Ealing 2, Mississippi 1

Fri, Mar 21, 2008

I watched the Cohen Brothers’ The Ladykillers last night. It’s a remake of the old Ealing comedy of the same title. Sadly, as with many remakes, it falls distinctly short of the earlier mark. Most of the main characters are ludicrously one-sided, and irritatingly overacted. The two main leads (Tom Hanks and Irma P. Hall) make the exception, and are actually entertaining – Hanks in particular. I’m starting to come to like Tom Hanks as an actor, after his performances in Castaway, The Terminal, and now this.

The verdict: watch it for Tom Hanks’ Southern professor, but try not to think of Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers as you do.

Oh, and Joel, Ethan… stick to your own stuff. Then if it doesn’t come up to scratch, we don’t have a yard-stick to measure it against and beat you with.