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Definitely Not Anywhere Near a Classic

Author: siliconvalyguy from San Jose, CA
30 November 2012
 

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I actually had no idea what to expect from 'Killing Them Softly', as I'd not seen any trailers or heard any gossip or chatter about it online. So, I guess you could say I sincerely went in with no preconceptions or prejudices for or against this film. That said, it was simply one of the worst filmgoing experiences I've had this past year. The story that the movie started with and the two thieves involved in the card room heist were honestly the most interesting thing about the movie, but it was obvious that they were there as a backdrop (excuse) to bring in Brad Pitt's enforcer. Between Pitt's completely lackluster performance, James Gandolfini's weird drunken pervert of a hit man, and Richard Jenkins' worthless mob lawyer, they managed to suck the air out of every single scene they were on screen. I readily admit that I actually found myself falling asleep and then both wanting to walk out, while hoping there would be a much better ending to make up for the previous 100 minutes of stupidity. There is absolutely no redeeming quality within this movie. And the added inclusion of multiple scenes or audio of Barack Obama's election in 2008--Pitt is a MAJOR Obama supporter--were both odd and seemingly had nothing to do with the plot whatsoever, so they just made the movie drag that much more. I won't give away the ending or what happens to whom, but I honestly should, just to save all of you the pain of sitting through this horrible excuse for a paycheck for Brad Pitt.

Author: spelman-andrew from Dublin
29 September 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I left the cinema three quarters the way through this film.....never had to do that before. It dragged on and on and on. The endless dialog that had nothing to do with the film was infuriating to say the least. At one point James Gandolfini talks about getting a divorce from his wife for a good ten minutes which is completely pointless and has no relevance to the story line at all. This is just one example of a constant series of ridiculous conversations that the film is riddled with. Throughout the film they seem to have some sort of political undercurrent in the background between George Bush and Barack O Bama which I couldn't get my head around. Whether Brad Pitt was trying to get across his political views or what was going on is anyone's guess. I have no problem with the acting in this film....what I can't understand is why Prad Pitt and Ray Liotta (both accomplished and celebrated actors) agreed to do this film. Please save your money and time and don't go!

Author: l m from United States
1 December 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This was horrible. I wish I had known I was walking into a movie with an entire soundtrack composed of Obama campaign speeches. James Gandolfini's character was pointless. The shooting of Ray Liotta was the only good part, ironically the film died with his character. The murder scenes were well done, but very predictable. If you barely follow any real plot, provide an awful soundtrack, and push politics, you could consider being kind enough to provide your bored-to-death audience with some gratuitous nudity. Unfortunately, even the one hooker in the movie was unattractive and a little too fat for Hollywood. If you are considering this just turn on C-SPAN and beat your head against the floor for two hours. The end result will be the same. The constant anti-corporate rhetoric spewed by overpaid actors is getting old. If you are going to push some personal political agenda, at least do so in the context of a film that is moderately entertaining.

Author: smooth_surface23
27 September 2012

This movie was so bad, I decided to create an IMDb account finally and hopefully save other people from being duped by the positive reviews.

Simply put, this is a movie that never needed to be made. There is almost no story to it and what little story there is is told in a horribly long and drawn out way. This includes lots of conversations between characters that have absolutely no relevance to the plot among other things. One of the biggest pointless inclusions in this movie is the frequent clips of Bush & Obama credit crunch speeches that are spliced in virtually everywhere in this film. Although the movie is set right around 2008, there's no relevance to the story at all and it's almost like Brad Pitt is trying to make a political point but isn't really clear on what the point is. I'm confident they could've edited this down to a short story and told us the entire story in 10 minutes and it would've been enjoyable. Instead, it was 90 minutes of waiting for it to get going. I don't need big action to keep my simple mind entertained, but I do like my movies to have a good plot and a sense of movement. Lawless for instance doesn't move incredibly fast, but you are glued the whole time. This movie has none of it and I was not surprised at all to see 3 people walk out just over half way through as I was thinking of doing the same thing myself.

I really like Brad Pitt and I would struggle to think of a bad movie he's been in up until this one came along. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone even if it's free. I only wish I could have the 90 minutes of my life back.

