Entertaining, but kind of flat.

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2006)

Lucky Number Slevin tells the story of a man named Slevin Kalvera, friend to a man named Nick Fisher. One day Slevin is at Nick's apartment waiting for him when two gangsters show up informing him that he owes "The Boss" all kinds of money. No matter how much he explains that he's not Nick Fisher, "The Boss" won't let up. He wants Slevin to kill a rival gangster's son. Unfortunately, this rival gangster, "The Rabbi", wants something from Fisher as well. Throw into the mix a legendary hit-man and a curious girl next door, and you're well on your way to discovering the mystery behind the movie.
The first thing that threw me off about Lucky Number Slevin was how misleading the trailer was. The trailer made it look like a happy, purely for entertainment popcorn flick, but it ended up being a gangster drama. The writing was really good. I enjoyed listening to the characters talking back and forth because the dialogue was so snappy and precise. I had to laugh at how great it was. The movie contains a fair amount of action, and as things unfold leading up to the ending, it's fun to try and piece the puzzle together. However, at the same time the plot is kind of flat and underdeveloped. I don't really know how to explain it. It's a contradiction. Cool things happen throughout the movie, but the plot isn't that deep. The movie starts, some cool twists and turns occur, and it ends with no character development or anything.
The performances are pretty good. Ben Kinglsey, Morgan Freeman, and Bruce Willis are good no matter what role they're in, and they're all great here, although Bruce Willis didn't really have a whole lot to do in the movie. It was nice to see Morgan Freeman play a real bad guy for once (unless you choose to count Hard Rain and Shawshank Redemption, where he plays a bank robber and a murderer). Josh Hartnett was pretty good as Slevin. I'm not a huge Lucy Liu fan, so she wasn't very thrilling.
Overall, this is good for one viewing, because it has some great twists and turns and a good ending, and some really good performances. It makes you think, but the plot is kind of flat.
6.5/10