Steineded How sad is this?

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

rgstratis-73932 A complete mess in all production levels. Quite the let down

Ersbel Oraph The movie is a well finished product. Well, somebody is hiding something. Probably all. But everything is well paced so the viewer does not have time to think about it. The actors are okay. Nothing special. Still, they know something that makes them gain all those money. No useless characters. No excessive use of extras. The camera is the one used flawlessly in Grand Hotel Budapest. Here, it is just an attempt.I do not like it. But, as the caption says: a well done movie.

davidjanuzbrown For anyone who is into gangster movies (and I am ) Lucky Number Slevin should be a must see). I see comparisons made to The Usual Suspects, and Pulp Fiction (both movies had Bruce Willis (in Pulp Fiction it was Butch Coolidge and here, it is Mr. Goodkat)). I would add Reservoir Dogs to the list where you had characters named after Colors: Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino). Here you had "Rabbi" (Ben Kingsley), "Boss" (Morgan Freeman), Goodkat, Elvis, and of course, Slevin (named after a horse), and Kelevra (Hebrew for "Bad Dog"). I am not going to spoil the movie because of the mystery element to it: Except to say that there is no one who is a hero, anti-hero, and even Victim (except perhaps Slevin's (Josh Hartnett) mom). There are a lot of bad people in this movie: How bad you may ask? Goodkat, who is a sociopath hit man, does one decent thing in the movie, and is not close to the worst character in the movie. There are four worse then he is. If there is a moral character in the movie it is Lindsey (Lucy Liu) who is the love interest of Slevin (real name Henry), but even she is far from perfect. I will say this much: If you get through the violence, mystery, betrayal, revenge, and everything that Henry goes through, you will be rewarded. Major Spoiler: By the way, Henry does end up with Lindsey (so he gets a happy ending), but how he gets there? Watch and find out. 10/10 stars

Robert J. Maxwell It's hard to judge this movie because, in a fundamental way, it's really two movies -- one a casual look at mistaken identity out of "North By Northwest" -- the other a complicated story of murder and revenge, out of "The Usual Suspects." The performances are excellent with a few exceptions. One of the exceptions is Josh Hartnett, on whom the momentum of the story depends. He's inoffensive as the ordinary young guy mistaken for somebody who owes high-echelon gangsters a load of money, but he's something of an embarrassment as the bitter and sadistic killer of the climax.Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley are opposite numbers at the top of the racketeering business, and both are superb. Both are highly respected actors and here they get to show why. Freeman's two black goons are convincing as well, but Kingsley's are not. Kingsley is a rabbi. His goons are orthodox Jews and orthodox Jews are simply not menacing, even when they punch you out. Kingsley is hilarious in the penultimate scene. He's strapped into a chair and his killer is explaining why he must die. Kingsley is desperate to talk his way out of this inconvenient situation. He haggles in whispers. He tries gallantly to gesture with his arms and hands but he can't because they're taped to the arms of his chair.It sounds a bit like a joke so far, and for the most part it is, despite the broken nose and the punches in the stomach.The direction owes something to the Coen brothers, and if you have to owe something, the Coens are much better than Freeman or Rabbi Shlomo. Art direction should also take a bow. Lots of imagination has been expended on the set dressing. The screenplay is fine, the dialog has some nice exchanges and wisecracks, until the end, when it changes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to something more like "Reservoir Dogs." That ending, and Josh Hartnett's light weight performance, keep it from being the thoroughly enjoyable parody of high-end crime that it might have been.