Barnes & Noble

The classic 1955 British black comedy starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers gets a thorough updating and change in location for this droll remake written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo). The Guinness role is reworked for top-billed Tom Hanks, delightfully eccentric as Professor G. H. Dorr, an old-school southern gentleman who poses as a music teacher while secretly masterminding bank robberies. For their latest caper, Dorr and his equally eccentric associates (Marlon Wayans, J. K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, and Ryan Hurst) have chosen a casino; their planned means of access is a tunnel they’re digging from underneath the home of Dorr’s churchgoing landlady (Irma P. Hall). When the old woman begins to suspect the professor’s “students” have something other than music lessons in mind, she becomes an obstacle that must be overcome…or removed. No strangers to black comedy, the Coens manage to make Hanks and company likable even when they’re expressing murderous intent. The secondary characters are limned carefully, with Simmons -- best known as newspaper editor Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies -- a clear standout as an explosives specialist with alarming lapses of judgment. Hanks, the recipient of numerous close-ups, squanders no opportunity to mug for the camera while he rattles off dialogue in a molasses-thick Dixie accent. Irma P. Hall has the toughest assignment, playing straight to these oddballs. But she gets plenty of laughs herself, especially when chastising Marlon Wayans about contemporary music like “hippity-hop.” Although the coming attractions made Ladykillers seem relatively benign, don’t be fooled: This movie has plenty of edge and a denouement that will be especially surprising to anyone who hasn’t seen the original. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

One of the best-loved films from the idiosyncratic British film studio Ealing Pictures gets an update from the equally idiosyncratic filmmaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen in this offbeat comedy. Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) is a spry, elderly woman who attends church regularly, doesn't care for loud noises or harsh language, and is looking for a tenant for the spare room in her house. Enter Goldthwait Higginson Dorr (Tom Hanks), a silver-tongued college professor who moves in and gains Munson's permission to use the basement for rehearsals with his "medieval music ensemble." What Munson doesn't know is that Dorr's latest project is not academic, but criminal. Dorr is masterminding the robbery of a riverboat casino, and the fellow musicians in his ensemble are actually the crew he's assembled to pull off the job: foul-mouthed "inside man" Gawain (Marlon Wayans), clumsy demolitions expert Pancake (J.K. Simmons), quiet strong-arm man Lump (Ryan Hurst), and logistical expert The General (Tzi Ma). Despite the best efforts of Dorr and his cohorts (which aren't very impressive), Munson finds out about their scheme, and when she refuses to accept a share of the take in exchange for her silence, Dorr decides the best solution is to silence her permanently. The gospel tunes which grace the soundtrack to The Ladykillers were coordinated by T-Bone Burnett, who also helped assemble the acclaimed song score for the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936239508
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Time: 1:44:00
• Sales Rank: 1,349

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