Lucky Number Slevin

The first half, full of wanna-be cool dialogue where the characters are supposed to verbally make fun of each other, is pure misery. Then the action gets going and McGuigan finally puts some edge on the overwrought story. The explanatory flashbacks are fun, but there’s no believability. Hartnett actually acts (!), Willis is stony as usual, and the rest of them sort of shuffle around, content that they have famous names, count their film awards by the metric ton, and try to look terribly above it all. Awkwardness is the impression that best describes it, and I'll probably never give it a second chance. I give it a weaker three stars. (22/10/2010)

Every movie fan since Kill Bill knows that revenge tastes best served cold. Unfortunately, I got my mouth properly scalded by McGuigan. Initially, the story is promisingly paced, narratively enjoyable and witty, with no fucking around with machine guns, and with likeable characters. But about half an hour before the end it changes its face completely, the narrative lightness is gone and the overwrought resolution with tiresome explanatory flashbacks and a numerous body count comes into play, lacking insight and thus putting McGuigan's film among this year's unoriginal, long-worn by me uselessness of the type of Running Scared. I'm just bored of all these ultra-hyper-cool Tarantino clones! Ben Kingsley can only remember his Gandhi and Itzhak Stern with a tear in his eye, his acting is awful (especially noticeable in the dialogue scene between him and Freeman), some of the holes in logic of the plot are truly remarkable, and Josh Hartnett proves that he is just a mediocre actor and simply not up to serious roles. (30/09/2006)

This film was a very pleasant surprise. I hardly had any expectations, I don’t like gangster films and and I’m not a fan of Josh Harnett, and even the title wasn’t very appealing. But I ended up having fun from the very first minute. Lucky Number Slevin begins as a very funny crime comedy with a fleeting plot, where everyone behaves very weird, which I thought was fine since comedies can push the boundaries between logic and stupid behaviour as they see fit. I was very surprised when things got serious in the last half hour, the story becomes rational and the behaviour of the protagonists is explained. Unfortunately, the explanation is quite messy at times, I would have been more satisfied if they’d stuck to the comedy all the way till the end. Regardless, the positive feelings prevail. (05/08/2011)

Lucky Number Slevin is black-humor gangster flick that wants to be a Tarantino and/or Ritchie film, but it just does NOT have what it takes because of the immature screenwriter. I’m just surprised that director Paul McGuigan thought it did. After the brilliant Wicker Park, I expected more from him. (14/11/2006)

Lucky Number Slevin's story isn't revolutionary, but what screenwriter and then director Paul McGuigan did with it “is worth taking my hat off to, that is, if I had one on my head." Of course he had the support of outstanding actors: Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman and, most importantly, the excellent (I'm surprised at myself using the word in context with him) Josh Hartnett (Slevin Kelevra), whom I never really liked. And Bruce in the role of the hitman, Mr. Goodcat, shows that he doesn't belong on the scrapheap, and after Sin City and 16 Blocks, it's another successful notch in his career. So if you want a suspenseful, entertaining, and dark thriller, you shouldn’t miss Slevin. In addition, you will learn a number of interesting lessons from the film. The main lesson that stuck in my head was: Don't wear a towel longer than necessary :) (04/08/2006)