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	The Ladykillers
	Joel and Ethan Coen Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, Diane Delano, George Wallace, Stephen Root 2004		There should be little arguing over the merits of the Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan. These guys have written and directed enough quirky, memorable movies ("Fargo" among them) that a few less-than-stellar efforts are easily forgiven. In that spirit, their Americanization of the dark-hued British caper comedy "The Ladykillers" is akin to "Intolerable Cruelty," their middling homage to '30s screwball romances, with enough amusing vignettes to justify viewing. "The Ladykillers," Coens-style, is a tad-too-broad escapade about an inept gang trying to rob a modern Mississippi riverboat casino. It helps to have Tom Hanks for the ringleader role played by Alec Guinness in the original. Having a blast in Col. Sanders drag, Hanks is a graying, honey-voiced charlatan known as the Professor. This pompous villain sucks up to an elderly church-going widow, so that he and his clownish crew — a bumbling, politically-correct explosives expert (J.K. Simmons); a tunneling whiz (Tzi Ma) who was a general in the Vietnamese army, an obstinate wannabe "gangsta" (Marlon Wayans) employed as a janitor in the casino, and a muscled lunkhead (Ryan Hurst) — can use her basement as a staging area for their heist. But they underestimate the old lady, enacted by Irma P. Hall, who steals so many scenes that she's the real thief in "The Ladykillers."


	Sunday, November 17, 2024





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