Movie Info

Lucky Number Slevin

"Wrong Time. Wrong Place. Wrong Number."

Lucky Number Slevin did not have a very long release time so I did not get a chance to watch this at the movie theatres. The movie appealed to me because of the cast; How wrong can you go with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley? Not very wrong at all.

Josh Hartnett plays Slevin Kelevra, who, as a victim of mistaken identity, gets caught up in an embittered battle between two mob bosses (played brilliantly by Morgan Freeman (The Boss) and Sir Ben Kingsley (The Rabbi)). Slevin is visiting his friend, Nick, and finds that Nick has disappeared, so Slevin lets himself into Nick's apartment. Apparently Nick owes both The Boss and The Rabbi a lot of money and both bosses try to use Slevin for their own purposes. The Boss wants Slevin to kill The Rabbi's son as an act of revenge for death of his own son whilst The Rabbi just wants the money owed by Slevin's friend Nick.

Of course, things aren't always as they seem and that's where Goodkat (Bruce Willis) fits in. Goodkat is a professional killer that has been hired by both mobsters to take each other out. Goodkat decides to use Slevin for his own purposes and the viewer is left wondering what the hell is actually going on.

So poor Slevin is being used by The Boss, The Rabbi and Goodkat and to make things worse, the police get involved as well. Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) sees Slevin as a new player at aggressively confronts poor Slevin. All from a case a mistaken identity...The only good thing is that Slevin gets to shack up with Lindsey (Lucy Liu).

The story was fun and engaging. There was always something happening and I was very interested in seeing how things played out in the end. Director Paul McGuigan did an excellent job pacing the film and had some great moments of suspense. I really enjoyed how some of the shots were done. The dialogue was great and each character had some great lines.

The casting was awesome for this movie. Bruce Willis has definitely returned to action films and Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley were great as mobsters. The Rabbi reminded me of Sir Ben Kingsley's role in Sexy Beast (Great film) and Morgan Freeman as a suave bad guy was a different and enjoyable role to watch. Josh Hartnett did surprisingly well. I never really enjoyed his previous work, but he really pulled off Slevin's character with all the witty remarks and the cool demeanor. Lucy Liu was Lucy Liu, but at least it wasn't the annoying Charlie's Angels version. The supporting cast members were cast well too. They all played their parts well and added to the film. The film required quirky characters and the entire cast certainly delivered this.

The film was short, but I think it was the perfect length for such a film. If the movie had dragged on any longer, it would have lost some of its appeal. I really enjoy films where the viewer is given tidbits of information and continuously fed this information until the very end where it all makes sense. Yes, lots of movies have done this now, but I haven't seen a new film lately that has done this well. I was worried that Lucky Number Slevin was going to be a disaster but it was a surprisingly enjoyable film to watch. Not a must see movie but definitely something to put in the DVD collection.

Dragoncrypt - Monday, September 04, 2006