The Ladykillers
Tags: entertaining, comedy, boring, murder, flashback

Plot synopsis:
[In this adaptation of the original, the setting of the film is moved from London to Saucier, Mississippi, home of a riverboat casino. Actual filming, however, took place in Natchez, due to the real Saucier being situated in Harrison County and not bordering the Mississippi River.]In a quiet, beautiful community Mrs. Marva Munson, an elderly, God-fearing widow lives. She answers the door one sunny morning to find the charming Professor Goldthwaite H. Dorr, a pretentious Southern dandy, darkening her doorstep. He explains who he is and expresses his interest in Mrs. Munson's spare bedroom, which she has advertised to let. He explains that he is a musician and asks if it would be all right for him to use her basement as a place for recitals with his fellow "musicians". She accepts the terms and agrees. Mr. Dorr's fellow "musicians" are actually a gang of criminals, consisting of:-Lump, the incredibly dumb but tough football player.
-The General, a quiet tough-as-nails donut cook with expertise in tunneling and garroting troublesome individuals. -Garth Pancake, a mustached animal trainer for TV commercials with expertise in explosives.
-Gawain, their "inside man", a young janitor who works on the "Bandit Queen", a riverboat casino.With all of their talents combined, the group of criminals plan to dig a tunnel from Mrs. Munson's basement to the casinos' underground counting room. To avoid Mrs. Munson's hearing the digging, they play orchestral CDs as to seem that they are rehearsing, so she will not get suspicious. They dispose of all the unused dirt in Hefty trash bags.After a series of comical mishaps that threaten to derail their plan, which include Gawain getting fired from the casino and Garth blowing his finger off in an accidental explosion (while demonstrating the 'safety' of C4 to the others), they break through the wall of the vault and snatch the loot, a scheme made even easier by Gawain, who has been rehired at the casino and is able to quickly repair the puncture in the wall. Mr. Pancake is able to rig a small explosion that will collapse the tunnel so it will never be discovered. The explosive seemingly turns out to be a dud, so Pancake ventures down the tunnel and, after examining it, inadvertently re-activates its timer. With about ten seconds before the tunnel collapses, Pancake crawls with all haste to escape, but his Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) starts to act up and this slows him down. It suddenly explodes and he is shot out of the collapsing tunnel and smashes into a table which has the money on it. Upon hearing the rumble, Mrs. Munson walks downstairs and finds out what her tenants have done. Outraged, she tells Dorr in a private conversation to either return the money to the casino and go to church to repent their sins, or else she will call the police. Dorr tells her he will consult the group. Not willing to give up the money, the gang decides to murder her and draw straws to do so.Gawain loses, and must therefore shoot Mrs. Munson. When he goes to shoot her, he has a flashback of himself at ten years old, coming home with a spaniel puppy in his arms and asking his alcoholic, couch potato of a mother if he can keep it. She refuses and slaps him, claiming "you wait 'til your daddy gets home, he gonna lay into you proppa!" Upon hearing him murmuring "please momma, I love you. He won't shit in the house, I'll train 'im up proppa and wipe his butt an' everything", Mrs. Munson (whom Gawain was visualizing as his mother) demands to know what he is doing with her pillow, and snatches it away. After receiving a slapping, Gawain informs his fellow comrades he can't shoot her. An outraged Pancake tells him to accept his responsibilities and shoot her or face the prospect of being a coward, to which the group concurs. During an argument and brawl with Pancake, Gawain accidentally shoots himself in the chest and dies.Lump and the General dangle the trash bag with Gawain's body over a bridge and drop it when a huge garbage barge heading out to the garbage island passes below them. Meanwhile, Pancake steals the money and attempts to escape with his girlfriend, Mountain Girl. However, Dorr is no fool, and checks to confirm the money is still present. Dorr sends The General chasing after them, who promptly kills them both with his patented strangling wire, and their bodies are then dumped on the barge.This time, the General pulls the short straw and walks up to Munson's bedroom with his wire strangler, planning to strangle her in her sleep. He also back-flips his cigarette into his mouth so that the pungent fragrance of tobacco doesn't wake Mrs. Munson. As he is about to