Killing Them Softly

[baumer]

Discuss

[acab]

I saw it. I was really excited about it but i was disappointed. It's really well acted and has some funny and some powerful scenes but the movie just drags and drags in search of a plot. It could easily be about 30 minutes long. It wants to make a statement about the US economy and the parallels between the US goverment and the mob and it does it from the beginning until the end. Some may find it too much. I didn't mind and i thought it was an interesting idea but aside from that the movie had zero plot. Gadolfini's role didn't make much sense to me. And the way it's shot is pretty distracting. Too much style and slow motion but too little actual plot.

[DeeCee]

Bump

[The Toymaker]

:rofl:baumer made both threads too!

[Michael Gary Scott]

I enjoyed it but felt it could of been longer. I liked the pitt and jenkins scenes.

[4815162342]

The fact that this got a F cinemascore pretty much undermines the credibility of Cinemascore in general.

A-

[baumer]

This is the kind of film where actors like Brad Pitt must think they are smarter than us. This film, like Babel, are the kinds of films that most audiences will hate because they are boring and they drag and they are really pointless in so many ways. There is a scene in Babel where the maid is at a Mexican wedding and they show about 10 minutes of the band playing. 10 minutes of a Mexican band playing. Why? Why as an audience do we care about this? It does nothing to futher the story. It's just filler. Jame Gandolfini is the Mexican band in this film. He is all filler and his entire character could have been eliminated and the story would have moved along much better. But what we get here is a sad, drunk, whooring hitman crying over his wife leaving him. That's his whole character. He drinks, bangs prostitutes and talks about things that no one in the audience cares about. At one point he starts talking about going goose hunting with Tommy and how he almost got arrested because he had guns in his trunk. This story goes on for about 5 minutes. WTF does this have to do with the rest of the story? The entire film meanders like this and it didn't need to. The script should have been much tighter.Then there is the ostensible commentary on the state of the US. But this is all told through loud radios and televisions. By the time Obama had been elected, I wanted to leave. KMS has some good elements to it. Brad Pitt is fantastic as the hitman who is cold blooded but would rather kill you from a distance than up close, if at all possible. And some of the script is humorous. But overall the film is way too bloated to be considered a good film.4/10

[4815162342]

The whole point of James Gandolfini's character is to act as a metaphor for the U.S. banking system/economy circa 2008. His character New York Mickey was considered to be an icon, a rock-solid pillar in the hitman world who could be relied to get any job done. But then he suddenly collapses in ability and presence because he loses self-control and makes super risky decisions that wind up digging his hole even deeper, until he loses all value. New York Mickey was "too big to fail." Except he did.Furthermore, the dead end subplot with Mickey reinforces the theme Pitt's rant at the end hammers home: The world isn't optimistic and a community, it's dog-eat-dog and you can only rely on yourself to get things done.

[baumer]

The whole point of James Gandolfini's character is to act as a metaphor for the U.S. banking system/economy circa 2008. His character New York Mickey was considered to be an icon, a rock-solid pillar in the hitman world who could be relied to get any job done. But then he suddenly collapses in ability and presence because he loses self-control and makes super risky decisions that wind up digging his hole even deeper, until he loses all value. New York Mickey was "too big to fail." Except he did.Furthermore, the dead end subplot with Mickey reinforces the theme Pitt's rant at the end hammers home: The world isn't optimistic and a community, it's dog-eat-dog and you can only rely on yourself to get things done.

And that's interesting that you got that out of the character. But for the average movie goer, they will not. I am an average movie goer.

[4815162342]

Well I am sorry you feel that way.I'm curious now to see what the original 150-minute cut of the film was like before they shaved over a 1/3 off for Cannes.

[Jack Nevada]

I'm curious now to see what the original 150-minute cut of the film was like before they shaved over a 1/3 off for Cannes.

I think it was just useless to release this mutilated version in the theaters. I want to see the 150 minute version too

[TheMovieman]

I think it was just useless to release this mutilated version in the theaters. I want to see the 150 minute version too

 

I'm surprised they didn't for the Blu-ray release. I guess if it was distributed by Universal or Fox it would have...

[mattmav45]

I was pretty disappointed with this.

 

I enjoyed it to an extent, but felt there was a battle between straight crime drama and political commentary that damn near destroyed the whole film.  I would be on board with the political commentary if it was more at the forefront and done in a more interesting manner, but it seemed when ever I would get into the story, the political talk would begin.

 

It just felt too uneven and unfocused, and after Jesse James, I was expecting something a little different.  

 

Still, not a complete failure.

[Jack Nevada]

The biggest chain of movie rental stores advertises this as "full of action and excitement". LMAO

[Goffe]

While I don't agree with the political message (I despise it), the film is well acted and really really well filmed, it never feels slow paced and most of the scenes were tense as hell B+ (85)