Slightly corny and uneven but a very well-written tale

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
Slevin (Josh Hartnett) has had a run of bad luck recently (from losing his job to getting viciously mugged) that has culminated in him getting mistaken for a man wanted by a couple of mob goons, The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and the Jewish Schlomo (Ben Kingsley) over a massive unpayed debt. To clear the slate, he is asked by TB to assassinate the son of Schlomo in an on-going mob feud. A mysterious hit-man named Mr Goodkat (Bruce Willis) and a spurious detective named Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) also get thrown into this convulted story where nothing is as it seems.
The cast runs from one end of acting greatness to the other, from the acclaimed Willis, Kingsley and Freeman to Hartnett, still working his way up the acting tier.
At times, a lot of the dialogue gets layed on a bit too thickly and in turn sounds a bit corny, but it is sort of admirable in it's way. What the movie can boast above all else is an intelligent, well conceived plot full of twists and turns that require your full attention to the end, when it all gets revealed as just another big revenge storyline of the type that's been coming out of Hollywood a lot lately (a few years after 9/11.)
Some rather big flaws, then, but still a very rewarding action thriller with a clever plot. ****