Product Description

Set in the New York underworld where nothing is as it seems Lucky Number Slevin is an action-packed fun-as-hell roller coaster ride (Venice Magazine). When down-on-his-luck Slevin (Josh Hartnett) stumbles into a running feud between the city s most feared crime bosses (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley) he ignites an all-out war. Tracked by a mysterious assassin (Bruce Willis) and distracted by his flirtatious neighbor (Lucy Liu) Slevin must try to cheat death by turning the tables on the gangsters. If you take the best parts of Pulp Fiction The Usual Suspects and The Professional what you get is Lucky Number Slevin (Shawn Edwards Fox-TV).Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 796019794817 Manufacturer No: 79481

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #524 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2006-09-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
How boring it is to label a movie Tarantino-esque anymore. The thing is, when it comes to an offering like Lucky Number Slevin, the shoe fits, and the result is anything but boring. Gruesome killings, arid wit, self-reflexive pop culture references, an A-list cast, and style-heavy production values abound, which gives the proceedings an epoxy bond that seals the Q.T. homage factor. Josh Hartnett--who spends a lot of buffed-up time with his shirt off--is Slevin Kelevra, a hapless fellow visiting his New York friend Nick. But Nick has disappeared, which sets off a mistaken-identity thrill ride when two goons grab Slevin (he's in Nick's apartment so he must be Nick) and take him to their crime lord boss, the Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss doesn't care about Slevin's wrong-man protests; he just wants the $96,000 Nick owes him. In one of many offers he can't refuse, Slevin has to agree to murder the son of the Boss's felonious arch rival, the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) or take the bullet himself. But Slevin turns out to be no ordinary patsy. Thrown into the ingeniously designed production, clever plot twists, and academic nods to Bond, Hitchcock, and obscure old cartoons are Lucy Liu as a sexy coroner, Stanley Tucci as an obsessed cop, and Bruce Willis as a wily hit man with his finger in many pots. With so much visual and narrative trickery, there's almost too much to absorb in one viewing of this convoluted jigsaw puzzle of revenge and entertaining mayhem. Lucky Number Slevin isn't quite up to par with similarly brainy thrillers like Memento and The Usual Suspects, but the prospect of seeing it again in order to get your bearings is just as appealing.--Ted Fry

From The New Yorker
Paul McGuigan's rackety thriller starts a quarter of a century ago, then leaps to the present day. The connection between these two time zones is one of the mysteries of the movie, though not so mysterious that most viewers won't have worked it out after an hour. The film badly wants to be baffling, just as it yearns to be cynical, thuggish, and smart—not unlike the Boss (Morgan Freeman) and the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley), a pair of hoods who nourish a mutual hatred. Each is also interested in Slevin (Josh Hartnett), a hapless young man who finds himself in the wrong apartment at the wrong time. The ensuing complications are borrowed, with acknowledgement, from "North by Northwest," although it was possibly unwise to invite comparisons with one of cinema's most smoothly pleasurable tales. McGuigan's movie is more concerned with pleasing itself, and in that pursuit many strong supporting players, such as Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu, Danny Aiello, and Bruce Willis, are left embarrassed and stranded. Only one puzzle remains: given that we see both the Willis of today and the Willis of yesteryear, how come he looks younger now?
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Surprised by the plot.....or how I love the "Kansas City Shuffle"
I got this video to supplement my collection of HDDVD movies.
I did not know much about the movie, other than it had a decent cast in Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, and Lucy Liu.

I don't read movie synopsis, so that at least there MAY be a surprise for me.

This movie did not disappoint.

It started off with a bang and then rolled into a nice tale unusual for today's Hollywood.

It won't disappoint!

Wonderful ride, keeps you guessing
Wow. Kind of like a mesh between Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, and The Departed. The plot starts out w/o giving you much clue as to what's going. As it unravels, it slowly draws you in with dry humor and multiple twists and turns along the way. By the last 30 minutes you'll be on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next! All star cast with a really fun plot. Be sure the kids are in bed before watching this one though...

Just watch it
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.