Author: John Smith from United States
11 December 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This was the most horrendous movie I saw in my life (I'm just a few years younger than Brad Pitt) and I'm not even picky. It was the first time I almost left the theater during a movie. I was bored to death most of the time just praying for the movie to be over. The only reason I stayed was because I was with friends and one of them was my ride. The movie is extremely slow with uselessly long scenes. The dialogues are definitely the worst ever, the over use of constant profanity is unnecessary, the story is poor and can be compressed in a 5 minutes short amateur movie and the actors are less than impressive. I left the cinema feeling ripped off and cheated.

Author: rico_87 from United Kingdom
13 August 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

looked a decent film when advertised at the cinema and duped me into watching once out on Blueray......... a complete waste of 90 minutes!! the story promised much, like the tense robbery of the card game and from that point stretches on into nothingness, the James Gandolfini character is beyond pointless and the constant reverberation of the Bush/Obama speeches throughout makes no sense or relevance to the film at all. I actually created an IMDb account purely to review this dross and try and save people from wasting their time, for people that are actively trying to waste there time I'd suggest the following activities as massively more satisfying......watching grass grow, watching paint dry or counting clouds.

Author: e from United States Minor Outlying Islands
31 December 2012

It is very hard to imagine that anyone would make this story into a movie, especially Brad Pitt, or Liotta or Gandolfini except for one reason.Pay me the money! The same way the movie ends. That was probably the best part of the film.

Not only is the premise just plain stupid but the whole story is like a bad episode of Sopranos except they spent 18 million + on the budget of this film that should have cost maybe 2 million like HIt and Run.. except of course.. the actors had to be paid top dollar.

Remove these actors and you have a b movie with a stupid story that nobody would sit through and it would be a total flop. Hopefully the director will pick a better story next time as he looks like he has some potential especially since Dominik did a decent job on Chopper... but this was embarrassing. If you are going to make a movie at least make it something meaningful that is at least entertaining instead of just more gratuitous violence about nothing. This genre is finished except for Tarantino who at least has creative misguided violent genius, and hope Pitt will follow his wife's footsteps and do more meaningful projects instead of this hack pay job. Truly pathetic. I gave it a 1 since there is no zero.

Author: estarx
30 December 2012

This has to be the WORST film of 2012 I wanted to sleep 20mins into this film. Pointless talking in this film. The actors I wonder what possessed them to do this film. Brad Pitt is surely on his way out. I will NOT post any spoilers because it surely ain't worth it. I was with my friend and people just started leaving one by one because it was that terrible. I fell asleep. If I saw this movie alone I would have left as well. How this film has a 6.9 meta score is beyond me. There are some scenes that are so so and that's about the only entertaining thing. The trailer is very misleading, totally misleading. This should have never been made. Any actor/ actress that has this film credited to their name will never leave the shame of this film

Author: foolath from Bahrain
7 December 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I went to the movie but did not understand what was going on. I mean the whole boring conversations they were having, it was like some one come and hit me with a hammer I can't stay here anymore. The way Brad Pitt was acting was so bad, that all they focused on in the movie was his hair and wrinckly face. This guy should never act and he has destroyed his acting career by choosing this movie, I guess angelina jolie adopted so many children the guy had to choice. Save your money for another movie, if you have 90 minutes to waste. I don't think i was the only one who thaught this way, cause almost everyone left the cinema in the first 30 minutes.

Author: nathanblyth300 from NZ
18 December 2012

This film is just drawn out - ultra boring, and to make it worse offers an overdose of preachy political propaganda for US elections - Seriously the amalgamation of such is unnecessary for entertainment sake or even the plot. The undertones that they all drive Pontiacs (US manufactured doomed from the recession) to the background radio blaring continuous political debates grows tiresome after the first 20mins. Being foreign and not completely clued up with US debates, I'm still somewhat uncertain if the director was Anti Obama - but the punch line at the end was "America is a business - bitch" seems like the whole conclusion the director/writer/Brad Pitt wanted to make, and resonates Pro-Romy nuances. The plot otherwise is nothing short of dull, with the only entertaining aspects reiterated in the trailer. Best avoided!