Actors: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn
Directors: Andrew Dominik
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Release Date: March 26, 2013
Run Time: 97 minutes
Film: 3 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2 out of 5 stars
“Killing Them Softly” is adapted from George V. Higgins’ 1974 novel “Cogan’s Trade”. It is a hitman movie that is disguised under a film about the economic crash. Brad Pitt doesn’t arrive on the screen until around 25 minutes in but he gives a very strong performance along with Scoot McNairy. You may know Scoot from 2010’s “Monsters” and last year’s “Argo”. The film also co-stars Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and Sam Shepard.
For the film, Brad Pitt was reunited with director Andrew Dominik after “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, a film that no one saw. I wasn’t blown away from the film as a whole but I like certain things about it. Besides the acting, I liked it’s gritty feel, the robbery scene was well shot and the slow-mo assassination scene was very neat. I would say watch it for the performances but the film itself isn’t sharp enough to keep your attention. I would call it a one-timer and in a year I would have forgotten this film every existed.
Official Premise: Adapted from George V. Higgins’ novel and set in New Orleans, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is an enforcer for the Mob. When a high-stakes Mob protected card game is heisted by some small time crooks Cogan is called in to track them down and restore order to the local criminal economy.
The special features are disappointing to say the least. There are only four deleted scenes that add up to less than ten minutes. Lastly there is a “Making of Killing Me Softly” featurette but it only runs five minutes, which is way to shot to give a behind-the-scenes look. The DVD release also doesn’t come with any digital copies like the Blu-ray release. I would have hoped for at least an Ultraviolet digital streaming copy to be included.