Lucky Number Slevin - BLURAY

I remembered seeing trailers and commercials for this movie when it originally came on TV and really wanted to see it, but didn't and then totally forgot about it. When I got HBO this year and it came on, I decided casually to record it, not expecting much because I didn't remember much about what the movie was about. I was really pleasantly surprised, and liked it so much that I rented it a few weeks later to watch with my girlfriend in this widescreen edition, and she loved it as well. I only give 5 stars to products that I love, and this is a movie that I love. I saw it twice in one month and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. At its heart, it's a mystery, which seems like a dwindling genre but this movie does it really well. The movie begins with Bruce Willis telling a flashback and then really begins with Josh Hartnett (Slevin) having bad luck (fired at work, girlfriend sleeping with another guy, getting robbed) and then being visited upon by mobsters working for Morgan Freeman claiming that he owes money because he's staying at a friend's place who's really the debtor. The story just unfolds from there as they try to figure out where his friend could be and how to pay back his debts to Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. Let's start with the cast: awesome. I couldn't think of anything bad to say about anyone. I LOVED Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley as opposing crime lords. You know that an actor is great when you've seen several of his movies before but when you're watching the movie at hand you forget about all those roles and can only think about how great they are in this one. I'm usually not a Lucy Liu fan, except for Kill Bill, but movies like this somehow really highlight her talents. She's the cute, hyperactive next door neighbor, and I believe her character throughout the movie. Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis are also great in their roles, but for me to explain what those roles are would spoil too much of the story. I think that the pacing is spot on, the writing is believable and witty, and the story really does keep you guessing until near the end, when you start putting together the dots. Unlike Veronica Mars episodes, you actually have a chance to figure out the mystery before the very end, but when you have this much fun watching it unfold, what's the point? I don't know how they do this, but the movie takes itself seriously and pokes fun at various elements of dark humor throughout the film, and it's part of what keeps the movie watchable in repeat viewings. I have a 1080p LCD TV with an upscaling DVD player, and the video quality was excellent. Nothing to complain about there, or about the audio. The commentary track is actually pretty fun to listen to, and there are a couple of good deleted scenes to boot. I don't know why so many critics didn't like it, but it sounds like they were trying to be snooty because it felt like it was trying to be like Pulp Fiction at times if you put on your movie geek cap. Or maybe not every likes this brand of humor? It's not particularly unique, but that doesn't mean it's not good. Anyway, it's worth at least a rent if not a buy. I think you'll probably end up buying though so you can watch it again and again.

This is one of the best sleeper movies ever. Great cast!!! Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley---can't go wrong with a cast like that. Lucy was great. Combine all that with a really fun and clever plot line that really leaves you guessing, then buckle up and enjoy. It's 2 hours that you will leave you satisfied. Not like so many movies that leave you saying, there are 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. If you don't get as big a kick out of it as I did, I'll do chores for you. That's confidence!! Enjoy.

“When everybody turns right, you turn left. That’s the Kansas City Shuffle.” It’s hard to write a review of Lucky Number Slevin (2006) because the entire storyline has spoilers. I will not give them to you. (I hate when people write a review with spoilers. And people who tell the whole story, not giving an evaluation, don’t you?) Let me just tease you with this: from the chaotic wallpapers and mismatched clothes to the b&w alternating blocs to the non-linear plot to the cryptic dialogue, this film will confuse and delight you. It’s one of those films you will want to watch all over again as soon as it ends. The ensemble cast is quite a surprising one. It’s been reported that the A-listers signed on after reading the unusual script and seeing who else had signed on. During an end scene, it’s been reported, the entire cast and crew assembled on set just to watch Sir Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman work magic together. A masterclass in acting. Besides Freeman and Kingsley are Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Stanley Tucci, and Lucy Liu. Every one of them is at the top of their game handling both the droll comedy and dead-serious drama. Paul McGuigan’s direction (Sherlock, Scandal, Smash) is impeccable and the editing is brilliant. The screenplay by Jason Smilovic (who wrote for tv) is terrific. He and McGuigan and Hartnett and Liu were just kids making this film, all in their 20s and early 30s. I have given dvds of this film as birthday and Christmas presents. It comes in widescreen and BluRay formats, too. It is also still streaming on Amazon Prime Video. However you watch it, it’s a genuine treat. 5 enthusiastic *!

