Review of Killing Them Softly (2012) by Michaeldn — 30 Nov 2012

It wouldn't be fair for me to give this a negative review, or even an average one. It was well constructed, and well acted. What got me to see this movie, as I was originally on the fence, was the fact that people were comparing it to Drive, one of my favorite movies of last year.

Upon seeing it, I can understand the comparisons, but I don't agree. It is setup in a similar way to Drive. It's a slow building, slow paced movie, with a few scenes that are sure to create excitement.

I think if you just liked Drive out of sheer entertainment and nothing else, you might like this movie for the same reasons, although it is not as strong in that area as Drive. What it didn't have at all, which Drive did have, was brilliant character development, a thought provoking theme, and beautiful emotional power throughout.

If that's the kind of thing you liked from Drive, I would say this movie doesn't cut it. We don't learn enough about the characters to care about them, and while the story line is somewhat entertaining, if you like movies that are a bit slow, it doesn't have a brilliant script artistically, and so if you were expecting this to be this powerful art house movie, you might be disappointed.

I'd say overall, it's a movie well constructed to achieve entertainment only, and that's only if you don't mind the pacing.