The Ladykillers

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? A gang of crooks pretending to be travelling musicians plan to rob a casino by tunnelling into it from an old lady's basement. But keeping it secret from the interfering old biddy is trickier than they thought...

WHO'S IN IT? Tom Hanks is the star name, but Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie) and JK Simmons (Spiderman's
J Jonah Jameson) bulk out the comedy cast list.

BEST SCENE? Little old lady Irma P Hall, bitch-slapping the smart-mouthed Wayans whenever he gives her any sass.
TO BE HONEST: Remaking a classically dark 1955 Brit comedy was a big risk. Too much Hollywood smoothing or lightening and this could have been Home Alone 4: This Time It's Granny. Thank god it was in the hands of Joel and Ethan Coen then. At their best - and this is darn close - nobody gives frothy multiplex convention a boot up the backside quite like the Coen brothers. With Hanks chewing up the scenery as head crook Professor Dorr (an amoral Colonel Sanders lookalike with delusions of genius) and some genuinely funny moments of crunching slapstick, this is a major return to form for the Fargo boys.