That’s Tom Hanks, not Colonel Sanders, playing an anachronistic Southern professor in the Coen brothers’ remake of the 1955 British black comedy “The Ladykillers.'

“The Ladykillers”
Touchstone Pictures
Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the 1955 screenplay by William Rose
Produced by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Tom Jacobson, Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, Diane Delano, George Wallace, John McConnell, Jason Weaver and Stephen Root
Rated R

(out of four)

The Coen brothers have long been admirers of less-than-brilliant criminals. From “Blood Simple” to “Fargo” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” they have shown the unraveling of crimes like no other filmmakers.

It was only a matter of time before they had to attempt the heist film. So “The Ladykillers” is finally here, complete with the perfect plan, the bickering gang, the secret tunnel, the score and, of course, the snag. Joel and Ethan Coen may be using a formula, but they never fill in the blanks the way anyone else would. Why use an exciting Las Vegas casino when there is so much more potential on a riverboat casino in a sleepy Mississippi town? Instead of a Hollywood bad boy as the leader, get Tom Hanks. Oh, and don’t let him act like any character to hit the screen since…well, quite some time.

Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr (Hanks) is certainly one of the most bizarre criminal “masterminds” to hit the screen in recent years. The perfectly evil, perfectly Southern gentleman seems to come from another time and place. He dresses in 19th-century style, complete with a cape. He would be quite charming to the residents of a sleepy town in Mississippi—if only they could understand his meandering, grandiose lexicon. He doesn’t just order waffles, but declares that they must be “had.”

This style of dialogue has appeared in many Coen films, but this might be its most effective use. When I saw him in the trailer, I wasn’t sure if Dorr was the real character or just a front. Oddly enough, after seeing the film I’m still not sure, but Hanks plays him with such finesse that it seems a shame that the actor hasn’t gotten to play more scoundrels.

Such a bizarre assortment of characters constitutes the gang that Dorr could have only found through a classified ad. Marlon Wayans plays Gawain, a hip-hop loud mouth who will be the inside man at the casino, if he can avoid getting fired for sexual harassment. Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons, “Law and Order”) is the hippie, an accident-prone explosives expert who likes to think of the gang as a commune. The muscle is Lump (Ryan Hurst), a guy who is too dumb to play football. Hurst proves himself to be a master of confused expressions. The wonderful Tzi Ma as The General finishes this incongruous group. This chain-smoking, poker-faced martial arts expert not only sports a Hitler mustache, but has perfected the art of storing a lit cigarette in his mouth.

These characters all seem to inhabit a different film genre that gives the film a surreal, almost cartoonish feel. This quality is enhanced by Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall), the little old black lady whose root cellar provides the shortest route to the casino vault. She lives on an idyllic Southern street with her cat and a portrait of her late husband. She may be sweet (and misguided) enough to send $5 a month to Bob Jones University, but as the title suggests, she may be more trouble than the gang anticipates.

There are lots of laughs in “The Ladykillers,” but overall the tone feels a little off. The Coens’ last film, “Intolerable Cruelty,” was made in the tradition of the classic screwball comedy. Like that film, “The Ladykillers,” based on a 1955 British comedy, is rich in comedic film traditions. The imitation seems to create a greater sense of removal from the characters than in the Coens’ most successful films.
In “The Ladykillers,” the characters are merely tools for laughter, not people. While they may make you laugh throughout the film, in the end they just made me want more.
jessica@red-mag.com