“The Ladykillers”

Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J. K….

“The Ladykillers”

Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J. K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst

Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen

Movie fans foregoing a Coen Brothers film is like a mosquito passing up a tube sock full of blood. Their films, which include the Oscar winning “Fargo” and 2000’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” are irresistible, each containing a new set of insane characters and odd situations. The appeal also lies in the pair’s ability to take excessive swearing and graphic violence to the level of high art.

This year, the brothers have chosen to re-make the classic 1955 comedy “The Ladykillers,” a British film about a team of crooks who plan a heist from the home of their innocent old landlady. Although remakes are usually a touchy area in the film industry, the Coens seem more than up to the challenge of making the comedy their own.

“The Ladykillers” begins in Mississippi, where Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), a no-nonsense, church-going widow, has taken in a group of traveling musicians, led by the long-winded Professor G. H. Dorr (Tom Hanks). Unbeknownst to Marva, the so-called musicians practicing in her root cellar are actually a group of amateur criminals out to rob the underground accounting offices of a nearby river casino. The group, however, gets more than they bargain for when Munson finds them out, giving them an ultimatum that they return the money and go to church with her or deal with the police. Unwilling to compromise, the professor decides that she must be done in, even if it means losing the lives of a couple co-conspirators in the process.

The story is founded on a simple premise that mostly relies on the charm and hilarity of its characters to keep the film interesting. Hall was born to play the good-hearted but tenacious Munson, constantly preaching to her tenants and local sheriff about the evils of “hippity-hop” music. Tom Hanks returns to his comedy roots as the supposed Ph.D. Professor Dorr. Although he seems uncomfortable in the role at first, Hanks eventually settles into his wordy, pretentious lecturing, at points sounding like a human thesaurus as he tries to rally his incompetent group of hoodlums.

The criminals he hires — through an advertisement, funnily enough — are a parade of oddly named, kooky ne’er-do-wells. Marlon Wayans plays Gawain, the quintessential gun-toting, bling-bling-wearing thug who serves as the “inside man.” Garth Pancake (J. K. Simmons) is the explosives expert who, despite the fact that he has irritable bowel syndrome, can’t help but wear khaki short shorts. The Colonel (Tzi Ma) is a silent but deadly chain smoker who can somehow silence a room by uttering a single sentence. Lastly, there’s the “muscle” of the group, a hulking, football-playing, Lennie Small-like idiot named Lump Hanson (Ryan Hurst) who timidly refers to Dorr as “Coach.”

Even though the comedy in “The Ladykillers” is mostly of the physical, slapstick variety, the Coens still manage to weave in some of their deliciously twisted sense of humor and colorful dialogue. Wayans, for example, provides much of the swearing familiar to the brothers’ earlier films, unfortunately looking a lot like his character in the 1996 black drama parody “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.” The film also features a fair amount of violence and dismemberment. At one point, after losing his finger to a botched explosion, Pancake watches as Munson’s cat runs off with his bloody, severed digit. The ending is equally morbid, serving as a sort of sick choreography of stranglings, shootings and head trauma.

Other elements of the film, including the soundtrack of gospel music, produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the flawless cinematography of Roger Deakins, add to the already high production values. Overall, “The Ladykillers” should be a worthy addition to the long list of work by the Coens.

“The Ladykillers” opens in theaters Friday.