Things to do in NYC when you are out of luck.

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2007)

If you think you may have a bad day, consider the day Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) is having. He's just lost his job and his apartment, and found his girlfriend in bed with another man all on the same day. To top it off, he gets mugged, has his nose broken and loses all his ID cards when he comes to New York City to stay with his high school friend Nick Fisher who fails to meet him at the airport, disappears in the thin air and leaves Slevin stuck in a mafia-war between two families respectively headed by the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley, and he is the Rabbi and the gangster) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman as regal as usually. OT: just before we began watching "Lucky Number Slevin", we returned from "Evan Almighty." It was a double treat to see Morgan Freeman playing God and the mafia boss at the same day). A mysterious assassin Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis) seems to have plans on how to use Slevin as a "body" (does not sound too promising for Slevin if you ask me) for his present job. A tough NYC cop (Stanley Tucci) does not want a wild card Slevin in his city. The last thing Slevin needs is a romance with the Nick's next door neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu) who happened to word as a coroner for NYCPD while he tries to turn the tables on the gangsters. Yes, of course, the movie brings to mind the classics like "North By Northwest" with the case of a mistaken identity, "Pulp Fiction" (with its style, coolness, and sharp dialogs, and with the small details like a family watch with a long history, and three stars of three Tarantino's movies), "Usual Suspects" (with the way the story has been presented), and "Professional" (well, sometimes the world class assassins have hearts and feelings that they are not supposed to have) but the movie is very entertaining - it is paced extremely well, the use of flash backs is most effective, and the actors, all of them bring style and grace to their roles. Just to see the only scene between Freeman and Sir Kingsley is worth the price of renting. Between my husband and myself, we figured out the story and the secrets behind the lucky numbers rather early into the movie but we still enjoyed watching it and were riveted to the screen until the very last moment, and that's the sign of a well crafted and interesting movie for me.
7.5/10