kill her, he is surprised by an alarm clock sounding and accidentally swallows his lit cigarette. He reaches for a glass of water on the nightstand to get a drink, only to realize this is where Mrs. Munson kept her denture. In disgust, he retreats, and still choking, he staggers backwards into the stairwell, trips over the cat, and falls down the stairs, smashing his head against the wall and cracking his skull, dead on impact.When Dorr and Lump dispose of the General on the bridge, Lump suggests to Dorr that they give the money back to the casino. Dorr insists that he is stupid and tells him that he has to do the killing. Lump refuses and tries to shoot Dorr instead because he doesn't "want to harm a nice old lady". The gun doesn't fire, so Lump peeks down the barrel while pulling the trigger. It turns out that Dorr deliberately left the chamber under the hammer empty, and Lump tests the revolver to see if it works. He shoots himself in the face and falls over the bridge rail onto the garbage barge passing under the bridge, timed perfectly due to Dorr's ability to anticipate Lump's every thought and move.Dorr, left standing, sees a raven sitting on a statue of death, which reminds him of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven". Being a great admirer of Poe, he pauses to reflect. When the raven flies off, the head of the statue breaks and falls off, whacking Dorr on the head. Dorr too, falls over the bridge, but his coat catches on the bridge's underside railings, thus hanging him. His coat soon tears and he falls onto another garbage barge.Mrs. Munson wakes up, ignorant of last night's proceedings. She sees a crack in the wall where the General's head impacted, though she can't figure out how it got there. She then goes down to the basement to discover that the gang has apparently disappeared, leaving all the money behind. She decides to return the money, but when she shares her story with the sheriff, they think she has gone batty, refuse to believe her story. To humor her, they tell her to keep the money, and agree that she can give it to the "bible school" in South Carolina, Bob Jones University. In the film's last moments, Pickles, the cat, is seen scurrying across the bridge and poking his head over the side with Pancake's finger in his mouth. He then drops it onto the passing garbage barge, disposing of the last remaining piece of the villains.

Review: As a remake this movie falls flat, as a stand alone movie its not too bad and will appeal more to a younger audience and probably mostly American one at that.Here is the problem with remakes - If you make it exactly like the original then there is little point in remaking it, if you just change the country what is the point when the dialogue and the setting is the exact same almost, with a few words changed here and there...
the scenario is quite different except that they are both about stealing money.Not a bad or great movie by any means, and i think Hanks character tried to be like the Alec Guinness one, a little strange, and it didn't quite work, for me anyway....
Tom Hanks was simply delightful pretending to be refined, highly educated, charmingly polite and smooth talking Rococo music lover Professor G.H.Darr who in reality was a very dangerous, ruthless and devious criminal that assembled the most hilarious gang of thieves (each has his special talent) to dig the tunnel through his landlady's root cellar to a casino vault and to steal 1.6 million dollars.
The slight difference here is that instead of seeing the mastermind (Tom Hanks) actually recruiting each one of them, we are shown what looks like a cartoon quip of each, with some good laughs but at the same time highlighting their individual characteristics.Tunnelling for a robbery is not new, and the classical one has to be The Red Headed League in the Sherlock Holmes short stores.
Another contrast played upon a lot by the Coen Brothers is the Hanks' talking 'genteel' (as Eliza Doolittle would have said) and the proliferation of obscenity from the 'punk', the insider member of the gang.Funny right from the start, this movie gradually reveals more and more of the Coens' brand of dark humour when eventually the title 'ladykillers' take on a literal meaning.
The supporting characters are nicely fleshed out with some helpful introductory vignettes and although some of the film comes across as a little too "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at times; I think we can forgive the Cohens.
So when she rents a room to Professor Dorr P.H.D (Tom Hanks, Philadelphia) little does she know that her annual contribution to Bob Jones University will never be the same.Dorr turns out to be a criminal mastermind, trying to pull off a simple casino robbery.
