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Movie Reviews
by Jonathan McKee
Lucky Number Slevin (04/7/06)
Rated R Rated R for strong violence, sexuality and language.
Directed by Paul McGuigan (Wicker Park…)
Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley…
JONATHAN'S SCORE: Skip it
The poster of the film tells you everything you need to know:
- No name director. A few small films in his repertoire… but nothing you’d even recognize. And not enough experience to know about a film’s “pacing.”
- Rookie writer. Wannabe Tarantino… but with half the talent.
- Strong cast with good performances--the only redeeming element of this film.
- It’s rated R. And boy does it earn its R rating. Enough said.
The writing was creative, the dialogue was creative, but the film was slow overall and had at least 10 minutes worth of crap that needs to be removed from the film. I guess my true score for this film would be, “Only if it’s edited!”
The story was full of surprises. But the space in between each surprise was a little too drawn out; lacking the “punch” it needed to make the wait worth it.
The plot is not totally new… perhaps the new millennium’s attempt at Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (also mimicked by the Spaghetti Western A Fistfull of Dollars and 1996’s Last Man Standing, also with Bruce Willis). A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin (Josh Hartnett) into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city's most rival crime bosses: The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and The Boss (Morgan Freeman). Slevin is under constant surveillance by relentless Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) as well as the infamous assassin Goodkat (Bruce Willis) and finds himself having to hatch his own ingenious plot to get them before they get him.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Never. The two quick eye-candy sex scenes were over the top and unnecessary. One was like an out-take from a porn flick. The language was raunchy and the violence was extreme. I haven’t seen this much brain splatter since my last Cronenberg film.
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