Killing Them Softly (2012)

Absolutely the worst movie.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

"Killing Them Softly" is based on a 2012 novel, "Cogan's Trade," by George V. Higgins (1939-1999). Higgins was someone with a varied career and interests. He is best known for his crime novels. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (1970) was made into a blockbuster film of the same title in 1973, starring Robert Mitchum. Before his full-time fiction writing, Higgins worked as a reporter for the Boston Globe and Associated Press. And, before that he got a law degree and served in government positions working on organized crime. So, he clearly had the background and experience to write books on the subject. I haven't read his 2012 book by the same title as this film, and am not interested in doing so. I don't know if the movie follows the book, but the film is little more than a portrayal of one hardened, detached hit man killing three guys, one at a time. Brad Pit is the mob's hit man, Jackie Cogan. There's very little of interest in this movie – it's a running dialog between characters leading up to the "contract" being fulfilled. What acting there is isn't very good. I can't imagine the book holding anyone's interest if it was at all like the film. This is just another modern vulgar and dark film about characters living in the underworld. I can't imagine anyone enjoying this sort of stuff. It may be rated "R," but we know that it won't stop adolescents from watching it at home, with or without parents. So, to some kids this might just be a portrayal of how easy it is to kill someone. One would hope not, but that's about all the message this film had that I could find. It's too bad the stars who go back at least a couple decades don't shy away from stuff like this. They might try their hands at dramas or other films that require acting. Unfortunately, this film isn't a recommendation for Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins or Ray Liotta. It's another one I found in the cheap bin at the store, so I'm going to be more wary of such films in the future.

Killing Them Softly alludes various political messages regarding greed, violence, theft, dangerous entrepreneurship and irony. Unfortunately, the film portrays these elements very loosely without actually maintaining its concentration and identity. It was advertised as a dark thriller with an inflated mob-mentality story, but was revealed to be a mediocre deflated mob-mentality story with some inappropriate comedic elements.Despite the wonderful cinematography, soundtrack and acting from the cast, the film alone divided from these additions is an unexciting and shallow film adaptation of the 1974 novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins. Though changing the source material is a risky decision among any adaptation, it here however would've benefited for newcomers, fans, and would've possibly given the film more opportunities to indulge deeper in its political agenda.Instead, it sends disjointed and elongated messages that could've been memorable if were handled cleverly. The film shamelessly descends into an unfinished, unexciting, misguided and tedious experience for the audience. If the film allowed more character development and distance for less predictably dull outcomes, it would've been a superior product opposed to the novel.It's not terrible - but rather a slow and disappointing experience.

This film could have been so good. It has Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta in main roles, but it never really came together. I was vastly disappointed when I watched this.Firstly, I was severely disappointed with Gandolfini's contribution who hardly appears in this film, despite being a phenomenal actor who was one reason why the Sopranos was so good.I also felt that the film tried way too hard in being arty and the time and effort it put into this could have been better spent elsewhere.Maybe I'm being unfair, this film wasn't all bad. It was funny at times. It made me laugh on occasion. Once or twice. Once.Read my full review here: http://goo.gl/pFHffd

When I heard they'd made a movie based on Cogan's Trade, I was eager to see it even tho the cockamamie title put me off. I consider Friends of Eddie Coyle to be one of the all-time classic gangster films & always wondered why none of George V Higgins' other crime novels had ever made it to film. Most of Higgins' plot exposition emerges thru dialog anyhow, so his books seem ready-made for film.Killing Them Softly turned out to be not quite in the same league as Eddie Coyle, but it might have been if they hadn't tried to fix what wasn't broken. Admittedly, a large part of my dissatisfaction with many a movie stems from knowing the books they're based on. Having just re-read Cogan's Trade for maybe the 6th time or so, I knew the story inside out. That's always a problem when they base a movie on one of your favorite books: you've built up clear images of each character & setting in your mind. You also know what's coming next, which can rob the action of considerable impact. Still, if the book's good, you want to savor it on film.This was well cast & acted, with Brad Pitt as hit-man/fixer Jackie Cogan, James Gandolfini as a subcontracted killer reluctant to ply his trade & Vincent Curatola in a small but pithy part as the conniving Johnny Amato. Higgins' original 1974 novel was transposed to the Obama era, which certainly makes sense from a producer's standpoint — you save money not shelling out for '70s cars or masking anachronistic street scenery — & maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Not what I would have preferred, but the story wasn't specifically tied into the '70s, so yeah, OK. And I do have to admit those voice-overs of Obama justifying the infamous Wall Street bailout added a nice touch of irony.My real gripe, what really spoils it for me, is that absolutely extraneous monologue in the bar at the end. Up till then, they'd stuck pretty close to the original & made a pretty decent movie out of it. But then they have Cogan react to a televised Obama speech by spouting off about Thomas Jefferson being a slave-owner & America being not a country but a business. Not that I disagree with the political sentiment expressed, but it just doesn't belong, it seems to have just parachuted in out of nowhere.Presumably they tacked this on in a gratuitous attempt to make the movie somehow more relevant for today's audiences, but it adds nothing to the story & today's relevance very quickly becomes yesterday's obscurity anyhow. Higgins' real mastery was always in the dialog, but some utterly deluded hack with a political axe to grind thought he could improve on Higgins. The sad part is that those in charge — who should have known better — let him try.