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The Ladykillers

Film // Jim // 4th July 2004

I’ve previously stated my contempt for the disturbing, almost Orwellian practice of Hollywood re-making and updating classic movies. Due to the release of the Coen brothers version of this legendary Ealing flick I have tried to be a bit more objective before settling comfortably into some sort of wild-eyed rant.

Having thought about it for a bit, it appears that cinematic re-makes fall into three distinct categories, and lie haphazardly across the critical continuum labelled “Quite Good” at one end and “Total Dogshit” at the other:

Category 1: Re-make of a foreign hit, made more palatable by the use of American actors and happy endings
Magnificent Seven - Was The Seven Samurai, ‘til Brynner and his mates turned up - original
Vanilla Sky - Creepily subtle Spanish sci-fi effort, re-made as a vanity project for Cruise - original
True Lies - From the French La Totale - original
Ring - First of many Japanese horror films to be remade in the near future - original
The Vanishing - Shocking transformation of a genuinely disturbing film into a by-the-numbers standard thriller, all by the original director. - original
The Assassin - Pointless Nikita re-make. Really, really pointless. - original
Insomnia - Scandinavian original with added cragginess supplied by Pacino. - original

Category 2: Name only “homage”
Gone in 60 seconds - Shit film with a lathe-wielding English bad guy. - original
Oceans 11 - Apparently an improvement on the original, not hard I imagine. - original
Rollerball - Ramshackle, dystopian fable re-made by half the cast of Ameriacan Pie. Or something. - original
Shaft - Just awful. Not that great to start with, mind. - original

Category 3: Perfectly good film dragged out of the retirement home and buggered to death by hollywood execs in the hope of making a bit more money
The Italian Job - Big expensive BMW advert. - original
Get Carter - The reason that Stallone is going to hell. - original
Psycho - ? - original
King Kong - Mafia version of the big monkey classic. World Trade Centre ending means that you will probably never see this again. Good. - original
Planet of the Apes - Refuse to watch this so I can’t comment. - original
Red Dragon - Manhunter should have been left well alone. - original
Dawn of the Dead - Like before but with proper actors and running - original
Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Oh dear - original

Bonus, some up and coming re-makes
The Manchurian Candidate - A film that really should be left alone. This edgy, politically ambiguous classic will probably have turned into a two-hour justification for the war on terror. - original
King Kong - Being re-made (again) by Peter Jackson, why?
Taxi - This endearing French action/comedy is being thoroughly arse-raped by 20th Century Fox. Queen Latifah is going to be the taxi driver, yes, that Queen Latifah. Luc Besson, hang your head in shame. - original
Alfie - Jude Law wishes he was Michael Caine. - original
The Pink Panther - Steve Martin wishes he was Peter Sellers. - original

So which of these categories does the Ladykillers fit into, Hmmmm, not really sure. Admittedly, the idea of re-producing such an established classic is crass in the extreme, but seeing as this is a Coen Brothers film it is worth investigating.

The Ladykillers: Quirk, Charm, Motherfuckin' Waffle House

From the start we are in classic Coen territory, beautiful photography, carefully chosen music and a kind of David Lynch disconnection from the real world; All is quiet and isolated.
Those who have seen the original know where the (updated but reasonably faithful) plot is headed from the start but getting there is enjoyable due to a kind of Coens greatest hits set-up. We get a quality crew of criminals headed by Tom Hanks, who keeps Alec Guiness’ dodgy teeth but turns the would-be academic crime lord into a sort of chilling, overly verbose Colonel Sanders. The rest of the gang are most amusing too, the pick being the silent yet strangely sadistic “General”, all of whom are introduced in classic crime film style by their own mini-interludes.
As usual in a Coen film the dialogue is superb, from the quasi-classical streams of charm dispatched by Hanks through the numerous catchphrases (“Easiest thing in the world”) to the “yo bought yo bitch to the motherfuckin’ waffle house?” stuff.
Veterans of Fargo, Blood Simple, Millers Crossing and to some extent The Big Lebowski will not be surprised by the sudden bursts of quirky violence which lead to the gangs downfall. It wouldn’t be a Coen Brothers film without a certain amount of pain and bodily mutilation.

Hanks: Teeth, Colonel Sanders

Despite the kind of studied artiness you expect from the Coens, there is a lot of obvious broad humour in the film in contrast to the subtle, darker than dark comedy of the original. For example I can't remember any particularly visceral jokes in the 1955 version about irritable bowel syndrome or performing CPR on a dog. This isn't a particular problem in my book and the laughs help the film skip along to the downbeat, vaguely poetic and strangely satisfying ending.

So in the end we have an entertaining offbeat film which despite being a re-make and therefore inherently evil is actually well worth catching, especially if you can't remember or haven't seen the original.

Links of interest...

The original

IMDB page on the original film

You know, for kids!

Site all about the films of the Coen brothers, some cool facts here.

Indiewire article...

about why studio re-makes don't suck.