African-American and Jewish gangsters and a guy in the wrong place collide in this thriller.
'Lucky Number Slevin', in spite of its awkward, inexplicably amusing title, is an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable film, one of the few post 'Pulp Fiction' comedy-dramas-with-an-edge that successfully, yet originally, works to the narrative structure, cinematic tone and example set by Quentin Tarantino's influential masterpiece.
Like 'The Usual Suspects' and 'Way Of The Gun' 'Lucky Number Slevin' employs a lot of misdirection, or as Bruce Willis's effortlessly cool assassin Mr GoodKat puts it: "A Kansas City Shuffle", hence all I can tell you without giving too much away, is that Josh Hartnett, in what's easily the best performance of his career, plays Slevin Kelevra; a likeable loser who gets caught up in an old NYC feud between underworld kingpins The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and Israeli gangster The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley). First time screenwriter Jason Smilovic has obviously seen a few David Mamet plays in his time, so much so, that he occasionally overdoes the 'His Girl Friday'-esque repartee with film noir vernacular and humdinger arguments aplenty, though to his credit, Smilovic has turned in a fine script with a surprisingly believable onscreen romance between Lucy Liu and Josh Hartnett, who bond over Bond and turn an otherwise pointless diversion into an intriguing and occasionally charming subplot.
Scottish director Paul McGuigan, reuniting with Hartnett (director and star first worked together in 'Wicker Park') handles the action, complex storyline and flashbacks with ease; McGuigan is an innovative director and 'Lucky Number Slevin' is his most accomplished film since 'Gangster No. 1'. Cinematographer Peter Sova's use of muted colour palates, pastel greens and 1970s wallpaper reminds you of Jean Luc Goddard's 'Tout Va Bien' and offers hints/ reminders as to where the film is going, whilst Bruce Willis's Mr GoodKat is an aesthetic nod to both Chow Yun Fat in 'The Killer' and Alain Delon from Jean Pierre Melville's 'La Samourai'. Another 'New Wave' lean-to occurs in the long apartment scene with Hartnett and Lucy Lui, which is similar to the 25-minute conversation between Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in 'A Bout de Soufflé'. This scene, which for some reason is very popular with women (maybe because Hartnett spends over ten minutes with nothing but a towel around his waist) was inspired, says Smilovic, by Hartnett's penchant for wandering around in state of semi-undress when he shared an apartment with Jason and his girlfriend back in 2002. All in all, an excellent movie that strikes the right balance between story & spectacle and ought to satisfy even the most demanding connoisseur of cool. A winner.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Wrong Time. Wrong Place. Wrong Number. 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!
Thriller in which a case of mistaken identity lands Slevin (Josh Hartnett) in 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.
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