up a tree, and Marva instructing him to go up and get the cat. Not wanting the police to come, the Professor obliges, and after hilarity, he states to Marva the intentions of his visit, namely to rent the room that is available, and if his ensemble of musicians may use her basement for practice of church music. Being the church-going woman she is, Marva obliges. We then get glimpses into the current lives of the ensemble, one good in munitions, one a dumb jock, one a donut salesman, and one a foul-mouthed employee at the nearby casino. The plan: Dig a tunnel from Marva’s basement to the casino vault and rob the casino leaving no trace of how the robbery was performed.

So, while the good Professor uses his words of wit to keep Marva from being suspicious, our cast of criminals dig their way, eventually getting the cash. The twist is Marva catches them, and the Professor does his best to hoodwink Marva into thinking their criminal activities are actually for a good cause, namely a sizeable donation to Bob Jones University, where Marva sends a donation every year (for those not understanding the subtle humor in this, search the internet for information on the racial policies of the university). Marva ain’t buying the Professor’s story this time, so the ladykillers get to work, only Marva has God on her side so that doesn’t bode well for our criminals.

I’ll leave the story at that because I don’t want to give away too many of the fun parts, but for this movie, it’s all about eccentric characters and if the actors can pull them off. Happily everyone does. Marlon Wayans is great as the foul-mouthed Gawain, not letting the white man keep a brother down. J.K. Simmons plays the talking-too-much Garth Pancake to the point that even we get annoyed with him. Ryan Hurst is Lump, the dumb jock pretty much kept around for his digging strength, and Tzi Ma is The General, who doesn’t have a lot to say, but when he does it’s usually funny. But the two that really make this movie are Hall and Hanks. Irma P. Hall is great as the sweet, southern black woman, but you wouldn’t want to cross her because she’ll keep you in your place, and Hanks is great saying a lot of words that sound impressive but really don’t say anything. The only thing that bothered me was the accent he gave the Professor, as I stated before, but I know there is a little necessity to the slightly over-the-top performance.

This movie really won’t be for everyone, it’s a weird kind of humor that the Coen brothers have made famous, but I would say most of the people in the theater seemed to enjoy it. There are some very funny moments, a lot of them involving Pickles the cat, but nothing totally overboard. There’s a lot of foul language, mostly from the Wayans character, but for the most part this is just a solid comedy. I’ll leave this review giving "The Ladykillers" 4 stars out of 5.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

 

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