Lucky Number Slevin

Lucky Number Slevin (2006): Savaged by many mainstream critics, I found this noir/mystery/comedy/whodunit/who-is-it/why-is-it; movie quite enjoyable. With an excellent cast including Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, and Stanley Tucci; the movie lays out all the needed clues right at the beginning. If you look you will see them but you will probably not notice that you are supposed to be paying attention to this movie until too late. What I liked about this movie was that even though the events depicted are highly unlikely to have ever transpired, it stays true to its internal logic. Everything you are told during the movie has a logical (well, a bit logical) reason for occurring. I was always thinking “….hey, he wouldn’t do that…” and then by the end of the movie, you see you were wrong because you had missed a clue or just didn’t see the plot twist coming. It mashes horse racing, mob bosses, hit men, cute coroners, ugly bookies, and multiple Kansas City shuffles into an enjoyable 109 minutes. If you don’t like to think too hard, this is not the movie for you but if you like to cogitate a bit about your theatrics, try renting this one and you may be a lucky slevin too. Besides, how can you not like a move with characters named, Mr. Goodcat, Elvis, and Slo? The movie is rated R for: pulpy bodies, pulpy bleeding noses, murderous bookies, dead bookies, a dead Yidzak, Israeli commandos, a lethal rabbi, a talky Liu, excessive duct taping, and for the massive damage to wall board occurring in one scene.