Rarely can screenwriters flush out film characters as well as Joel and Ethan Coen. In The Ladykillers, the brothers work the same magic they've displayed with movies like Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou? They deliver a comedy full of fun characters we care about while using a filmmaking technique they're known for -- storytelling so unpredictable it's highly intriguing and entertaining at the same time.

The Ladykillers is a remake of the 1955 British comedy starring Alec Guinness; but the Coen's version takes on a new location, new story line and includes many of the idiosyncratic ideas that infuse their films with individuality -- all the reasons they won the Academy-Award for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo and received an Academy-Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou? 

Tom Hanks plays Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, Ph. D, a mastermind thief posing as a professor. He acquires a ring of other crooks, and the gang makes plans to heist a riverboat casino. Moviegoers haven't seen Tom Hanks this funny since Forrest Gump. His disguises, his dialect and the way he winds words around his tongue, like soft taffy on a stick, are hilarious.

To set his plan in motion, Goldthwait needs a location to work from and launch his plan. He finds the ideal spot in the home of Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall), an old lady who spends her days knitting or doing good deeds for the church and talking to her cat Pickles or the image of her late husband that hangs from the wall like the security guard at Fort Knox.

Mrs. Munson is only too happy to rent out her spare room to the well-mannered professor. After all, how much noise could he make? She even okays his use of the root cellar for his music ensemble to practice its baroque chamber music. Irma P. Hall is a wonderfully talented actress who also offered up sincere and staunch women in such previous films as A Family Thing, Soul Food and Beloved. About her role in The Ladykillers, Hall said, "It's so well-written … the humor comes out of real people … you care what happens to them."

The gang includes a host of odd characters. Pancake (J. K. Simmons) is the self-proclaimed expert on explosives. He and his gal Mountain Girl (Diane Delano), seem to have spent a little too much time in the sun, and Pancake definitely rubs Gawain the wrong way. Gawain, the inside man of the casino, is portrayed wonderfully by Marlon Wayans. He takes several people on the team to task and only meets his match when he tries standing up to Mrs. Munson, who whacks the heck out of him.

"Irma's an incredibly talented actor but pulling punches for the screen is not one of her foremost talents," said Joel Coen. "Irma hauled off and walloped Marlon for real … and to Marlon's credit there are very few actors who would sit still for that and wouldn't flinch."

Rounding out the gang members are TZI Ma as The General and Ryan Hurst as Lump. The General speaks very few words in the film but nonetheless remains a highly amusing part of the scenario, as does Lump, a lughead who's  obviously in the plan because of his brawn rather than his brain.

Keen direction by the Coen brothers helps them deliver a  quick-witted and cohesive story. And their collaboration with noted cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has worked on eight of their films, once again produces exciting elements in the story. The way Deakins lights the scenes, along with his unusual approach in capturing various sequences, is both convincing and proficient.

Any fan of the Coen brothers' movies knows music is essential to their films, and with several different kinds of music helping to set the scenes and the moods, The Ladykillers is no exception. Joel and Ethan reunited with T Bone Burnett (he did music for Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski and O Brother) who reached back to past eras to rediscover gospel music of such great artists as Sam Cooke and The Soul Stirrers ("Come Let Us Go Back to God"), Bill Landford and The Landfordaires ("Trouble of This World") and Blind Willie Johnson ("Let Your Light Shine on Me"). Proving this film has something for everyone, Nappy Roots performs the hip-hop "Trouble of This World."

Trouble is what this delightful band of yahoos gets into, and what the spirited and unflinching Mrs. Munson hands out to them. Fortunately, there are laughs galore while watching it.

(Released by Touchstone Pictures and rated "R" for language, including sexual references.)