SHOCK! Hollywood has remade the 1955 British comedy classic The Ladykillers. HORROR! They've transferred the action from suburban London the the Deep South of the USA.

OUTRAGE! The lead role made famous by our own Sir Alec Guinness is played by Tom Hanks.

But calm down dear, it's only a movie. And the good news is it was made by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, whose films may not set box offices alight, but are nonetheless revered by discerning filmgoers all over the world.

They write, direct, produce and edit all work, which is always highly original.

Which makes the choice of their next movie a puzzling one. At least it is at first sight but once we are 10 minutes into it, we witness the Coens' slightly off-centre view of the world, one that has made their movies unique among the conveyor belt dross of Holly-wood.

The film is set beside the Mississippi in Louisiana, where church-going widow Mrs Munson (Hall) lives in a big old house.

She advertises for a lodger and takes in the creepily charming Goldthwait Higginson Dorr Phd (Hanks), who informs the good lady that he too is a God-fearing man and wishes to practice church music with his friends in her basement.

But Dorr's motley team of "musicians" Marlon Wayans, JK Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst are, surprise surprise, a bunch of crooks and are using Mrs Munson's property to dig a tunnel to a floating casino's strongroom, from which they plan to steal a substantial quantity of cash.

Their plan faces exposure, however, when Mrs Munson becomes suspicious and a little murder may have to be added to the theft.

So far, so very familiar this story is very definitely an Americanised version of our Ladykillers, but the Coens can be forgiven for nicking something so revered by film-loving Brits because their version is so darned funny.

The verbal wordplay particularly Dorr's highfalutin dialogue (think of a Deep South version of the MC in the Good Old Days) or Mrs Munson's massacre of the English language ("I don' wan' no hippity-hop music in this house") mixes perfectly with some quaintly old fashioned slapstick to elicit more than the odd chuckle.

Indeed, there are more laughs to be had in this version of The Ladykillers than the original, because at times it resembles an old silent comedy.

The gang works well as an ensemble, although Wayans' streetwise wiseacre doesn't quite work within the film's odd sense of timelessness.

Hall brings a comic formidableness to her role, but as such isn't as effective as the pocket battleship that was little Katie Johnson in the original.

Hanks, though, has a ball as Professor Dorr, wrapping his tongue around the dialogue like a hungry lion faced with a stricken wildebeest, and just stopping short of giving us a moustache-twiddling pantomime villain.

If comparisons must be made, The Ladykillers Mark I will always be best but there is a lot of mileage to be had out of the tribute to it that is Mark II.

OUT! rating: 7 out of 10

Film writer Stephen Webb reviews THE LADYKILLERS

Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma Hall

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Certificate: 15

Running time: 103mins

Showing from today at: UGC and Cineworld, Swindon