Don't Cross The Streams

 

Lucky Number Slevin

Released in Feb 2006.

Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, & Ben Kingsley

Directed by Paul McGuigan

Written by Jason Smilovic

Currently Streaming on Amazon Prime

   In a case of mistaken identity starting with a guy named Slevin (Josh Hartnett) in the middle of a war between two rival New York crime lords: We have the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and the Boss (Morgan Freeman). While being watched by Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) and well-known assassin Goodkat (Bruce Willis), Slevin must quickly devise a plan to save his skin before his luck runs out.

   I really love movies that take a few twists and turns as they go on, and then they come full circle all the way at the end. This one is not quite as clever as Pulp Fiction, but they still pull it off. We do have some narrating happening, as well as a few flash backs to tie it all together. Overall, this was well done. One way that I judge a movie, is how well it keeps me entertained, and I this one kept me in it he whole time.

  For starters, you are getting a “slightly past peke”, Bruce Willis. This is right before he made Live Free or Die Hard, which was one of my favorites of all his films. Josh Hartnett, while never a major household name, was awesome in this. So awesome that he won a Best Actor award from the Milano International Film Festival (MIFF Awards). Hartnett pulled off the wit and banter that reminded me of Brad Pitt in any of the Oceans’ movies. Just to add in a few more great actors, we also got Morgan Freeman & Sir Ben Kingsley, who will forever be known to me as Trevor Slattery. Lucy Lui and Stanley Tucci round out this wonderful cast

This was the 118^th grossing movie in 2006 (#1 was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest)

Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% 

Ebert Score: 2/5 Stars

Favorite Scene: 

    Anything with Josh and Lucy. I felt their chemistry was great and its too bad there wasn't more of it

Any tech from today would change this movie? 

    Use of the internet could have been a deal breaker. Any google search and you would know you had the wrong guy. 

A few fun facts: 

·         Josh Hartnett lived with the screenwriter, Jason Smilovic as he was writing this script.

·         Morgan Freeman makes a reference to the “Schmoo”. Which is from Lil’Abner comic strip from the 40’s. On another note, it was the nickname of a guy I went to high school with. For the life me I have no idea how that name came about.

·         Lucy Lui and Josh Hartnett were open to a sequel

Overall, The Stream Team score of this movie is 8/10

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