There are 2 things I can say regarding my numerous years as a cinema patron: I have never walked out of a film, and I have never fallen asleep in a theater.
Killing Them Softly nearly stole those accomplishments away from me like a thief in the night.
It would take a lot for me to label a film as “bad.” And I won’t say this film is a bad one. I will say I didn’t like it. I’ll also say it’s heavy handed and self-important in its relentless use of George W. Bush speeches and Obama campaign footage.
Something else I’ll say is that it may not be quite clever enough–or have interesting enough characters–to be 93 minutes of pure dialogue. I can say that every actor in this movie was better than the material. I can say, without a doubt, that I understood this movie, and what it was trying to accomplish, and I still didn’t like it.
Killing Them Softly may have an audience. In fact, as a film lover, I hope it does. I am just not it.
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Labsplice
