Killing Them Softly

Not an awful film..started pretty good. Bit of tension building up at the start but it kind of meanders from there to nothing much. Can't really think of anything else to say as it really wasn't that memorable.

I'm a bit of a fan on Dominik's films, I loved Assassination of Jesse James. This is perhaps more of a snack in comparison, not a long, engrossing piece, but the grimey world of the Mob at street level under our time of global recession is some distance from the glamorous, stylised gangster image we all love and have been imbued with since The Godfather. Don't expect Goodfellas, or Casino, Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, our times are just too hard for Gangster glamour and folklore. Everything here is cheap, not lavish, our broke and penniless times is part of the film's scenery, and it's a wonder that such ugly, dilapidated urban landscapes could yield great shots at times. We can never get enough of the gangster genre, but we generally like it the way we're used to. Dominik has his own interpretation as always, and he has done the same here with the genre as he has with the Western via the Assassination of Jesse James, innovated and delivered something new, yet still compelling. Four stars...

Some excellent performances (especially Gandolfini), though the digital effects took off some of the shine.