Lucky Number Slevin

(Movie Review)

I didn't know much about this movie before I rented it, but a bit of Internet sleuthing reveals that this is a remake of the Kurosawa film "Yojimbo". I haven't seen Yojimbo, but I guess this is another example of me absorbing Japanese culture through the American remake, (despite having lived in Japan for 5 + years).
This movie appears to have a lot going for it at first. A classic story borrowed from Kurosawa. An all star cast (Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis). A Guy Ritchie esque plot with confusing changing alliances in the gangster world. And Tarantino-esque dialogue.
Unfortunately its a real stinker.
Let's start with the dialogue. The film wants to pick up the torch of "Pulp Fiction" and "Seinfeld". At key dramatic points characters will stop to have mundane discussions or discuss semantics, etc.
In addition to the fact that we've all seen this a million times before, the film's writers can't quite pull it off. The whole script just comes off sounding like someone who's trying way too hard to be funny. Most of the time I was watching this film I was cringing out of embarrassment for the writers. Part of the blame lies with the uninspiring delivery of the main actor Josh Hartnett, who's no Jerry Seinfeld. But most of the blame must go to the writer. All the rest of the actors sound just as corny when trying to mouth this dialogue.
There are a few surprise plot twists in this film and a few characters who are not what they seem at first, but that is almost to be expected in these kind of films.
The two rival gangsters in this film are Morgan Freeman as "The Boss" and Ben Kingsley as "The Rabbi". The Jewish mobster faction under "The Rabbi" are such a cliche collection of Jewish stereotypes as to further add to the embarrassment of this film. (Hasidic dress, a Rabbi who quotes scripture and talks about the Kosher ways to kill people, an alert button in the shape of a Star of David).
Admittedly I'm being slightly hypocritical now in that I've forgiven other films for a lot worse when it comes to Jewish stereotypes. But in the past I generally thought that the films had a satiric point to make, or were being deliberately irrelevant of everything (South Park, Family Guy). I guess you could argue that this film as well was satire, but you can't tell me it is good satire. It's just plain dumb.

Link of the Day
I've found the complete movie "Iraq for Sale" on-line here. This movie is a must watch. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, try and at least watch the first 15 minutes or so. It will absolutely horrify you.

Lucky Number Slevin: Movie Review (Scripted)