They kept running the trailer for this movie on TV for a while and showing times were really ridiculous... and on weekdays! Obviously I could either stay up and watch a movie and get a good talking to from my boss the next day for showing up late and half asleep, or go on my hunch and the trailer I saw and buy it on DVD... which I did! Now, before we get into the actual movie itself... there is one issue I had with this product and that is the fact that you can't simply skip all the trailers before the movie and jump directly to the menu... you need to skip each trailer like chapters... and trust there are quite a few trailers to skip. That actually took some of the anticipation away... I got a bit tired of having to skip so many trailers! As for the movie itself, those who've seen the movie Snatch (Widescreen Edition) will not rate this movie as high as people who have not seen it... I think that that movie has set the standard (well, at least for me) for this type of gangster movie which usually have rather surprising twist towards the end of the plot and that is why I can only go as high as a four for this movie. The movie is full of surprises to say the least!! You will find a surprise in this movie with almost every single development! The characters are unique and quirky but nearly as much as in Snatch (Widescreen Edition) ! (Brick Top, Boris the blade, and Bullet-tooth Tony) Bruce Willis seems to always play his usual cool and soft spoken bada%% which is kind of worn out to by honest... I think the role of Slevin was excellently casted where you really sympathize with Slevin throughout the movie. Ben Kingsley, there were scenes in the moive towards the end where he kept speaking in an exaggerated tone while he was making a weird mouth... why!? It was just an obvious case of overacting to me... I know he is a great actor but that's the way I saw it... (unless somebody can explain it to me). Overall a nice movie to have in your collection if you are generally a Mafia / gangster movie buff... but for all of those reading this review who have not yet seen Snatch (Widescreen Edition) or Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (Widescreen Edition) ... you need to see them!! Also a good is RocknRolla (Single-Disc Edition) (not as great as the first two but more than at par with this title.

This Blu-ray version of Lucky # Slevin has a more defined picture than the DVD. This movie has a soft appearance at times. It's part of the way the film was made to look. In the DVD on a 77" 4K screen the picture looks very soft but on the Blu-ray it looks very good throughout. There is light, even grain for most of the film. Faces are very detailed. The different color palettes in the various scenes look amazing. This movie defaults to Dolby Digital 5.1. Make sure to choose Dolby True HD in the settings for lossless audio. The dialogue is clear and mostly in the center channel. Many sound effects like gunshots are loud and crisp in the surround channels. The audio is balanced nicely and easy to listen to. I had to turn up the volume significantly higher than most movies but when I did it sounded normal. This is an interesting story that is well worth watching. It's best watched without any spoilers.

Following on from the good things already said by others: It's one of those flicks where nothing is as it seems, and I'm definitely going to give it a second viewing, because in the end I realized how everything was just so nicely wrapped up and the tangled web untangled itself in that second most pure of motivating emotions: REVENGE (the first one being 'Love' of course). You think 'The Bride' in Kill Bill is p-oed? Kiddo, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just about everybody in LNS dies by bullets, projected from silenced semi-automatics--not swords--but it works just as well. Lots of brains and gore spattering across the place, plus a neat twist at the end in a tale of a gazillion tangles and twists and quick non-linear time warps to explain what the hell was actually going on. And things just ain't what they seem. Nothing ever is. Revenge in LNS was not a dish eaten completely cold. In the final act, when the worst offender of them all gets his brains spattered across the inside of his car, the purity of the emotion and its raw darkness--and at the same time it's utter inevitability and sheer rightness--is beautifully portrayed by an actor, for whom I have acquired a new respect; for he evidences both, a subtle comic timing that needs to be seen to be believed, as well as a capacity to look like an almost-evil implacable dispenser of justice that had been far too long in coming. Very nicely done. Highly recommended for those of my disposition--though those of more tender sensibilities might find the blood and gore somewhat off-putting.

This was not a film that I thought I'd like. I had never even heard about it upon its release a couple of years ago, and I'd never talked with anyone who had seen it, let alone recommended it. I ended up watching it while channel-surfing late one night, and was rapidly caught up in the story. First, the cast is as close to "all-star" as you can get for a movie like this, with Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, and Lucy Liu each contributing expert performances. I liked that the story was filled with enough humor to offset the violence (which is necessary in a story like this). I also like that it was fast-paced and kept me guessing (usually incorrectly). At the end, my first thought was "I've got to see this again", and since it wasn't scheduled to appear on cable or on demand for at least a week, I ordered the DVD from Amazon. It was a smart purchase and I've watched it several times since then. I won't repeat the basic plot elements here because they have been well documented by other reviewers, and I don't want to give anything away. Instead, I'll talk about some of the things that have made this movie one that I now recommend to my friends any time we start talking about films. As mentioned above, there's an outstanding cast turning in stellar performance and a smart, witty script, but this movie offers more. The production is really beautiful, which is not something you normally associate with a film like this. Each set and each scene is convincing and designed to reinforce the characters and the story line. Whether it's the shabby apartment that Slevin's family lives in, the loft that his absent friend owns, the opulence of the two penthouses owned by the Boss and the Rabbi, there is a visual coherence that is compelling and impressive. The soundtrack was also used effectively to underscore the story's development. All of these features combine to produce a movie that is extremely satisfying and only gets better with repeated viewings. Many reviewers have compared it to "The Usual Suspects", and it's a valid comparison, but "Suspects" was a movie that I respected more than I enjoyed it. This movie is one that I love to watch, and to me, that's what really makes a film memorable.

Great movie