Review of Killing Them Softly (2012) by Joshua V — 01 Jun 2013

Killing Them Softly, I'm a bit conflicted on what to say - its a good movie.....not great. But I did enjoy seeing Brad Pitt play a bad guy. He pulls it off with a cool, calm, charisma, that I can't recall I've ever seen him play in another role. And I suppose this film could be characterized as another entry into the mob genre....but Goodfellas it is not.

The rest of the cast is decent and I thought James Gandolfini was excellent as the hard drinking, washed out hit man who knows he is merely a reflection of his former self. But what bothered me the most about this film is its pace. It started out slow and I wasn't quite sure what I was in for. After about 25 minutes, the movie found its stride and it took off. It just took entirely too much time to get there. At a short run time just over 90 minutes, Killing Them Softly felt like it was looking for ways to fill the time.

So with that, I'll say this - it was good...not great. I probably wouldn't see it again. But Pitt's performance makes it worth it.