Geofferson

Did the studio commission Olly Moss to do these posters?

RichC2

New trailer:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oJGfnSm7dHs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Shorter version of the original trailer, still has the best scene ("Goes up like a bond fire, you're gonna love it!")

Tarantino

Bonfire. Unless a secret agent is burning.

Osiris3657

At 81% on RT and 64/100 on Metacritic.

Consensus:
Killing Them Softly is a darkly comic and sometimes brutally visceral film that succeeds on the strengths of its punchy dialogue and a solid performance from Brad Pitt, even if its message is a bit muddy.


Ebert didn't like it. 2 out of 4 stars

PopcornTreeCt

Seeing it Saturday.

IIG

I liked it, but it had to be the most straight forward movie I've seen in my life! That's if it is to be taken at face value anyway. And finally, can Brad Pitt do any wrong?

Troy Stiffler

Uh oh. I last said that about Panic Room. I remember expecting something to mess with my head, and it turned out to be completely straight forward.

Anyways, I'm seeing it because of Dominick/Chopper/Jesse James. No way would I miss the Jesse James followup.

chaz k

I really enjoyed this. Is it a instant classic gangster film? No, but it has a little bit of everything that fans of this genre will enjoy. I could of done without all of the political stuff that seemed out of place and forced, but absolutely a first day purchase for me when it hits dvd.

bluetoast

How is Gandolfini?

GatorDeb

This is the 11th movie I see since the 29th of October. This is the first that totally sucked. It was just boring and moved slowly. Don't have any particular criticism, I just wasn't entertained.

Osiris3657

I liked it, but I can see why others wouldn't. It's a very slow burn, even though the run time is barely over 90 minutes. It felt like a 2+ hour movie.

The acting was 1st class and the dialogue entertaining. Lots of good lines.

That being said, I felt there were alot of unnecessary scenes of pure dialogue that didn't advance the storyline. They served no purpose or developed the characters. It was just guys shooting the shit, so to speak.

The cityscape was also very predictable for this kind of movie. It's always grey, wet, cold and rainy. It's an ugly, ghetto side of town. It's too much of a cliche.

Also I didn't care for all the political messages. Every TV or radio is tuned into the 2008 election.

In conclusion it's a very slow moving crime thriller with terrific acting and dialogue, but the directing and editing could have used work.

Grade: B-

Dr. DVD

Saw it. Agree with Osiris for the most part. Pitt and Gandolfini were awesome, but everyone else I couldn't have cared less about, despite the good dialogue.

Question:



Side note: I have never seen red band trailers play in front of movies before, but for this one I saw two. One was for Django Unchained with the Tarantino introduction, and the other for Hansel and Gretel. Have they decided to start playing these more widely?

dino88

Yeah, he was played by Sam Shepard. He was in the flashback scene where they went to rough up Marky in the trailer.

PopcornTreeCt

Saw this today and it was okay. Huge step down from "Jesse James".

Dr. DVD

Oh, he was the guy in the sunglasses. Thought the actor looked familiar, but couldn't place him.

Arpeggi

Good political message!

Supermallet

This was a well directed, well written, well acted film that felt rather pointless. When the movie ended I couldn't figure out why the filmmakers felt the need to tell that particular story. It didn't say anything particularly important or interesting. I agree with many points in the Cannes review. It's too on the nose with too little going on otherwise. It's a shame, because there's a lot to like about the movie, but it doesn't add up to anything.

DeanoBKN

According to an article on Deadline.com, Killing Them Softly scored a horrible F rating from CinemaScore, ranking it next to masterpieces such as The Devil Inside, The Box, Solaris. Bug, Wolf Creek, Silent House, and The Darkness.

Now, just looking at some of the titles on that list (Bug, Solaris, maybe even The Box) It's obvious those scores are just from people who didn't do research on a film before buying a ticket. I'm ok with the shitty horror movies on that list.

But for this movie to receive an F? I don't get it. It wasn't marketed wrong, like Bug was. It had an all-star cast, and the plot wasn't confusing like Solaris or The Box. What went wrong?

I personally loved it. Great performances, well directed, and good dialogue. Can't wait to own the Blu-Ray.

PopcornTreeCt

Well, I wasn't expecting 90 minutes of dialogue and only 5 minutes of action. Apparently, I wasn't alone with those expectations. That dialogue would've been fine if it was about mobsters musing about the meanings of Madonna songs or about how they don't use the metric system in France. Alas, it was mostly rambling about characters we never met. The political stuff, as someone mentioned earlier, seemed forced. I still cannot think of how it tied to the movie. Economic crisis, government bailed out the banks instead of the people, I get it, but what does that have to do with anything?

IIG

Wolf Creek got a F? It's one of the best and most memorable horror experiences I've seen in years. And Killing Them Softly deserves at the very lowest a C. Thanks for educating me on CinemaScore.

inri222

GatorDeb

I do think it was badly marketed, from the trailer I got the vibe, Action Movie. I think you have to be very careful when making a dialogue-driven movie since the format is mostly visually/action driver (and not necessarily shooting action, but something actually happening). My Dinner With Andre makes it work. Killing Them Softly doesn't.

Ash Ketchum

Box Office Guru weighs in on the film's disappointing boxoffice:

http://www.boxofficeguru.com/weekend.htm

Dr. DVD

While the movie is flawed, I will say I attribute this more to the fact that people simply aren't in the mood for something like this at this time of year.

Troy Stiffler

I thought that the characters and performances were a lot of fun. I liked the stuff with the 2008 elections. It really didn't have too much to say. But it was there. Don't expect a movie with a heavy message.

It's easy to get tired of these kinds of 'crime' movies. Just like cop movies, or "Die Hard on a ..." movies, it got old.

I didn't like seeing stylistic choices jammed in there. I like it when a movie decides on a style, and goes with it. Scenes like the heroin scene just didn't mix well with the "Killing Them Softly" scenes (which I really liked). Jesse James had one heavy, singular stylistic choice. This movie goes in a few different directions. It results in kind of a clunky movie.

Overall, a really good, fun movie to watch. Really, the interesting characters are the best part here. The plot is just enough to move that along. And it doesn't have that style that leaves you with a sunken heartbeat (the way Jesse James did ... that movie kicks the shit out of me).