last night we saw the ladykillers, the latest film by the coen brothers. i'm a big fan of their films. they wrote and directed my official favorite movie and basically, everything they've done i've at least thought was "pretty good" if not better. it used to be that i had to wait 2-3 years in between coen brother films, but these days they're coming out roughly once a year. i've started to wonder if quality will start slipping. i was not a huge fan of intolerable cruelty (i would call it "pretty good," i.e. the lowest coen brother rating) and so when ladykiller came out this week to mixed reviews, i was wondering if this would finally kill the coen allure for me.
it did not. i really liked "ladykillers." it had its problems (e.g. the lump hudson character was particularly drab in a movie that is almost entirely driven by its colorful characters), but i honestly don't get some of the criticism (e.g.). i guess it just comes with the territory of remaking an alec guinness classic--the critics seem to be spending a lot of time comparing the coen brother's film with the original (which i have never seen). standing on its own, i thought the new ladykillers was quite entertaining, although not the coens' best.
