The Ladykillers poster & wallpaper

Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans

Goldthwait Higginson Dorr III is a charlatan professor who has assembled a gang of experts for the heist of the century. The thieves are experts in explosions, tunneling and muscle. The professor is t...( read more  read more... )heir critical inside man. The base of operations is the root cellar of an unsuspecting, church-going, little old lady named Mrs. Munson. The ruse: the five need a place to practice their church music. The problem: it quickly becomes evident that Dorr's thieves lack the mental capacity to do the job. The bigger problem: they have seriously underestimated their upstairs host. When Mrs. Munson stumbles onto their plot and threatens to notify the authorities, the felonious five decide to 'do her in' before she ruins their heist. After all, how hard can it be to knock off an old lady? They'll soon find out.

Flixster Users

41% liked it

25,285 ratings

Critics

55% liked it

181 critics

R, 1 hr. 44 min.

Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Release Date: March 26, 2004

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DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004

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Stats: 2,574 reviews

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Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004) Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall, Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans in The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Ryan Hurst, Tzi Ma in The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall in The Ladykillers (2004) Irma P. Hall in The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks, J.K. Simmons, Ryan Hurst, Tzi Ma in The Ladykillers (2004) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen in The Ladykillers (2004) Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans in The Ladykillers (2004) The Ladykillers (2004) Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans in The Ladykillers (2004) Irma P. Hall, Tzi Ma in The Ladykillers (2004) Tzi Ma in The Ladykillers (2004) Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons in The Ladykillers (2004) Scene for The Ladykillers (2004) Irma P. Hall, Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004)
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Flixster Reviews (2,574)

  • SirPant
    October 2, 2009
    SirPant
    I think if anyone was going to make a decent contemporary remake of The Ladykillers it would be the Coen Brothers. Unfortunately, as much as they got the foundations right, their version is woefully miscast. They also seem to have swapped their usually brilliant script for downri...( read more)ght awful slapstick. The casting of Marlon Wayans was a huge mistake but that said, everyone else did a pretty good job, esp Tom Hanks and Irma P. Hall. I guess we?ve come to expect great things from the brothers Coen that this is a bit of a shock, luckily they?ve returned to form since. Everyone?s allowed a couple of mistakes eh!
  • flixsterman
    September 2, 2009
    flixsterman
    By far my least favorite Coen brothers' production. Why you ask? Mainly the foul language. I'm no Puritan, not by a long shot, and frankly I know many, many good films that you wouldn't talk about in Sunday School, but there is a line between realism and gratuitous obscenity. ...( read more) Even ex-sailors, like myself, don't use more than one or two f-bombs in a sentence, much less p-bombs, c-bombs and xyz-bombs. It's one thing to be embarrassed watching a film with your Mom, but if you can honestly say you'd be embarrassed to watch a film in a room full of construction workers then it's just too much.

    *NOTE: See also The Departed
  • sanjurosamurai
    August 26, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    while this is my least favorite of the coens films, i still enjoyed it. some of the deaths at the end clearly got out of hand, but the humor was fun, the story was enjoyable enough, and the film was made well. not great, but a solid watch for a night of escapism.
  • armybratgeo
    July 6, 2009
    armybratgeo
    This has got to be the worst Tom Hanks and Coen brothers movie...EVER! Wow, as hard as I tried I just could not get nto it and I just couldn't find anything funny until the end. The last 20-30 min were the high for me and the first part of the movie just wasn't worth it for me to...( read more) wait for the end. The only highlight was Miss Hall, she was truly a delight to watch. Maybe i will sit down again at a later time and give it another try but i was really dissapointed and this will be a while...
  • stopitgoaway
    February 1, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    The Coen Brothers are devastatingly in charge again in this film and their humour is more than black, blacker than black, a blacker shade of black, especially since the main heroin is black and the sheriff is black and the essential member of the gang, the inner agent of the oper...( read more)ation, is black too. Black humour indeed. But Jewish humour as you can't even imagine. The humour of influencing people with effete verbosity, with elaborate totally unbelievable lies that are all the more believable because they are unbelievable. People only believe what is unbelievable and everything that is logical, predictable, obviously evident will be rejected without even being considered because all that is obvious can only be false. Isn't it why they did not believe in Auschwitz even when they were arrived? Jewish too their humour because it is shown from the only point of view of the leader who sees every event as a new difficulty and he is so relieved when finally his last accomplice falls into the trash boat after this last accomplice of his has killed himself convinced as he was that the gun was empty. It is so good when it stops, when the raven flying out of Edgar Allen Poe crosses the sky over his head and he jubilates then because he misinterpret the omen: the beginning of his own end whereas he thought it was the beginning of the end of it all, except of course himself. And he was rich. The punch line for him is a real punch line falling from the sky, hard and stony, deadly and fatal. And what his that poor black woman going to do with 1.6 million dollars? Even the sheriff tells her what the effete PhD had told her: no one cares because the insurance is going to pay anyway. So what is she going to do with all that money? And that is the last straw that breaks the camel's back, the drop of water falling into the sea that causes a tsunami, a tidal wave of the old times. It makes the whole film a farce of divine, celestial and even cosmic dimension. Stealing is covered by insurance contracts and the victims are just nearly congratulated with insurance money that looks like some kind of a reward for them having been robbed. So go on robbing the rich and businesspeople that deal with too much money. Anyway we pay we have paid, through our own insurance premiums what they will be compensated with. So at least let us get what we are paying for, once in a while. Very black Jewish humour. If it did not exist we would have to invent it. Thank you so much, Coen Brothers.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 23, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Not good.Go see the original
  • ZRUV
    October 8, 2009
    ZRUV
    Alright, but sometimes hard to understand some of the actors accents.
  • zidia7
    September 30, 2009
    zidia7
    this is funny as hell! and hell ain't funny, jk, it's cool
  • InVeRtDrEaMz
    September 1, 2009
    InVeRtDrEaMz
    wow, by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen, the storyline made no sence, the stars were talking in circles. just an all around waste of money if you ask me.
  • SFG71
    August 27, 2009
    SFG71
    Very very funny.
    24/08/09

View All The Ladykillers Reviews

Critic Reviews

August 18, 2007
David Edelstein, Slate

The Ladykillers is small and compact -- it doesn't kill, it's just a doodle -- but it's a very pleasant cartoon for grown-ups. It's some sweet fodder. full review

May 4, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A lukewarm live-action Loony Tunes cartoon. full review

August 1, 2004
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Everybody in and around this movie is trying too hard. full review

March 26, 2004
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Those seeking a quirky and clever comedy should hightail it to The Ladykillers forthwith. full review

March 26, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Always wildly signaling for us to notice it. Not content to be funny, it wants to be FUNNY! Have you ever noticed that the more a comedian wears funny hats, the less funny he is? full review

March 25, 2004
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Tom Hanks seizes the chance to play a comic villain with almost indecent vaudevillian glee in this uneven, prankish caper comedy by Joel and Ethan Coen. full review

March 25, 2004
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

You'll have to watch the original film to see it done right. full review

View more The Ladykillers reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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