A band of botcher thieves (Marlon Wayans , Tzi Ma , Ryan Hurst) led by a cunning man (Tom Hanks) attempt a great robbing , but their scheme is foiled by an allegedly innocent old lady (Irma P.
The picture is a good adaptation of the classic British film of the golden decade of Ealing studio , a droll black comedy with the same title and featured by Alec Guinnes , Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers and written by Willian Rose .
Tom Hanks was appalling in the Alec Guinness role, the 'lady' in question though well acted missed the whole point of the plot, and the black character with verbal diarrhoea and a foul mouth was a disgrace to the memory of the Ealing Comedy of old.If you have a modicum of good taste, do not go to see this execrable nonsense..
The Coens are probably my favorite living directors and among the more distinctive currently working, and they certainly put their own spin on an established comedy classic with this film.I think that the poor reception this film got is largely due to its sense of humor.
The Coens' dry wit present in several of their films is present here, mostly through the main character Professor Dorr, portrayed excellently by Tom Hanks in one of his better performances, but there's also a lot of low-brow humor, and not even distinctive or interesting low-brow humor, just 'haha he dropped an f-bomb' sort, which is really at odds with the rest of this film.
I love the original Ealing comedy this is based on & was so excited when I heard the Coen brothers were remaking it, with Tom Hanks to boot.
Hall, the Coens got her character completely wrong.What made the original so good was sweet Mrs. Wilberforce's (played by the incomparable Katie Johnson) naivete and vulnerability.
Hall's character just doesn't work in this story.Marlon Wayans grates as the foul-mouthed "inside man" - unable to extract any humor from their remake, the Coens resort to Wayans spewing profanity pretty much in every line of dialogue.
Made in 1955 and featuring such wonderful talents as Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, it has earned a reputation as a minor classic.One can only assume that the Coen Brothers never saw the original, or if they did they decided that to Americanize the tale they had to strip it of anything that might even vaguely seem whimsical -- or funny.
For no particular reason, this tired tale about thieves tunneling into a vault has been transported to the Mississippi Delta and populated with a cast of characters trapped in racial stereotyping of every sort.Doing a crude parody of a southern gentleman, Tom Hanks plays unpleasantly against type as Prof.
The Coens have proved they know how to embrace malevolence, but not since BLOOD SIMPLE have they shown the devilish wit of Alfred Hitchcock or Tim Burton or Charles Addams or Edward Gory or even Edgar Allen Poe. In their inexplicable attempt to mix modern film sadism with quaint British irony, they let the former suffocate the latter; and like the poor dog in the film, THE LADYKILLERS dies a slow and painfully unpleasant death..
The story might have looked funny on paper but by the time it reached the big screen Tom Hanks had taken the Coen Brother's hostage.
A group of thieves disguised as musicians hiding out in a sweet old lady's house sounds like a pretty hysterical premise for a movie, and Alec Guiness proved it was in the original film.The new version, however, only demonstrates how you can start out with a great premise and completely destroy it.While Hank's performance was funny, it certainly didn't out way all the foul language and meaningless interludes that were supposed to "modernize" the movie.
I am so disappointed in Tom Hanks for appearing in this TERRIBLE remake of a really good movie.
However Dorr's real plan is to tunnel out of the basement and into the underground money store of a nearby casino.However, the plan doesn't go exactly to plan and the one thing Dorr hasn't accounted for is a little old lady discovering what's really going on.Having spent last Saturday afternoon in the company of the original (very good if not a classic) I decided to spend part of this Saturday in a cinema with the remake.
So MacSam becomes a lazy 'mo-fo' talking black character, The General is a quiet, calm Oriental and Pancake's twist is that he has IBS  practically giving us fart jokes, in a Coen brothers movie!These secondary characters deliver very little whereas usually the Coens provide much to love in their support.
For that reason Hanks is great and adds cream to the top of Guinness' performance in the original  he is funny and well worth watching but the film dips when he is offscreen.
Hall is very good and it is not her fault that her character is misjudged; she works her facial expressions very well and I enjoyed her even if I longed for a role like the original had.
