Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition) Reviews

Ah, crime thrillers we have so many yet so few. Plenty have become pretty boring over the years. Looking at you... (Insert movie of your choice...go ahead...I'll wait...). "Lucky #Slevin" though is a good hybrid: It has action, dark humor, an interesting storyline and Bruce Willis' awesome receding hair line/hair piece. The movie basically is a tale of two opposing local crime bosses (Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kinsley respectively, who seem only to hire the stereotypical low IQ goons to match there over intelligence as a crime boss.) who share a common interest in Slevin (Josh Harnett).
All the roles are played well and nobody really overshadowed considering almost all got decent screen time and that these are well known actors and actresses. Not allot of egos to stroke on the set of this move apparently I am a huge fan of Bruce Willis and his assassin character is well played just like any other assassin he has played over the years. Honestly the man only has two characters under his sleeve (that he can play like no other) granted some exceptions. One, the burnt out cop and or husband. Second, a quirky assassin who wears aprons a and goes by the nickname "Tulip" and who unbelievably doesn't assassinate the annoying guy off of "Friends" (not Joey) or the uber cool assassin with the tailor made suits of elephant ivory that he assassinated during the warm up assassination of any of his assassin movies.
Switching gears now. The movie sometimes feels like it came from a focus group. Casting a wide diversity of races. I would love to live in a city this diverse. The word "MELTING POT" must have been heard dozens of times in the casting room. All of these elements work out well and come together very nicely. The cast is chosen well and the director does a good job at mixing dark humor with violence continuing the trend comparing to movies like "The Boondock Saints" and "True Romance". There's even the now standard "twist" ending, but it executes perfect without having you roll your eyes and say "I saw that coming!" or "Look at this BullS HIT!" while throwing your hands in the air causing you to drop your glass full of beer and almost wake up the kids.
It may sound like I disliked this movie, but HELL NO!! I LOVED this MOVIE! Plenty of murder-death-kills (there is one awesome sniper shot in particular), quirky characters and a well written story line. What more could you want! I just had to point out some of the things I noticed. I thought they were pretty funny. Hopefully this review entertained you just as much as I did writing it and nobody got offended.



Lata!

Also has anyone heard about Bruce Willis playing the lead role in the "Assassin's Creed" live action movie?



Mr. Lays' cool scene to check out: (Spoiler Alert!) Slevin goes to see Sir Kinsley's character claming that he has his money then while Kinsley is checking the contents of the briefcase Slevin proceeds to one-time smack the shit out of his bald head with a blackjack. It's one of my fav's because it so out the blue. You were aware that Slevin had something planned, but smacking the shit out of him. Nice!

Although not the debut for either director Paul McGuigan or writer Jason Smilovic, it is very early in both of their careers. Hopefully, however, it is a sign of the excellence to come. The script is creative and different from your typcial crime/mafia/rough-rich-guy-in-a-skyscraper but unfortunately it feels like Hollywood may have gotten a little too much creative control; unfortunately all to common with the up and comers. The script is not particularly dumbed down, but a bit too flashy. You'll recognize the familiar overtouched gloss in the first few minutes. The love story between Hartnett and Liu feels forced and secondary; nearly irrelevant to the storyline.
The cinematography is excellent, although uninventive. The angles and techniques may have been imagined by forgoers, but they are not tired or stolen. There is always some question as to who deserves the credit for this attribute; director or cinematographer. Fortunately in this case, McGuigan and cinematographer Peter Sova have worked closely together in the past. In fact Sova has framed all of McGuigan's movies to date; resulting in a well envisioned and shot picture.
The acting is good. After all, we are familiar with all these actors... a little bit too familiar. Each and every character fits their stereotype and typecasting to a T. When Ben Kingsley was on screen I actually felt like I was watching Magneto in X-Men. Bruce Willis' slow paced rough and tough Sin City, Unbreakable, Sixth-Sense and every other movie he has been involved with for the past 10 years style was exasperated and nauseatingly annoying. Even Morgan Freeman, an actor I greatly appreciate, appeared annoyed that he was restricted from bringing anything new.
All in all, Lucky Number Slevin is worth renting, but keep your eyes out for better work by McGuigan or Smilovic.