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How boring it is to label a movie Tarantino-esque anymore. The thing is, when it comes to an offering likeLucky Number Slevin, the shoe fits, and the result is anything but boring. Gruesome killings, arid wit, self-reflexive pop culture references, an A-list cast, and style-heavy production values abound, which gives the proceedings an epoxy bond that seals the Q.T. homage factor. Josh Hartnett--who spends a lot of buffed-up time with his shirt off--is Slevin Kelevra, a hapless fellow visiting his New York friend Nick. But Nick has disappeared, which sets off a mistaken-identity thrill ride when two goons grab Slevin (he's in Nick's apartment so he must be Nick) and take him to their crime lord boss, the Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss doesn't care about Slevin's wrong-man protests; he just wants the $96,000 Nick owes him. In one of many offers he can't refuse, Slevin has to agree to murder the son of the Boss's felonious arch rival, the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) or take the bullet himself. But Slevin turns out to be no ordinary patsy. Thrown into the ingeniously designed production, clever plot twists, and academic nods to Bond, Hitchcock, and obscure old cartoons are Lucy Liu as a sexy coroner, Stanley Tucci as an obsessed cop, and Bruce Willis as a wily hit man with his finger in many pots. With so much visual and narrative trickery, there's almost too much to absorb in one viewing of this convoluted jigsaw puzzle of revenge and entertaining mayhem.Lucky Number Slevinisn't quite up to par with similarly brainy thrillers likeMementoandThe Usual Suspects, but the prospect of seeing it again in order to get your bearings is just as appealing.--Ted Fry
Complex Plot Keeps You Interested You don't want the kids to see this movie. It is very violent with a lot of killings. (Also a couple of short nude scenes.) The movie starts with a brutal killing with a big splatter of blood and guts on a car window. The movie makes no sense at all in the first few minutes, but as it proceeds all the loose ends are eventually tied up and it all makes perfect sense by the end. The ending (which I won't reveal) is somewhat a surprise, although you can kind of figure it out somewhat before it is fully revealed and perhaps early on. I don't usually like this type of movie, but it was interesting enough to keep me watching to see how the hero was going to get out of the serious predicament that he was in. The top cast keeps it interesting too, but probably not the best performances for any of them. Lucy Liu seemed a bit weak in her role and too predictably ends up in bed with the hero, but her performance is okay. A great rental for adults. Would you want to own it? Perhaps not because once the surprise ending is revealed it probably is not as interesting to watch again.
Noir-ish-action-comedy The love child of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler: this movie is a stew of flash backs and flash forwards stirred in a double-helix plot that threatens to choke itself. Yep, I loved it. It took me several viewings to get all the hints (my 18-year old grasped everything immediately but he's steeped in anime'). However the casts' performances stand up to the repeated exposure. Bruce Willis is his reliable stoically smug self. Josh Harnett is comedically heroic, or heroically comedic. Lucy Liu does a good turn as a brainy ditz - contrast that with the Yakuza she played in Kill Bill! The hands-down best performances are Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley as amoral mob bosses locked in blood feud.Never finished the movie The truth is I have no right to review this film, positively or negatively. This is because "Lucky # Slevin" is one of the first films in a long time that I turned off before it finished. I made it about 45 minutes before I couldn't take any more of the incoherent, covoluted story, annoying "clever" dialogue, and bland acting (from an all-star cast!).
Tarantino-esque this may be, but that becomes a problem when it's all style and no substance. Staples of the Tarantino film--the fractured storyline and focus on dialogue--here are grating and uninspired.
What I could gather from the plot is Slevin (Josh Hartnett) gets picked up by some thugs and taken to a mob boss. They claim his name is Nick, and he owes the outfit money over a gambling debt. Slevin claims he is not Nick and has no idea what they are talking about, but that doesn't stop them from kidnapping him. Once in the boss' headquarters, the boss offers a chance to settle the debt by killing a member of a rival family who lives in a "tower" he can view from his window. Slevin quickly accepts this offer, without trying to prove his true identity. Though this moment comes early, it was hardly the first time I rolled my eyes.
"Lucky # Slevin" may prove to be better as it goes along, but it will take patience to get there, and it used all mine up.