Wayans is not the sort of person I ever thought I'd see in a Coen brothers movie and he just does his usual 'mo-fo' ethnic stereotype thing here, he is annoying and his character just smacks of a complete lack of imagination.The soundtrack is full of good gospel stuff and it makes it feel a lot more lively than the original and this energy does help cover some of its failings  but not that well.
Overall it is fun and it is worth a look, but if you have seen the original or like the Coens then you will struggle to see past its failings at times.
While usually a fan of the Coen Brothers and certainly of Tom Hanks, I sit stunned after viewing this poor, ill-conceived remake of the original 1955 classic.
The original film from 50 years ago brims with a highly intelligent, wonderfully imaginative screenplay which is structured brilliantly; the 1955 film shines with wit and HEART throughout -- despite the thoroughly dark humor, and boasts wonderfully fine-tuned performances from Alec Guiness through Peter Sellers and the absolutely amazing Katie Johnson as the intended victim; her work in this film is hilarious in its subtlety and it's conceivable she truly might be a vulnerable victim of this gang, which is completely the opposite of the impression one gets of the Coen Brothers' Marva Munson.
It's an exercise in bad decisions and choices from beginning to end; it's not often I feel filmmakers have blown it on so massive a scale that I feel compelled to vent my irritation at having had my time wasted, but everyone involved in this terrible production certainly know better than to foist this dreadful trash on anyone who enjoys and salutes film entertainment.
So when their 2004 film remake of The Ladykillers was announced, it was not much of a surprise that none other than Mr. Revered Tom Hanks attached himself to the project in the starring role.
The rest of the movie, without spoiling it for you wanna-seers, surrounds the groups efforts to dig the tunnel and steal the money all the while trying to hide their intended scheme from the curious old lady up the stairs.In the hands of the Coen's, The Ladykillers shaped up to be one of this years must sees.
The Coen's have always brought us memorable demises (remember the Wood Chipper in Fargo?), and in Ladykillers, as the members fall to the hands of their own greed one by one, they are offed in a way that made me laugh and was unique enough to go on their wall of accomplishments alongside the flood in O Brother Where Art Thou or Dan Hedaya in Blood Simple.So if I was forced to watch the film history of the Coen's, I would have to put this film towards the bottom just above Intolerable Cruelty.
I have to say that The Ladykillers is the first time I've really enjoyed a Coen Brothers movie since Fargo.
And while I do say that this is the first time I've really enjoyed one of their movies since Fargo, I still think Ladykillers came up short in a lot of ways.
The script and their direction puts them back on track, yet I wonder if the Coen's will ever capture the brilliance they displayed so well in Fargo and Raising Arizona.Tom Hanks does give one of his most interesting performances ever.
They must know that Wayans didn't belong in this movie.Just as much as Tom Hanks deserves an Oscar for his role, so does Irma Hall.
I was looking forward to this, so far for me the Coen Brothers have never put a foot wrong, I admire Tom Hanks' work and have no problems with updating what is a classic of the British cinema.
There was a time in my film watching life when I would have said that there's no such thing as a bad Coen brothers movie.
Everyone looks so psyched to be in a Coen brothers film since they've seen what it's done for their peers in the past yet they're desperate with little to work with.3.This film is not only bad, it's a bit offensive with it's cheap racial humor and vulgar jokes about flatulence and bowels.
My daughter, from the youngest generation comments, as follow:As a 22-year-old college senior, I've seen a lot of good movies in my day, but "Ladykillers" certainly isn't one of them.
So, in conclusion, other than the last 15 or 20 minutes (which did bring a quite clever ending to this film) and the mere fact that Tom Hanks was the star (who is, in my opinion, quite an exceptional actor) nothing much more can be said in this movie's defense..
It featured the most annoying performance by Tom Hanks and an even worse film by Marlon Wayans.
The quirky character by Tom Hanks is probably one of the Coens' best ones, he is well-developed, humorous, and weird-looking.
The Ladykillers isn't better than the original and it is definitely flawed, but Tom Hanks' likable character and the bold directing made the film worthwhile..
