Killing Them Softly (2012)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

It's one of the most original films you'll likely see all year, which, depending on your threshold for certifiably crazy storylines, could be a rewarding experience or one that frustrates you.

The first must-see film of the year.

What a great movie!! I will start with that. And I've seen a lot of movies over the years. And frankly after 2001 I'm not impressed. The movies have got too corporate and the acting is always... eh. I notice this movie didn't really have any female actors in it, unless your count the hooker. And she was short lived. But wow I was in a surprise with this movie. No bad acting. The acting was great all over the board. This just what I like to see in movies. Violence to the point where its subtle and truly unexpected but expected. You knew somebody was going to killed, heck you may even predicted they are going to get killed but by who and how sometimes eluded me. I know some people will be turned off by the politics in this but I kind of liked it. The director tied it in to the movie. I guess people come to reviews to get a real detail of what they are going to see and its really nothing surprising. It's a mob movie, great acting, cussing and some famous actors. Thats it, but its about two guys who hit s table full of poker players which is ran by the mob. And mob wants people to die for it. There really is nothing to give away. You have to watch how it unravels. And to be honest it has a boon dock saints feel to it.I almost gave it an 8 but there was no women in this and it would have added to the story instead of one alcoholic telling about his struggles. I know some people maybe left dangling at the end but I felt it was completed. I honestly think this movie didn't make much do to advertisement. I lot of movies really don't advertise right. If you want to watch a great movie with some interesting twist, this is it.

Critics loved it, audiences felt indifferent and so I went in extremely open minded not knowing what to expect. I came out surprised, I wanted a decent crime thriller and I received a viscerally charged violent drama that contained all the excessive character dialogue from 'Pulp Fiction' mixed with some extreme gore. During America's recent economic recession, two guys are hired to steal money from an illegal poker game. In doing so, they have angered higher powers who send a hitman to to deal with the situation and find the men responsible. Immediately from the opening sequence, with the intrusive score and scene switching, I knew I was in for a different style of film. Dominik has an eye for stylising every sequence. A short car chase in the downpour of rain, panning through fireworks and smoke, an ultra slow motion shootout...perhaps slightly excessive however it never once let me go. The directing techniques take over and elevate a substandard crime thriller into a much more memorable flick. All the performances were great (particularly Gandolfini), portraying low-rent thugs and mobsters in a barren suburban environment. Which reminds me, the setting of America that is illustrated has never looked so bleak, it felt barren almost reminiscent of abandonment. Clearly an artistic choice to convey the political message that this drama is shrouded in. A statement or an attack, Dominik's screenplay unfortunately doesn't utilise the recession as a purpose for these characters. They aren't motivated because of the economic climate, more so that it's just a current situation that you acknowledge in the background. It's only really at its conclusion that the characters address Obama and his idealistic desire for unity. It just seemed like a wasted plot device. The pacing was slightly uneven also, infrequent violence could not balance out the sheer amount of dialogue which enhanced the character development. Despite these negatives, I thoroughly enjoyed this gritty crime thriller.

The biggest gripe I have with this movie is that it feels like emptiness has been blown up with more emptiness. Don't make the mistake I made and watch it till the end because your patience won't be rewarded.What you will get a lot is: people sitting in cars making meaningless, boring and unrelated (to the plot of the movie) conversation most of the time. All the transition scenes filled with political talk (for the most part from Bush) doesn't add anything to the movie either. what an amazing failure. the only thing this movie has to offer are some great slow motion scenes of people being beat up or shot and great acting that is blown away by irrelevance.I can not follow the arguments being made in favor of this movie: - that it is comparable to an old classic. (it is not. that would be an insult to those classics!) - that it has Tarantino style dialogues. (absolutely not! it is lenghty like Tarantino but that's all it is, whilst Tarantino delivers) - that it is gritty or dark. (nope...)very disappointing movie but great acting.

What can I really say about Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly. Well, my bosses named our site after it, and judging by our ongoing excellent taste in film (hehe), the namesake of our moniker should be a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece, a slow burning, truly clever crime yarn that slightly deconstructs the genre, sets it's story at a pivitol time in American history, and has some of the most hard hitting, intimate scenes of violence I've seen on film. Dominik takes his sweet damn time getting to know these characters before any bloodshed occurs, and when it does, it's a visceral affront to the senses, pulveruzing us with a very un-cinematic, realistic and entirely ugly vision of violence. Ray Liotta plays Markie, an illegal gambling official who once robbed one of his own games, subsequently boasting about it like a chump. When another of his outfits is knocked off by two scrappy losers (Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot Mcnairy) logic dictates that it must be him playing games again, and his superiors send a merry troupe of thugs to find him. The matter is overseen by Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) a slick, sophisticated killer who prefers to 'kill them softly', in other words, from a distance and with little pleading or fuss. He is employed by "" (an awesome Richard Jenkins), a businessman sort who isn't above haggling for the price of a killer's contract down to the very last dime. You see, the film is set during the 2008 financial crisis, and Dominik takes every opportunity he can to fill his frames with debris, dereliction and strife. Even in a world of criminals the blow to the economy is felt, and they too must adjust accordingly. Cogan brings in outsider Mickey (James Gandolfini), an aging wash up who spends more time swearing , boozing and whoring up a storm than he does getting any work done. Gandolfini ingeniously sends up his capable Tony Soprano character with this bizarro world rendition on the Italian hoodlum, a fat, lazy layabout with bitter shades of the threatening figure he must once of been. Before all this happens, though, we are treated to extended interludes spent with Mendelsohn and Mcnairy, and they both knock it out of the park with their shambling, sweaty, reprehensible presence. Mendelsohn is endlessly watchable, muttering his slovenly dialogue through a curtain of heroin and sleaze. Watch for a tiny, super random cameo from Sam Shepherd as a thug who hassles Liotta. There's a beatdown sequence, and you'll know when it comes, that pushes the limits to extremes. Every punch is felt like a meteor landing, leaving the victim and the viewer aghast. Dominik never throws gimmicks into his work here. Every scene is insistently unique, and the real hero is pacing. The film moves in fits, starts and eruptions with long flatlines in between, until our instinctual knowledge of a narrative truly is lost to the story, with no idea what will happen next. Genius.