Day 69: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Going into today’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday film, there were two reasons I chose the film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with one being that it was directed by Guy Ritchie (Snatch) and the second being that it stars Superman himself Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel). The Man From U.N.C.L.E. takes us all the way back to the 1960’s and the cold war as our setting for the film. Cavill plays American CIA operative Napoleon Solo while Armie Hammer (The Social Network) plays KGB Agent Illya Kuryakin in a film where the two agents are forced to team together against one common enemy other than each other. There is a rumor that some Nazi enthusiasts are close to creating an atomic bomb and along with the help of the beautiful Gaby (Alicia Vikander) they will try to infiltrate and retrieve the bomb before it is completed. The film also stars Hugh Grant (Four Weddings And A Funeral) as Waverly, Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) as Victoria, Luca Calvani (When In Rome) as Alexander, Sylvester Groth (Inglorious Basterds) as Uncle Rudi, Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows) as Sanders, Christian Berkel (Valkyrie) as Udo, Misha Kuznetsov (25TH Hour) as Oleg, Marianna Di Martino as the desk clerk, and David Menkin (Zero Dark Thirty) as Jones. To check out the rest of the review and see some stats, click here.

Day 44: The Ladykillers (2004)

I don’t know how to follow up the amazing Deadpool since that was the best film viewed yet, but we’ll have to try. I continued down the comedy road and chose a film by the world famous Coen Brothers (Fargo). The film is called The Ladykillers and it stars the amazing Tom Hanks (Philadelphia) as Professor G.H. Dorr PHd, a smooth talking eccentric southern man who is looking to take advantage of an old woman named  Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) because her property lies within his master plan. You see, Dorr wants to rob a Casino boat, but in order to do that, he has to build a tunnel underground that leads to the casino with a rather unlikely team and pose as a classical duo in the meantime to fool the old lady. The film also stars Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie) as Gawain, J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) as Garth Pancake, Tzi Ma (Rush Hour) as The General, Ryan Hurst (Remember The Titans) as Lump Hudson, Diane Delano (The Wicker Man) as Mountain Girl, George Wallace (Funny People) as Sheriff Wyner, Stephen Root (Office Space) as Fernand Gudge, Jason Weaver (Drumline) as Weemack, and Walter K. Jordan (Life) as Elron.

I didn’t know going into the film that it was a remake and with that being said I’d actually like to see the original version. The film isn’t super amazing, but it’s actually pretty decent and at times it’s funny. The part that is funny to me is the fact that these are five guys who have really no business being a team and it shows throughout the film. You want to talk about a motley crew, these are definitely them. You have a punk wannabe street thug, a demolitions expert with a bad case of IBS, a Vietnamese general with a smoking habit, and a jock whose dumber than a box of rocks. That is where the real comedy in this film lies and it once it gets towards the last 20 minutes of the film is when it gets really good as it all falls apart. The soundtrack to the film is actually pretty good as it mixes some gospel music with music like The Nappy Roots, and so much more. It was also supervised by T Bone Burnett who you may remember for O Brother, Where Art Thou?. I definitely think it’s a film that is worth checking out if you are a fan of Tom Hanks, The Coen Brothers, and T Bone Burnett. Marlon Wayans was definitely the comedic relief of the film, but Hanks provides some himself. I am going to give The Ladykillers an B for a final grade.