Ranking The Coen Brothers Movies From Worst To Best

18. The Ladykillers

A remake of a classic 1950’s black comedy of the same name, The Ladykillers is a sad mis-step in the unbelievably stellar career of Joel and Ethan Coen. Credit must go to the Coens for working their own style into a newly vamped script, but regrettably the sort of jokes and wit with which the Coens built their reputation with just seem absent here.

Tom Hanks does a decent job with his charming southern professor lead and some moments are quite enjoyable, but overall the film just fails to deliver the quality and cleverness the Coen name has become synonymous with. There is little subtlety to the humour throughout, it delves into a sadly slapstick comedy that is beneath writers of Joel and Ethan’s talents.

Admirable attempts were made to try to modernise the classic tale and the film is not without its likeable qualities but, for the most part, it simply does not work. The Coen Brothers’ Ladykillers is quite simply a very mediocre and needless remake of a classic.