Killing Them Softly (2012)'s comments

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The_Comatorium

http://thoughtsfromthebooth.com/2013/11/10/film-review-killing-them-softly-2012/

My Review

10 years 5 months ago

sammysin

Not even the studly Pitt could save this one.

11 years 2 months ago

This was a giant whiff of a miss, though one that I could still appreciate and even enjoy certain aspects of. What hit for me was the overall realistic approach with intermittent bursts of heavily stylized violence (action sequences usually put me to sleep, but in this movie they woke me up). I also enjoyed the setting, which felt almost post-apocalyptic and so had somewhat of a fantastical effect considering the film took place in the recent past.

What missed for me was the terribly bland, needlessly vulgar dialogue. Also the story was way too small potatoes for me to care about and become immersed in. If you're going to zoom in that far close on a premise so inconsequential, then you need to have more things going on and an overall more elaborate/well-pieced plot. If you're going to take a minimalist approach, that's fine, but then you need more interesting nuances.

I did enjoy the political commentary, but the parallels between it and the main plot did not track smoothly together and I nearly cringed when the director tried to bring it all home at the end. Not to say that the line/message wasn't powerful, it just didn't connect naturally to everything that had taken place throughout.

11 years 4 months ago

daisyaday

aka "Killing Them Softly"

11 years 8 months ago

sixteenmiles

https://16miles.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/killing-them-softly-2012/

Killing Them Softly is a film that showed brief (emphasis on brief) moments of being something greater than it was. If it had a braver editor. It’s not a long film, clocking in at 97 minutes. But so much of that was aimless, meandering dialogue that should be dead on the cutting room floor.

When the film does hit, it hits hard. There are some powerful visual scenes. A brutal beating in a rainy car park. A drive-by execution. A drifting, kaleidoscopic heroin interrogation. But these are the gems in a rough of film that is unsure about what it is, and what it wants to be.

In the end it’s hard to feel like the film is not trying to cash in on your nostalgia for the better performances of it’s actors. Pitt, Liotta, Gandolfini. It’s a patchwork, cut together from pieces of crime films past. Hard to feel like you haven’t seen the film before in it’s contemporaries. Reminiscent of other modern crime films; Revolver (Another Liotta piece) or Lucky Number Slevin. But they are smarter and braver and have a more cohesive style.

Killing Them Softly is a film unsure of itself. And it’s noticeable.

8 years 11 months ago

piratediscoking

Well-made if not mostly insubstantial.

10 years 4 months ago

Gershwin

I'm with Thorkell here.

10 years 11 months ago

TomReagan

Very underrated crime film. As I expected (after watching Assassination of Jesse James...), it’s a character study (of various types/levels of criminals) and not an action-packed heist or shoot-em-up crime film. I enjoyed it more than I expected. Was so nice to see James Gondolfini again (I didn’t know he was in this), and he’s fantastic.

3 years 6 months ago

CinemaDump

Killing Them Softly is basically a combination of a whole bunch of crime TV series or movie films all mashed together. It's pretty slow, plodding and it does a lot of talking. At times it feels like there isn't really anything going on but Killing Them Softly delivers something worthwhile in the end if you give it a chance.

A very strong cast has been assembled here. Brad Pitt brings a dark persona onto the screen and he has help from the always reliable Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, as well as Scoot McNairy among others. I remember Scoot back from Monsters and I really liked his performance here. Gandolfini brings his usual form from The Sopranos and Ray Liotta is basically playing Henry Hill from Goodfellas in a spin-off movie. If you're trying to make a crime movie though, you can't really go wrong with this bunch.

The story starts with Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola) contracting Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) and Frankie (Scoot McNairy) to rob a poker ring. It then follows Jackie (Brad Pitt) trying to find those responsible for the hit. There's a lot of talking like I said which can get dull but the dialogue is pretty good all the same if you're listening. It's based off of a novel called Coogan's Trade by George V. Higgins and is probably a very talky book itself.

Personally I find there are some pretty interesting story lines here. The characters are interesting if a little uninspired and there are some really tense moments that make Killing Them Softly worth watching. The heist scene in particular is a great one. Ben Mendelsohn's character Russell is as gross as he is despicable and he is offset by McNairy's character who seems like a decent enough guy. Crime is a black and white thing though without any mercy. Killing Them Softly makes that abundantly clear.

Killing Them Softly also has some interesting things to say about capitalism. It's set during the 2008 US elections with the recession making all the headlines. The movie features lots of footage and soundbites from Barrack Obama and George W. Bush from the time which adds an interesting layer to the film.

Despite the title and seemingly excessive talking, Killing Them Softly is a very violent movie. Not only visually but audibly as well. It's blunt, brutal and to the point as I imagine real murders are. It's not pretty and shouldn't be. The violence here is justified in this case, not just glorified.

Yes, Killing Them Softly has a lot of dialogue but it delivers on its promise. It's a visceral and stylish attempt at creating a good crime/thriller. It's doesn't have the dialogue chops like Pulp Fiction for example but I don't think it's necessarily going for that. KTS holds it own and is worth a watch.

7/10

9 years 11 months ago

Earring72

Dissapointed!!!! Was expecting a lot more, but lack of story and just moves along. Some stylished violent shots and Brad Pitt can safe this movie.

11 years 2 months ago

MrDoog

Occasionally you watch a movie with only a very vague idea of what it's about and get a really pleasant surprise. Other times you watch a movie with only a vague idea but have inexplicably high expectations and end up getting a huge disappointment. Unfortunately this movie is the latter.

It seems that this film latches onto a theme and then beats its audience in the head with it over and over, rather than using subtlety and making, you know, a good movie, which would in turn have delivered the message more effectively. I was surprised there wasn't any neon flashing signs in the backgrounds outlining the "message" of this flick in case we missed it the first 247 times.

Two words - Boring & contrived

11 years 2 months ago