The Ladykillers (2004)

Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen. Starring Tom Hanks, J. K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, George Wallace, Diane Delano, Stephen Root. [R]

Curious Coens concoction is a remake of the Ealing Studios’ classic black comedy that’s been transported from London to Mississippi, but rather than skew this pack of oddballs to their eccentric wavelength, they’ve gone broader and louder, turning most of the characters into cartoons. Hanks flexes outlandish mannerisms as a sycophantic Southern dandy who charms his way into elderly widow Hall’s basement under the pretense of holding music rehearsals there with a small ensemble of musicians; in reality, he’s a crook who’s assembled a team of misfit accomplices to dig a tunnel from the old lady’s basement to a nearby casino vault for a highly unlikely robbery. A great-looking picture (photographed by Roger Deakins) with scattered laughs and an enjoyable soundtrack dominated by gospel music, but the comic rhythms are too frequently off-balance, and the script reaches for cheap gags too often; it’s not like the filmmakers have ever shied away from “musical profanity,” but the application of four-letter words here is coarse and gratuitous. Hanks is humorous and Simmons is sometimes hysterical as a chatty self-professed jack-of-all-trades who truly is a master of none, but too many of the other players are one-note, and Hall is too sassy and savvy to be a convincing rube throughout the first two acts (and her repeated belly-aching about “hippity-hoppity” music has no payoff beyond smacking smart-mouthed Wayans upside the head). Not quite the nadir for Joel & Ethan as directors, but probably their most unnecessary; it also happened to be the first time that both men were credited together as directors and producers instead of Joel solely as the former and Ethan as the latter. Co-produced by Barry Sonnenfeld, who was initially slated to direct himself. Look fast for a cameo from Bruce Campbell.

63/100