56
Metascore
40 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonDone with an enticing mixture of lacerating comedy, lush Roger Deakins cinematography, robust acting and juicy lines, the Coens' Ladykillers is often glorious fun to watch. It won't please everyone, of course.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanA lot of good actors have gone to work for the Coens and ended up looking like puppets, but Hanks is too clever for that. He knows that he's playing a concoction rather than a human being.
- 80TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelThe Coen brothers merrily subvert that standard caper trope.
- 80The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsAlready as dark as London soot, the comedy hardly needed work to bring it in line with the Coen brothers' sensibility, but the remake moves to a beat of its own, one unexpectedly in sync with the gospel music dominating its soundtrack.
- 75Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanCharlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanThe new version of The Ladykillers is like an able forger's copy of a masterpiece. The brushstrokes are broader, the colors are a little less subtle, and one or two portions of the canvas were finished in a hurry. But it's well worth a look if you're passing by.
- 70Dallas ObserverRobert WilonskyDallas ObserverRobert WilonskyThe Ladykillers fits snugly among the Coens' lighter and breezier movies--the ones you forget after you see them once and begin to appreciate and finally adore the more often you revisit them.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttWhere the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in The Ladykillers feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career.
- 60L.A. WeeklyJohn PowersL.A. WeeklyJohn PowersIt's the disease of Hollywood remakes that they nearly always lose sight of what made the original good in the first place. Where Alexander Mackendrick's film offered a delicately diabolical blend of the ordinary and the brutal -- the new Ladykillers bludgeons you with cartoonish gags about stupid football players, irritable-bowel syndrome and somebody accidentally shooting himself in the head.
- 50VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThe souffle falls a little flat in The Ladykillers, a Coen brothers black comedy in which the humor seems arch and narrative momentum doesn't kick in until the final third.
- 50Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversIt's as if the brothers admired the Swiss-watch precision of the original and wanted to take it apart to see how the pieces would work in a new setting. As an experiment, it's fascinating. But damn if the fiddling doesn't suck the life out of the laughs.