I don't even have to read the negative reviews (but I did) to know what they're going to say - too much talk, not enough action, undeveloped characters, no story, too confusing and on and on. It's almost precisely why I found the picture so fascinating. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial meltdown and the presidential election cycle, the mob business is undergoing it's own downturn, made worse when a free lance criminal (Vincent Curatola as Johnny Amato) hires on a couple of hit men to duplicate a staged robbery that Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) successfully pulled against himself to set up the story. The picture takes it's own sweet time to develop the characters of Frankie (Scoot MacNairy) and zoned out partner Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) in a buildup to the actual heist, putting the mob on defense in a protracted cat and mouse game over who's going to pay for this latest indiscretion.

I read a couple reviewers who were of the belief that Brad Pitt was making a political statement here as a noted Hollywood liberal and supporter of the President. Let's keep something in mind, Pitt's an actor and he didn't come up with the script. In fact, Pitt probably had to choke down his dialog in the final scene when he confronted the mob lawyer (Richard Jenkins credited as Driver in the story) after checking his payoff - "I'm living in America and in America you're on your own". Meaning that he expected full payment for services provided after intermediary New York Mickey (James Gandolfini) crapped out on his end of the deal. The message was a decidedly capitalist one, and if the picture had gone on, I'm pretty sure Jackie Cogan (Pitt) would have been made whole one way or another.

In my estimation, the film's best sequence occurred when Jackie performed the hit on Liotta's Markie character. Done in extreme slow motion and highly stylized, the scene is destined to be a classic of mob movie inspired violence. One might even say there was a distinct poetry to rubbing out Markie Trattman. Jackie's other victims weren't done quite as creatively, let's just say he was efficient at his job. Come to think of it now as I write this, there wasn't too much 'softly' about it either.

Anyway, going in one should temper expectations against one's preferences in movie styles. Characters and dialog are my thing and this one delivered along with the expected violence. I'd put it up there with some of the year's best output.

Yet another great film being given a bad name by "reviewers trying to do us a favour" (really??? like you're a shepherd and we're all sheep here???). If you're going to read a review, here's one that speaks in all fairness and without trying to glorify it.

'Killing Them Softly' is a contemporary multi-narrative crime drama that oversees what crime has become to the mafia since we've seen what years of recession have done to America, post 9/11. It's a film you have to settle into and to watch and listen carefully, yet it provides us with storytelling style very similar to the likes of Quentin Tarantino and classic Danny Boyle.

It also makes good use of some classic conventions and you may notice a little bit of Mean Streets, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Chopper, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting etc.

When ex-convict Frankie and his Australian heroin-addict friend Russell are employed to hold up a mafia poker game in their rundown dead end town, they get away with it, though causing the local economy to collapse and putting mob boss Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) in the frame.

The dons send mob enforcer Jackie (Brad Pitt) over to deal with it and to set an example, he methodically sets about cleaning up in due fashion.

That is the plot, pure and simple, but aside from that, 'Killing Them Softly' is more a film about the bleak, harsh reality of crime in the modern day American towns that the government has all but abandoned and it is therefore about the sheer dead-end desperation of a certain breed of people.

Unemployment, recession, drug addiction, violence, desperation, failing health, wilful self-destruction and the disgusting manner in which people regard each other with - it all adds up to one great stark reality. The only way that the government has succeeded in destroying organised crime is by destroying its own country's economy. Desperate people will do anything to survive knowing that, if they give up, they are as good as dead. And that sets the tone for this movie from beginning to end.

Not surprisingly in hindsight, this film has no real lead characters, but universally supporting characters that serve the story until its bitter ending where we are treated to a summary in words between two characters. This helps to give a sense that nobody is of any real importance to each other, which is true to the nature of most of its characters.

If you like your crime movies real, you'll love this. I'm so surprised at how seamless it is, and also how easy it is to watch despite how well acted and intense it becomes. Dark, gritty, grimy, filthy, absurd, depressing and yet bold with a few good laughs!

Watching Killing Them Softly put me in mind of the great crime caper film of the Seventies, Charley Varrick. That's the one where Walter Matthau and some accomplices pull off a bank heist in a small out of the way bank in an obscure New Mexico town. Only the bank is a place where syndicate money is held and laundered. Joe Don Baker is the hit-man sent after them and he loves his work. Fortunately at least for Walter Matthau he's smart enough to outwit Baker. Killing Them Softly has no Matthau among the targets as the tale is told from hit-man's point of view.

The hit-man or at least one of them is Brad Pitt and he gets no pleasure in his work, it's a business like any other. He wants to be well compensated for his services. In fact he wants to Kill Them Softly which to him means taking them out with a rifle with scope because he doesn't want to hear their pleadings. Or by surprise in one case where everyone knows its coming, but the victim.

Two real criminal losers Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy are hired by Vincent Curatola to rob an illegal gambling establishment run by Ray Liotta. With Liotta you can see a bit of his Henry Hill from Goodfellas, with Hill running just this kind of place as he headed into middle age in the mob.

The reason for this target is that several years earlier Liotta ripped his own card game off, but eventually was forgiven when the gambling started booming again. Curatola is sure the mob will look right at Liotta again. Not that they don't look at Liotta again, but they're smarter than that. They always are.

Once the caper goes down in comes Pitt, but also with a few competitors, James Gandolfini being one. That's where Pitt starts negotiating his deal.

Brad Pitt gives a good performance here, but for me the real stars are McNairy and Mendelsohn. You will rarely losers with a capital "L" portrayed on the screen as they are with these two. In a way they ought to be put out of their misery for their own good. Still you feel sorry for them somewhat.

Interesting mob movie with some deep black comic overtones.