I’ve already heard it a couple times since talking about it on Twitter last night. Many people are going to read this post and say, “I can’t believe you haven’t seen this yet!” And well, my only excuse is that I’ve been pretty single minded in my movie watching for the last few years! I’ve had a certain type of film I’ve been writing towards, so and had the blinders on so to speak. But now Cinema Fromage is a little more loosey goosey, so with that in mind the times between duties at Bloody Good Horror have been a madcap race to catch up on what I’ve been missing outside the horror world. Some films I’ve discovered I haven’t been missing much, others I can only sit back and wonder as to why I waited so long! “Lucky Number Slevin” is one such film.

From the get go, “Slevin” has all the makings of a film I would like, all the way down to its barest bones. The cast of this film is quite simply amazing and all of the big players I’ve been a fan of in some way shape or form over the years. For instance, Morgan Freeman. Show me a man that says he’s not a Morgan Freeman fan, I’ll show you a man that doesn’t watch movies. The man simply is movies, right? Here we get to see him take a turn as the bad guy. Something we don’t see too often but when we do, it is always phenomenal. Playing off him is Ben Kingsley. Sure, Kingsley has been known to throw in a few clunkers here and there such as when he’s working with Uwe Boll but in “Lucky Number Slevin”, he’s on. He’s menacing, he’s funny, he’s very very Jewish and all around fun to watch. Lucy Liu is throw in here too for a well rounded mix. She’s had few roles as well that I could do without but generally she’s pretty fun. Here, she’s great. She’s a bit manic, a bit crazy, plenty weird and down right adorable.

Those people are fine actors for sure, but let’s get down to the nitty-gritty here. Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis. I’ll be honest here; I flat out love Bruce Willis. I even liked “Hudson Hawk” because he was in it. When he is playing his quirky roles such as here as Mr. Goodkat the specialist hit man, he’s at his best. He does well in the mainstream but I always feel he’s at his best when he’s a few steps away from that lime light. As Goodkat he’s menacing and quirky, precise and exacting. It makes him feel cold as ice and dangerous. Hartnett plays great off him as well though they spend very little screen time with each other. Though some have voiced their opinion that Hartnett isn’t a good actor, I’ve never had an issue with him and he fits in great here as Slevin Kelevra. The cockiness works well for him and the dry humor does well too.

“Lucky Number Slevin” is the type of film that you can’t go into too much detail on the plot as you might give too much away. A crime thriller with plenty of black comedy mixed in, it has many twists and turns to keep you guessing and is downright fun. A couple of times throughout this movie I figured I had the twists sussed out only to have the tables turned on me once again. Often times you find yourself right in your guesses, but then there is more that you didn’t suspect. All of these twists are worked in very subtly which is what makes the movie fun. Never does it smack you aside the head to say “Haha! We got you!” Instead, they unfold naturally and soon become an expected part of the story.

This is a great movie that wished I wouldn’t have waited so long to finally catch. The crime story is a great one filled with vengeance, double crosses and murder. It’s engrossing and highly entertaining. The humor that they mix in here is the icing on the cake that makes this transform from a good movie to a great movie that you’ll remember for some time to come. Never once did anyone, or anything, feel out of place.

In all honesty, with the cast at play here, it felt much like getting together with old friends and having a good night. Never a bad thing and worth your time to watch at home whenever you can.