The Ladykillers: Critic Reviews

29%

MovieWeb: 2 reviews

55%

RottenTomatoes: 192 reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

75

[Hanks] lends the movie the full, devious force of his bristly spirit.
Full Review » 8 years ago
A.O. Scott New York Times (Top Critic)

70

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 » 8 years ago
Claudia Puig USA Today (Top Critic)

75

Those seeking a quirky and clever comedy should hightail it to The Ladykillers forthwith.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Mark Jenkins Washington Post (Top Critic)

Should give just about everyone who sees it a few laughs. But it will appeal most strongly to viewers who think Tom Hanks, who plays a thief and a potential murderer, can do no wrong.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Ann Hornaday Washington Post (Top Critic)

Although The Ladykillers is a skillfully executed caper movie, the fun lies not in its mechanics but in its characterizations, especially Hanks's and Hall's, and especially when they're together.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Ty Burr Boston Globe (Top Critic)

50

If you set your expectations low enough there are real laughs to be had, but coming to the Coens with low expectations somehow just feels wrong.
Full Review » 8 years ago
J. Hoberman Village Voice (Top Critic)

There's the mind-numbing oompah rhythm of every gag telegraphed and every joke pounded into the ground.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jack Mathews New York Daily News (Top Critic)

50

[The Coen brothers have] made a broad comedy out of a black comedy and completely lost its charm in the process.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Eric Harrison Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

75

Hanks hasn't cut loose in a comedy like this in years.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Philip Wuntch Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

50

The film gets funny reflex laughs as well as a few of the unexpected guffaws that are the Coens' trademark. So go -- but with lowered expectations.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Lisa Kennedy Denver Post (Top Critic)

75

Hanks appears to be having the time of his life.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Peter Rainer New York Magazine (Top Critic)

It's both lowdown and effete, a jamboree of whoopee jokes and sick wit.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Anthony Lane New Yorker (Top Critic)

Everybody in and around this movie is trying too hard.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

63

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 » 8 years ago
Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

88

Another offbeat Coen gem, gleaming with verbal and pictorial style, exploding with wit and slapstick.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader (Top Critic)

50

The remake -- which could have been shot anywhere and probably was filmed on a studio back lot -- has almost nothing coherent to say about Mississippi, though it does recycle a few cliches.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Carrie Rickey Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

75

I'm not sure whether it's been so long since Hanks has done comedy that he just seems fantastically funny or whether he really is. But he's clearly enjoying himself, and so are we.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jeff Strickler Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

75

Hanks is, as usual, on the top of his game.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Tom Long Detroit News (Top Critic)

50

A cute but insubstantial exercise in stylish silliness that will likely be quickly forgotten.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Bill Muller Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

60

Instead of feeling cleverly obtuse, the movie ... seems desperately wacky.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Todd McCarthy Variety (Top Critic)

Full Review » 1 year ago
Lou Lumenick New York Post (Top Critic)

75

Worth sticking with for Hanks' and Hall's superlative acting -- and a rollicking gospel score assembled by T. Bone Burnett.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jay Boyar Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

100

The Coens have taken what's timeless about the 1955 movie, rolled it around in their endlessly inventive comic minds and made it distinctly, and riotously, their own.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Peter Howell Toronto Star (Top Critic)

60

Not quite top-drawer Coen Bros., but good enough to make you wish it were, The Ladykillers is a case of being grateful for small pleasures.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Rick Groen Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

63

Buy the soundtrack now, rent the movie later -- this is minor Coen in a major key.
Full Review » 8 years ago