The Ladykillers (2004)
Hanks’ first outing with the notoriously odd moviemaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen buttons him into a character quite unique in his repertoire — a malevolent villain.
[My review of The Ladykillers was originally published at Christianity Today on March 26, 2004.]
This is not the first time moviegoers have seen Tom Hanks secretly tunnel through the earth beneath a stranger’s house.
In 1989’s The ‘Burbs, a subversive comedy by Joe Dante about eccentric criminals in a friendly suburban neighborhood, Hanks dug his way right into an explosion that rocked the neighborhood. It happens again here, in The Ladykillers — which happens to be a subversive comedy about eccentric criminals in a friendly Bible Belt neighborhood.
But that’s where the resemblances between The Ladykillers and other Tom Hanks comedies stop.