Saw this way back on opening day so that I could write about it here on the site. It’s been more than a couple of weeks and I’m just now getting to it. This should tell you something about Andrew Dominik’s third film in the last dozen years. I didn’t think much of it and havn’t thought much about it since. It’s not a bad film, just not a good one. Nothing to write home about, but here I write anyway.

Killing Them Softly is a little art house film that just happens to have Brad Pitt in it. The trailer is misleading. It’s not the quick witted, snappy edited criminal study you might have been led to believe it would be. It’s a very slow burn with an all male cast (there is a female who plays a hooker and has a few short lines). Such a slow burn in fact that I felt like I was watching a television series at times and had just tuned into a random midseason episode. Maybe I’d have an affinity for the characters had I spent a few weeks or a few full seasons with them, but here I did not.

It was great to see Ray Liota again and James Gandolfini was the film’s strongest point as a heavy drinking, aged hitman from Cleveland.

In the end it was not much more than a very violent and very small independent allegory that we get hit over the head with time and time again. Watch Dominik’s first film Chopper instead.

Could Watch 3 0f 5

Anderson 12/2012

Rating Legend

Must Watch = 5 0f 5 (See it in the theater if possible/buy it or pay for rental)

Should Watch = 4 of 5 (Worth sending away for)

Could Watch = 3 of 5 (If it’s on a pay channel or streaming for free)

Should Not Watch = 2 of 5 (Only if friends or family insist)

Do Not Watch = 1 of 5 (Don’t allow friends or family make this mistake)

 

Posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2012 at 4:24 am and is filed under Reviews.
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