Wow. This movie was hilarious, another classic from the Coen brothers. I am not going to get into comparing it with the original - they are both great movies. I noticed this movie is not getting very good reviews. Most of the negative reviews seems to focus on how extreme the characters. However, the extreme behaviors of the characters is what makes this movie so funny. I haven’t been in a theater where th audience laughed so hard as in this movie. I saw with my fairly conservative parents and I thought they would be offended by the language and some of the jokes, but they (and the rest of the audience) were laughing at all the jokes.
I also learned a very important lesson.
You don’t bring your bitch to the waffle house
And there was a great audience reaction to:
the final scene when the cat drops the finger off the bridge.
This is a really funny movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I recommend it to anyone looking for feel good movie.
I enjoyed it as well, but in some parts it did go slow. The two friends I went to see it with thought it was “horrible” even though one of them laughed a lot. So, it just isn’t for everyone.
I’ll second the “horrible” but with laughter. There are some funny moments and lines, but Tom Hanks talks too much and really buries the one-liners that could have been (and indeed were in the radio promos).
The directors seem enamored with little bits of musical Americana and at times it was hard to tell if the excuse for setting the movie in the South was so they could showcase their sensitivity.
That and I got the distinct feeling that 1) they hadn’t seen the original enough to understand that it was a criminal comedy of manners not some alternate-reality screwball comedy. As it was, the old lady was too smart to be too dumb to stop their crime 2) they had run out of film and had to get rid of the characters as quickly as possible.
Just saw this tonight, myself.
Very funny. It’s not their best, by far, but it’s better than Intolerable Cruelty.
Tom hanks was probably my least favorite character due to the fact that he’s just needless talky in every scene.
(though his scene under the bed was nice- and silent, primarily)
I knew to ignore the critics reviews as they’ve absolutely torn apart some of their movies which I loved. The “extreme charaters” complaint seems to come up a lot. I distinctly remember Owen Glieberman from Entertainment Weekly gave Oh Brother a “D”, calling it one of the worst movies of the year for such reasons.
heh
I’ve been guilty of laughing during a movie and then dissing it.
I actually liked The Ladykillers quite a bit, even if it won’t end up being my favorite Coen Bros film. I enjoyed Tom Hanks’ performance, he was obviously having fun with the role and I liked all of his talky moments.
I thought it was a wonderful movie. I saw it with a crowd that didn’t really “get it,” though. There were many occasions where the theatre was silent except for the uncontrollable cackling of my friend and me.
The only thing I disliked was the strong racial characterizations. I didn’t mind that the characters were fairly one-dimensional; I took the movie as a sort of old-school morality play or piece of comedia del arte, where such things are the norm. But the race-based stuff did make me uncomfortable for the first half of the movie. Then I made myself drop the issue, and it was much more enjoyable.
I saw The Ladykillers yesterday at the matinee. As with O Brother, and Intolerable Cruelty, I realized they had serious flaws to them, but I laughed and enjoyed them for the most part. Maybe I’m too jaded, but I really like movies with quirks in them that make me go “huh?” every so often, instead of something predictable.
My favorite laugh was when Tom Hank’s character asks Irma P. Hall’s character if she’s ever "blown the showfar(sp?) the ancient jewish horn. Of course, it comes out as “Have you ever blown the chauffeur?”, and everyone in the theater busted up laughing.
I loved J.K. Simmon’s character and I wish that Mountain Girl (Diane Delano) could have had a larger part–maybe taking over for Marlon Wayan’s character when he got fired from the casino. But, all in all, I’m satisfied with the movie. Oh, I also thought George Wallace was pretty good as the sheriff.
The Coen Brothers are becoming an example of why movies need creative input from a lot of different people. As I watched “The Ladykillers” I was enjoying it, sort of, but I had a feeling they were ripping themselves off. It felt like a patchwork of cliches from other Coen Brothers films; a central character with a funny accent (Fargo, Raising Arizona) a coveted treasure (Fargo, O Brother, The Big Lebowski, others) a hapless band of thieves (any number of Coen films) goofy supporting cast (All Coen films) weird obsessions with mundane, middle-America stuff, and period music. It was Frankencoenmovie.
I didn’t get the sense they were trying very hard.