Lucky # Slevin

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. (09/30/2006)

Lately, there have been too many of these attempts at innovation, but this relatively tired mess, which is only interesting for its visuals and a few camera moments, is just like all the others, thus nothing special. The initially solid plot is ruined by the final half-hearted and considerably complicated explanation with a ton of flashbacks. The connection with the characters is minimal because at the beginning, we do not know why they act the way they do, since we do not know the whole plot, and the messed up ending can’t save things. It lacks a bit more with and perhaps more action. Ben Kingsley is tragic, and Josh Hartnett simply doesn't fit here, Bruce Willis is great, though. (05/23/2007)

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. (11/14/2006)

The film had a great cast but without much to show for it. The theme was certainly interesting, but the screenplay not so much, plus, I was shaking my head over the overcomplexity of the story, and I could not really relate to any of the characters. Maybe except for Lindsey, who kept showing up from time to time like a charming robot mouse. (04/17/2020)

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. (08/05/2011)