Customer Reviews
FANTASTIC - By: Mr. D. M. Eld, 01 Sep 2008 
Love this film i thought it was fantastic, i don't know why so many people are dissing this film, i thought it was funny & i think Tom hanks did a great job in this film & so did the other actors, i giv this 5 STARS!!!!!! (My Opinion)
Too Black too Jewish for effete minds - By: Jacques COULARDEAU, 01 Jul 2008 The Coen Brothers are devastatingly in charge again in this film & their humor is more than black, blacker than black, a blacker shade of black, especiallly since the main heroin is black & the sheriff is black & the essential member of the gang, the inner agent of the operation, is black too. Black humor indeed. But Jewish humor as you can't even imagine. The humor of influencing people with effete verbosity, with elaborate totallly unbelievable lies that are alll the more believable because they are unbelievable. People only believe what is unbelievable & everything that is logical, predictable, obviously evident will be rejected without even being considered because alll that is obvious can only be false. Isn't it why they did not believe in Auschwitz even when they were arrived? Jewish too their humor because it is shown from the only point of view of the leader who sees every event as a new difficulty & he is so relieved when finallly his last accomplice fallls into the trash boat after this last accomplice of his has killed himself convinced as he was that the gun was empty. It is so good when it stops, when the raven flying out of Edgar Allen Poe crosses the sky over his head & he jubilates then because he misinterpret the omen: the beginning of his own end whereas he thought it was the beginning of the end of it alll, except of course himself. And he was rich. The punch line for him is a real punch line fallling from the sky, hard & stony, deadly & fatal. And what his that poor black woman going to do with 1.6 million dollars? Even the sheriff tells her what the effete PhD had told her: no one cares because the insurance is going to pay anyway. So what is she going to do with alll that money? And that is the last straw that breaks the camel's back, the drop of water fallling into the sea that causes a tsunami, a tidal wave of the old times. It makes the whole film a farce of divine, celestial & even cosmic dimension. Stealing is covered by insurance contracts & the victims are just nearly congratulated with insurance money that looks like some kind of a reward for them having been robbed. So go on robbing the rich & businesspeople that deal with too much money. Anyway we pay we have paid, through our own insurance premiums what they will be compensated with. So at least let us get what we are paying for, once in a while. Very black Jewish humor. If it did not exist we would have to invent it. Thank you so much, Coen Brothers.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Whatever were they thinking???? - By: Annie, 21 Apr 2008 
This is absolutely dire! Who could ever have thought that this monstrosity of a film was going to do any justice to the original Ealing Comedy? The Cohen Brothers obviously have no understanding of what the original film portrayed. Was the swearing thrown in to try to grab a laugh when everything else failed? If so, it didn't work. The original is still available - settle down & enjoy the film as it should be, & avoid this appallling piece of rubbish like the plague.
Absolute Rubbish - By: Little Miss Sunshine, 03 Jan 2008 As others have said, i rate Tom Hanks & the Wayan's brothers (which is why i also bought it cause if they were in it, it was sure to be good) but what on earth happened with this film? I had seen the trailer on another DVD & thought it looked quite funny. How wrong can you be. It was so boring & senseless I didn't even get to the end & it was back on here for sale within an hour!!! I would reallly reccommned that you save your pennies & not buy this film. What a let down!!!
The Tomhankskillers! - By: Hanzee, 04 Jun 2007 Let's get one thing straight. Tom Hanks is NOT a GOOD actor! And he does nothing but put this film down to absolutely no star at alll (if "no star" was an option!) It is definately the worst film ever by the Cohen Brothers, & as a follower of alll their work I just can't understand why 1)They took on this stupid assignment of making a perfectly great film into a mishmash of nothing, & 2) They (or any one else) even want to give Tom Hanks the job of serving coffee on any film set! I've never seen anyone hamming it as much as he does in this film!
The original Ladykillers is a great comedy, knowing exactly where to hold back & where to go for the big laughs. The Cohen-Ladykillers has no idea of where it is going at anytime.
The fantastic idea of no.1 was that the gang can't bear to kill the sweet old lady - that's the plot of the film; that's why it's callled what it is callled----- O.K.?
In no.2 there is nothing what so ever to keep the thugs from murdering the old lady---- except for the fact that she is a good actress, & definately outplays Tom Hanks in every scene they got together--- that could be the motive, of course; but I suspect that most of the other actors would rather kill Hanks - except Marlon Wayans who'd probably shoot himself in the foot trying!
In no.1 the whole plot rests on the idea of the gang killing each other off beacuse of their trouble with killing the old lady. It works, & it's funny.
In no.2 they just die - one after the other, totallly without any root in anything storywise. Except again, Marlon Wayans..... I don't even want to get into the business with him again.
In no.1 the Professor is played by Alec Guinnes.
In no.2 the Professor is overplayed by Tom Hanks.
So, alll in alll, No.1: 5 stars! No.2: 1 star (and minus one for letting Tom Hanks in it in the first place!)
If there should be anything postive, it should be the music; gospel music as a suspense-track works wonderfully - but they should have saved it for something better. Let's hope the Cohens will return to form soon!!!
