Review of Killing Them Softly (2012) by Spangle — 29 Jul 2014

Killing Them Softly is a solid film, but certainly not a good film. The acting is very good here, especially from Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, and Ray Liotta. James Gandolfini is also particularly strong in this one.

The direction from Andrew Dominik is very good and the violent sequences are very well directed and the effects put on the shots are very cool to look at. In addition, the political overtones are handled well and the message here is quite clear at the end: screw capitalism.

However, beyond all that, the film struggles. The length is just perfect at 90 minutes, because I simply could not imagine it going on any longer. There is a ton of dialogue, but some of it is just honestly not relevant (a good chunk of the dialogue between Pitt and Gandolfini was spent on hookers, which is largely inconsequential and could have been shortened significantly).

The dialogue that has more of an application to the film is interesting, well written, and well acted, but the repeated tangents on things that do not have a huge impact is annoying and, as I said, a waste of time.

In addition, even with the plot being pretty intriguing, there is just not much going on here. You get what you get and there is not much you are receiving, which is a bummer for sure. Overall, I was not expecting a ton and I did not get a ton either.

The acting is great and the direction very good, but I just wish there was something else I could cling onto for this one.