Tom Hanks takes over the professor role that Guinness played in the original 1955 movie and the location switches from smoggy London to Mississippi.

Eccentric music professor-cum-criminal mastermind, Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr wants to rob the land based vault of a New Orleans riverboat casino by tunneling into it.

So he and the four other members of his little 'ro-co-co' quintet rent the cellar from Hanks' little old landlady, Mrs Munson (Hall) - and, of course, whilst she thinks they are rehearsing, they are, in fact, digging.

But, when the gang are forced to remove Mrs M from the equation, they can't see that what they're really dealing with is a good old fashioned, paid up, God-fearing, watched-over force of nature.

Like Alec Guinness in the original, Hanks (who claims he's never seen the predecessing film) has a whole host of mannerisms which you'll either love or loathe.

Irma P Hall does a wonderful job of bringing Mrs Munson to life - with her hatred of smoking and that "hippedy hop music that uses the N word".

With the exception of Marlon Wayans, the rest of the gang are a better-than-average bunch of cookie-cutter crooks - but, hey, this is a Coen Brothers movie, so it's the fabulous attention to detail that stops it coming in as an also-ran.

What details? The music (again, they've used the brilliant T Bone Burnett to take care of the excellent soundtrack), the cat, the dog and the big 'ol Mississippi itself.

A lot of movie reviewers - both here and in the US - seem to have a problem with this film.

Maybe the Coens should have just called it something else and referenced the original in the credits. But, then again, maybe reviewers should just get over it and pray to the good Lord that all classic movies get remade this well.

This is a cracking little caper movie - Greg Dean Schmitz over at Yahoo Movies calls it "a cross between Ocean's Eleven and Small Time Crooks" and, you know, I can't think of a better way of putting it.

Go see it.

Mike Taylor