LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN — ** — Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu; rated R (violence, profanity, gore, vulgarity, sex, brief nudity, brief drugs, racial epithets).
If a film were to be praised solely for the number of plot twists and character turns it features, "Lucky Number Slevin" would be a blockbuster.
Unfortunately, this revenge-thriller is ridiculously overplotted, with delusions of Tarantino glibness. It's also a little too pleased with itself; the filmmakers obviously think it's smarter and more clever than it actually is.
The result is irritating, like the smart-aleck at a party who can't resist chiming in on every topic that comes up.
Slevin is the name of an unfortunate victim of mistaken identity (Josh Hartnett). He barely arrives in town when he's kidnapped by a pair of thugs.
The person behind Slevin's kidnapping is The Boss (Morgan Freeman), a local gangster who believes Slevin is a gambler with huge debts. So he offers Slevin a way out — assigning him to kill someone close to The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley), his rival in crime.
Slevin's efforts are both helped and hindered by a pair of interested parties, Lindsey (Lucy Liu), an amateur sleuth, and Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis), a mysterious hit man.
"Slevin" is a slick-looking film, but first-time screenwriter Jason Smilovic's script is a contrived, convoluted mess. (Even the "surprise" ending really isn't.)
But Hartnett does appear to be having fun, and this is certainly the most likable Liu has been in a film to date, though she seems a little long in the tooth to be playing such a girlish character.
And judging by their cartoonish supporting turns, Kingsley and Stanley Tucci apparently believe the film is supposed to be a broad comedy, something that apparently eludes others in the cast.
"Lucky Number Slevin" is rated R for strong scenes of violence (including shootings, stabbings and explosive mayhem), frequent use of strong profanity and vulgar, sexually suggestive slang terms, gore, simulated sex, brief male nudity, some brief drug content (references) and use of racial epithets. Running time: 104 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com