After more than a decade of validating his talent as one of
Hollywood’s finest dramatic actors, Hanks revisits the style for
which he was first known – and for the initial half of his career,
for which he was ONLY known.

With “The Ladykillers” – a remake of the fondly remembered 1955
British comedy – Hanks finds a role that is extra peculiar and
relentlessly hilarious. He plays Goldthwait Higginson Dorr III, a
professor in classic languages who has a fascination with all things
arcane. Dorr also seems rather in love with his own native tongue,
and this human thesaurus often strings together cryptic monologues
when a simple “yes” or “no” would probably do.

(He’s the only man who could converse with Mr. Burns from “The
Simpsons” and appreciate all the antiquated references.)

Dressed in the kind of gentlemanly uniform that Mark Twain would find
too formal, the professor is part unctuous intellectual, part
silver-tongued charmer and part Foghorn Leghorn.

It’s never clear if he REALLY is who he claims to be, but what’s
certain is that when he decides to rent a room in the Mississippi
household of elderly Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), it’s not to play
renaissance chamber music.

Dorr and his ragtag gang of “musicians” have decided that the easiest
way to rob the Bandit Queen riverboat casino is to tunnel into its
underground vault through sweet Marva’s root cellar. Concealing their
activities by pretending to rehearse while Marva is busy with church,
the plan seems foolproof. All they have to do is make sure the
landlady never catches on to the scheme.

But to quote the professor’s favorite author, Edgar Allen Poe,
“Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster/Followed
fast and followed faster.”

Writing-directing team Joel and Ethan Coen also join Hanks in making
a return to pure comedy, a style they arguably haven’t attempted
since 1987’s “Raising Arizona.” Their penchant for memorable camera
tricks and sight gags that reference other source material is on full
display here. (The high-angled opening shot of gargoyles perched atop
a bridge that surveys a river barge as it travels to a landfill has
its own River of Styx allusion that becomes clear as the movie
progresses.)

But the Coens’ most blatant cinematic signature resides in their
kooky characters.

The five men involved in the heist are the most oddball,
uncomplementary unit of thieves ever to find themselves partnered in
crime. The character names alone set the table: There’s Garth Pancake
(J.K. Simmons), a former Freedom Rider and current explosives expert
with Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans), a
foul-mouthed street hood who savors the idea of being the gang’s
“inside man” until he learns that means becoming a janitor at the
casino; and the General (Tzi Ma), a retired South Vietnamese combat
veteran and current doughnut shop owner.

Then there’s the requisite muscular clod named Lump (Ryan Hurst),
whose introduction is among the film’s funniest moments. The Coens
shoot a point-of-view sequence looking out from inside the lummox’s
helmet during a collegiate football game.

This bunch feigning to rehearse with their baroque instruments
whenever Marva opens the cellar door is a classic sight.

No one will accuse “The Ladykillers” of being groundbreaking material
for the Coens, though.

Narratively, it’s a straightforward caper flick based on rather
familiar material. (The 1955 version earned an Oscar nomination for
Best Original Screenplay.)

But like Hanks’ verbose professor, the Coens continue to justify some
of the simplest ideas through heaps of complexity. While that might
not be the best idea when robbing a casino, it appears to work when
crafting an eccentric comedy.