Extras:
Trailer, The Making of Lucky Number Slevin
Director:
Paul McGuigan
(The Acid House, The Equilizer (2007), Four Knights, Gangster No.1, Lucky Number Slevin, The Reckoning, Wicker Park, TV: Thief)
Producers:
Christopher Eberts, Andy Grosch, Kia Jam, Robert Kravis, Tyler Mitchell, Anthony Rhulen and Chris Roberts
Screenplay:
Jason Smilovic
Music:
Joshua Ralph
Cast:
Slevin: Josh Hartnett
Smith: Bruce Willis
Lindsey: Lucy Liu
The Boss: Morgan Freeman
The Rabbi: Ben Kingsley
Yitzchok: Michael Rubenfield
Dumbrowski: Peter Outerbridge
Brikowski: Stanley Tucci
Marty: Kevin Chamberlin
Elvis: Dorian Missick
Sloe: Mykelti Williamson
Max: Scott Gibson
Nick Fisher: Sam Jaeger
Roth: Danny Aiello
Henry: Oliver Davis
Saul: Corey Stoll
Abe: Howard Jerome
Murphy: Robert Forster
Slim Hopkins: Darren Marsman
I was intrigued by Lucky Number Slevin
as it had a premise of appearing like a comedy gangster thriller with Bruce Willis.
As this film begins we see an almost-deserted airport lounge where a young man sits down waiting
to be called for his flight. Bruce appears at his side, sat in a wheelchair, and in in the way plays
his usual calm and collected character, he introduces himself as Smith and tells him about the Kansas
City Shuffle, something which you'll learn more as you watch the film - although it's basically about
looking both ways before you leap - and tells him a tale about a man who claimed he would only bet
on a sure thing when it came to horse racing, but it all goes wrong and he lands himself in debt
to some very bad men.
Shortly after, we see Slevin (Josh Hartnett), a man who has lost his job, flat and girlfriend
and accepts the offer from a friend called Nick Fisher to fly out and take up employment with him. On
his arrival, Nick is nowhere to be found but despite happening to be in an apartment opposite a rather
sexy neighbour, Lindsey (Lucy Liu), his day isn't going particularly well and when the first of
many knocks on the door comes, he's whisked away by two men who tell him they work for The Boss (Morgan
Freeman) and finds himself drawn into a mob situation while still in his towel, such is the speed
at which things happen once he touches down and, assumed to be the real Nick Fisher, he's told he has
to get vengeance for The Boss' son who was murdered recently by taking out the son of his arch-nemesis,
The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley).
Josh Hartnett is given the smart-talking role, the kind of thing Bruce Willis used to get early on in
his career in Moonlighting and he applies it well as he becomes embroiled in a game of cat and
mouse between the two rivals, although at one point, given that bad things happen to him almost every
time Slevin opens his apartment door, it's a wonder he continues to do so. Lucy Liu also equips herself
very well as the nosy neighbour who quickly jumps into his life and wants to help him find Nick, putting
her very analytical mind to use, starting off by finding out that the last person to ring Nick up turned
out to be a mysterious phone call from a hotel.
To give more information about the film would be to spoil what comes next, but I will say that things
completely turn around in the last 25 minutes and what started off as engaging all falls apart as they
can't think of an ending that makes sense, leaving you with a feeling of this being one of those films
where you enjoy things as the characters begin to attempt to unravel a mystery and then the final reveal
is just very poor indeed.
Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the print looks very good even in the drab apartment
segments. There are also some split-screen scenes revolving around a game of chess that certainly couldn't
be cropped to 16:9, although time will tell whether the Super 35 process used will be able to strike a
decent 16:9 print that doesn't involve the usual straight cropping. Why TV stations just can't accept that
the world and his wife do not have a great objection to black bars, given the huge amount of DVDs sold over
the past few years, is anyone's guess.
The DD5.1 sound is used to good effect when a quick death at the hand of a sharp trigger finger is
required, but this isn't massively often.
The only extras are a trailer for the movie, running for 2 minutes and in anamorphic 2.35:1, plus a
Making of Lucky Number Slevin (13:18) featurette, presented in 4:3 with letterboxed film clips
that mixes in the usual affair of film clips, behind-the-scenes footage shot during filming and random
chat from key cast and crew members.
There are subtitles in English only, a total of 16 chapters which are spaced out quite badly (chapter 12
doesn't come until 13 minutes in) and a main menu with sound and a short piece of looped footage from the
film that 'rewinds' quite nicely.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
