4 Star

Revenge is Best Served Very Cold.

Successful writer Jason Smilovic (Condor (TV Series), My Own Worst Enemy (TV Series)) writes his first feature length film story, he brings us a twisty tale of what happens when you owe the big bosses lots of money. Director Paul McGuigan (Wicker Park, Victor Frankenstein) gets to direct the cream of the crop back in 2006. Lucky Number Slevin will keep you on the edge of your seat for the full one hundred and ten minutes.

We get to the point straight away as we see two bookkeepers very efficiently dispatched, and their books taken. But what has that to do with Nick Fisher (Sam Jaeger, American Sniper, Take Me Home) and an empty airport waiting room? That question takes a long time to answer, as he meets Mr Goodkat (Bruce Willis, LOOPER, Fortress, Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For) sat in a wheelchair who engages Nick in a conversation about the Kansas City Shuffle, a distraction tactic and a story that started twenty years ago in 1979.

Where Max (Scott Gibson, Breach, The Sentinel) has been given a hot tip on a race horse that has been doped up, and with the winnings will sort him out and pay to put his son Henry through college.

Your old man’s smart, he only bets on a sure thing.

Tragedy strikes Max’s winning horse as it dies before it crosses the finishing post. Now Max’s life is now finished, as he borrowed twenty thousand off of bookie Roth (Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing, Leon), who passes the debt onto the new kingpins in New York, The Boss (Morgan Freeman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Transcendence, March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step) and the Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley, Robot Overlords, Schindler’s List, Gandhi). They are not to be messed with, they massacre everybody connected to Max and to  that race, everybody.

You can’t have a Kansas City shuffle without a body.

But that was then, and this is the here and now, as unlucky Slevin (Josh Hartnett, Black Hawk Down, 30 Days of Night, The Faculty) has just arrived in New York after losing his job, his apartment and his girlfriend. He is headed for his school old school buddy Nick Fisher’s apartment, when he is mugged, losing his wallet and getting his nose broken in the process. The next morning, Slevin is in the bathroom, and Nick is nowhere to be seen. Just in his towel, he hears a loud knocking on the door. He investigates and is surprised when the diminutive and bubbly Lindsey (Lucy Liu, Detachment, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Charlie’s Angels) bursts through the open door. She is equally surprised to see Slevin, but shrugs it off when he explains his misfortune. Then she decides that the pair of them should investigate the missing Nick.

When you are on a roll, you’re on a roll.

We see that Slevin is having another unlucky event, when there is another loud knock on the door. This time it isn’t Lindsey, it’s two big goons who have mistaken Slevin for the man that owes The Boss a lot of money, Nick, who also owes the Rabbi a lot of money. It isn’t looking good for Slevin, as the Rabbi and The Boss have been sworn enemies for twenty years.

Lucky Number Slevin is a great twisty tale, that keeps you riveted, as you search for the next tasty morsel of information in the complicated life of Nick Fisher and Slevin. Also it is a treat to watch all these great actors working together.

Lucky Number Slevin is available on Digital