If you are going to remake a film starring the great Alec Guiness, then you need someone who at least has a small modicum of the talent and gravitas that the late Sir Alec brought to the screen and the woful Hanks is not even worthy of mentioning Guinness name, let alone trying to emulate a role played with such panache.
And how did they feel that it would be improved by using non-stop obscenities and a whole bunch of wooden clichéd characters.It is said that Tom Hanks didn't watch the original Ladykillers.
The 1955 "Ladykillers" is a great sarcastic black humor British comedy, with five elegant small-time thieves and an irritating old lady.
This version of the Coen brothers brought the same story to the Mississipi, changed the armored car by a casino and lost all the glamour of the original movie.
Tom Hanks is excellent, as usual, but for those who have appreciate the original movie, I believe it is impossible to like this remake.
I wasted $10 on Tom Hank's worst performance ever, four overused jokes (the IBS, cigarette in the mouth, the black lady hitting people and whichever Waynes brother it was cursing) and a plot, if you can even call it that that goes no where.
And once again Tom Hanks plays a great character and was a perfect choice.FINAL VERDICT: This movie was better than reviews made it out to be when it was in theaters.
The gospel-infused soundtrack is rousing but I got the feeling that the Coens were just trying to recreate the musical success that they enjoyed with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?".When you get down to it, I think that this is a worthwhile comedy but when you compare it to the likes of "The Big Lebowski" it's really no comparison at all.
The Ladykillers is quintessential Coen Brothers  a seemingly straight-forward plot gone horribly wrong, bizarre characters and since the Big Lebowski, a rousing soundtrack  this time it's gospel music that literally made me want to start moving my feet and clap.
STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs Marva Munson (Irma P Hall) is an up-front elderly lady who has just been approached by a charming, well-spoken Southern gentleman named Professor GH Dorr (Tom Hanks) to rent space in her house.
The first Ladykillers, a black as you like British comedy from the 1950s, was a smart; often funny and interesting film detailing a perilous situation a handful of thieves wedge their way into following a successful cash heist.
I can remember watching the original quite recently, and in knowing the Coen Brothers had remade it several years ago, it dawned on me what it was that attracted them to this sort of material: a film whose premise revolves around an immoral swiping of some money; deathly black comedic overtones; an array of oddball characters and that sense of both asking and exploring where one's morals truly lie.
Tom Hanks gives a great performance as an over-loquacious southern flimflam man right out of an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show." It is his first flat out comic turn in many, many years, and it is wonderful to see that he is willing to still be funny after playing such a long line of painfully "good," and pretty damn bland, characters.
Similarly to the uneven Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, a remake of an Ealing classic starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, started as a simple writing gig for the Coen brothers (their former cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld was going to direct), before becoming a lot more.
If only the supporting cast were as good: Hurst and Ma are practically useless, standing in the background as the action unfolds; Wayans tries to do a better version of his dope-head from Scary Movie and, not surprisingly, fails; Hall, who mysteriously won a Jury Award in Cannes for her performance, is pretty imposing but too earthy to really fit in (so maybe there's a point in dismissing the Coens' work as cold).
Tom Hanks is their leader, and the fine actor enjoys himself in the bad guy role, playing the erudite university professor, combining a Southern accent with the charm of a Bernard Shaw character quoting from Edgar Allan Poe. Of course, as the film develops, the old lady will over-wit the criminals plans in a story that has nothing to do with real life logic, but has a lot to do with comedy logic.
(Tom Hanks in a wonderfully over-the-top performance) rents a room from a little old lady (Irma P.
Part of the problem was that the comedy styles of Tom Hanks and Marlon Wayans just didn't work.
You didn't really feel for any of the characters, except for the old lady and Tom Hank's character, because none of the characters were well developed or were just plain not likable.This movie has too many obscenities that are very unnecessary, including the "n" word, in my tastes unless it is necessary to the plot is not needed and I don't like it.
Let's Just Pretend Allen Smithee Directed It. I do not recommend this movie to comedy fans and have, instead, included recommendations of better Coen Brothers films below.
Tom Hanks does yet another great job as does the little known support cast.But I do think it's about time the Coen Brothers start producing some better work...