Lucky Number Slevin/The Wrong Man (2006) - Hartnett and Co. are enjoyable in McGuigan's mischievous revenge story

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Bruce Willis' silencers seem to protrude right out of this cool-looking poster for Paul McGuigan's Lucky Number Slevin

"It all begins with a horse" Slevin's father bet all his money in 1979 on a horse, which underperformed, and the whole family were summarily executed. Except for Slevin. - Now he will take his revenge!

Lucky Number Slevin is written by Jason Smilovic (Karen Sisco (2003), TV-series)) and directed by Paul McGuigan (Wicker Park (2004)).
The film starts us out in its third act, without us realizing it straight away due to its virtuoso and entertaining narrative structure. It is well-written if a bit introverted at times.
The stars here are a scoop for Slevin: From hunky, down-to-earth Josh Hartnett (O (2001)), who wears only a towel for what in retrospect seems like half the film, over sweet Lucy Liu (Play It to the Bone (1999)) and raw Bruce Willis (Cop Out (2010)) to the mighty, dramatic cannons and gangster bosses here; Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List (2007)) and Ben Kingsley (Turtle Diary (1985)), who share one of the film's strongest scenes.
Lucky Number Slevin is a sly and good-looking piece of entertainment.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 27 mil. $
Box office: 56.3 mil. $ 
= Flop (returned 2.08 times the cost)
[Lucky Number Slevin premiered 24 February (UK, Ireland and Malta) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting took place in Montreal, Québec and in New York from December 2004 - ?. The film opened #5, behind holdover hit Ice Age: The Meltdown, fellow new releases The Benchwarmers and Take the Lead and holdover hit Inside Man to a 7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed too small 22.4 mil. $ (39.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.9 mil. $ (14 %) and Spain with 4.5 mil. $ (8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this review. McGuigan returned with Thief (2006, TV-series) and theatrically with Push (2009). Hartnett returned in The Black Dahlia (2006), also co-starring Willis; Liu in Maya & Miguel (2004-06) and theatrically in Code Name: The Cleaner (2007). Lucky Number Slevin is rotten at 51 % with a 5.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lucky Number Slevin?

Charlie's Angels (2000) - McG's saucy Hollywood Entertainment winner

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The fiery poster for McG's Charlie's Angels

QUICK REVIEW:

Charlie's Angels is an update of a late-70s TV-series of three exquisite, young women, who work as spy agents for a millionaire named Charlie, who only speaks to them through an intercom.

In retrospect, this is a pretty bizarre film, and for a long stretch of the way it mostly looks like a grotesque sales exercise in all its rah-rah bling, colors, multiple music hits and star parade.
The three main stars, Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary (1998)), Drew Barrymore (Donnie Darko (2001)) and Lucy Liu (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)), are beautiful and giggling yet strong as the cool heroines. There are several neat, handsome scenes and good ideas, and the first class supporting cast elevates the film, especially Tim Curry (It (1990)), Bill Murray, (Groundhog Day (1993)), Crispin Glover (Back to the Future (1985)) and Tom Green (Freddy Got Fingered (2001)).
Charlie's Angels is a crisp and fun spy action-comedy from director McG (This Means War (2012)), who is doing a tiny TV comedy right now, entitled Kevin From Work (2015). He also directed the less successful sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

Stars Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz from McG's Charlie's Angels

It's not hard to see why audiences everywhere flocked to see Charlie's Angels. - It looks awesome! See its trailer here

Cost: 93 mil. $
Box office: 264.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[With the film's large budget, a slighter result than this might not have prompted a sequel, (although with booming DVD sales and TV, the film must have racked in plenty of dough.) ABC launched a new Charlie's Angels TV-series in 2011, which was canceled after its first season.]

What do you think of Charlie's Angels?
If you've seen the original series, or the newest attempt, please, tell us about it/them