A Coen Brothers movie is normally a sure shot success. So, why, despite hilarious moments and good performances, does "The Ladykillers" feel like a network time killer while Joel and Ethan Coen perfect the script for their next masterpiece?

Based on the 1955 comedy of the same name starring Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers, the Coens' "Ladykillers" stars Tom Hanks as a gentlemanly southern professor on sabbatical for a year to rehearse with his band of renaissance musicians. At least that's the line he feeds to sweet old Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), who lives in a small Mississippi town whose church-going population is balanced by the glitzy riverboat casino that reaps countless millions.

Munson has a room to rent in her big old Victorian house, especially now that her husband has passed away, although his stern visage peers down watchfully from above the mantel.

How she doesn't smell trouble right away when Professor G. H. Dorr brings his band of misfits into the house for reheasal is a mystery.

Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans) is a hip-hop loving casino janitor. The General (Tzi Ma) is a frightful Eastern presence who has no trouble sucking a lit cigarette into his mouth to hide it from the anti-smoking Munson. Lunp Hudson (Ryan Hurst) is the prototypical lunk-headed jock and Garth Pancake (J. K. Simmons), who has explosives expertise ... well, sort of.

This sorry band of thieves is planning to hit the casino's safe to the tune of millions of dollars. It looks like their plan is a success, except that they've got to hide their tracks and, hardest of all, they've got to make sure that Marva Munson doesn't foil their escape.

But is that all they need to worry about? Can they trust each other?

It's hard to find a duff performance in the bunch, although Hanks' pitch-perfect Colonel Sanders persona, through no fault of his own, feels well-worn by now.

The gags are funny, the script is good and feels a lot like, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" So, why doesn't this feel like a full serving? Perhaps it's the predictability. Maybe it's that a lot of the characterizations seem a little tired.

Anyway, go see it. You'll laugh for 90 minutes and maybe sometimes we shouldn't ask for anything more.

"The Ladykillers" opens Friday, March 26.