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The Coens are a bit of an enigma to me. I read the back of movies like "The Ladykillers" and read 'A Laugh-Out-Loud Movie!' or 'Hilarious' and I just don't get it. Don't get me wrong - I liked the movie - like almost every other Coen-brother movie - I just don't find them to be all that funny. Witty, maybe. Entertaining, Sure. Hilarious, most certainly not. So why are the critics in such love with the Coens?

The Ladykillers stars Tom Hanks as Professor G.H. Dorr. The professor is actually a criminal set out to rob a riverboat casino. All he needs is a crew and a place from which to plan and execute his crime. So, he rents a room from a kindly old churchgoing lady (Irma P. Hall), assembles his motley crew (disguised as men of renaissance music) and sets about perpetrating the crime of the century - or at least that week. His crew consists of an explosives expert (J.K. Simmons), some muscle (Ryan Hurst), the inside man (Marlon Wayans) and some other guy who's role in this caper escapes me (Tzi Ma). However, the heist soon becomes a bumbled mess and although the men are successfull in their pursuit, they've got one problem - the landlady.

Which brings me back to the Coens. This is a decent movie. (Anything with starring Tom Hanks is bound to be.) But it just lacked something. I don't know what, but I found I really expected more. There were a few chuckles and a few surprises, but in the end, I was left wanting more.

Special features on this DVD include some outtakes, some deleted music scenes and a featurette titled "Danny Ferrington: The Man Behind The Band" which looks at the man who created the instruments used by Hanks and company in the movie. (I find it odd that the Coen brothers use people they grew up with in almost all of their movies similar to their matches on the opposite end of the filmmaking spectrum - the Farrelly brothers.) For those with DVD-ROM, there is a ScriptScanner enhanced computer feature.



Although I have nothing but respect for the Coens, I just can't help but wonder why they are such critical darlings. I guess they make some of the more intelligent comedies out there, but still. Much like this movie, and the included features, I can't help but think that there has got to be more.