Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.
Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.
Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller.
Shot documentary-style, this film follows the daily grind of two young police officers in LA who are partners and friends, and what happens when they meet criminal forces greater than themselves.
Director:
David Ayer
Stars:
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Michael Peña,
Anna Kendrick
A psychological study of operations desert shield and desert storm during the gulf war; through the eyes of a U.S marine sniper who struggles to cope with the possibility his girlfriend may be cheating on him back home.
Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, Gerry teams up with younger charismatic poker player, Curtis, in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what's been lost.
Directors:
Anna Boden,
Ryan Fleck
Stars:
Ben Mendelsohn,
Ryan Reynolds,
Yvonne Landry
Three amateurs stickup a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. Brad Pitt plays the hitman hired to track them down and restore order.Written by
Anonymous
James Gandolfini, Vincent Curatola & Max Casella all played in The Sopranos. Each share no scenes with the other in this movie. See more »
Goofs
When the brothers Caprio drive upon the road and park at the right side of the road in which Markie Trattmans house is set, a white luxury car is seen on the left side of the road. After a dialogue between the Carpio brothers a next shot of the street is shown when Markie Trattman drives down the road to park at the left side, this white luxury car disappears. See more »
Quotes
Jackie Cogan:
Now, aside from The Squirrel, we got the kids. Two kids. One of them's the motor-mouth; drove to Florida with Kenny, Kenny Gill. Our Kenny, the guy he knows works for Dillon. Starts bragging about how he's a big-time operator that just knocked over this guy's game for 100K.
Driver:
[chuckles]
You serious?
Jackie Cogan:
I don't know what it is with these guys; they can't keep their mouths shut about nothin'. And Kenny - Kenny's just as dumb. The way I found out was, this guy's investing his money in a couple ounces of ...
[...] See more »
There is a good case to be made, at least here in Britain, for prosecuting Killing Them Softly under the Trade Descriptions Act. But I for one shan't be on the sideline cheering on the suit. Many, I'm sure, tuned in - went to the flicks, bought the video, watched online illegally - after hearing that Brad Pitt is a hit-man called in to clear up a mess, and they will, most probably, have been disappointed.
Killing The Softly is most certainly not your average gangster flick. It's most telling scene comes right at the end when Pitt, the hit-man, talks to the crooks' lawyer who is there to pay him for for the murders he has committed on behalf of his paymasters. The scene is played out against yet another of those superficially rousing, although, in fact, pretty vacuous Obama speeches long on sentiment but pretty short on anything much else, in which he tries to grab the heart of America in order to garner a few more votes. Such soundbites permeate the film. Pitt's character has heard it all before and then some.
In the final scene he is accused of cynicism by the crooks' lawyer, but in truth - and oddly - he is one the film's most honest characters. He does what he does, looks a situation squarely in the eye, calls a spade a spade and does what he is asked to do. He doesn't try to justify or excuse his dirty work. The rest of the characters, from the two losers, who kick off the whole stupid charade on behalf of another loser who thinks he has a clever plan, to the sap who is bumped off by Pitt for no very good reason but to keep the gambling punters happy and is paying for a past transgression, to the hit-man called in from New York who for one reason or another has lost it and is sent packing, are more or less living in their own dream world. All have a working explanation, none of which, however, is worth a row of beans. Only Pitt, the effective, professional killer sees everything clearly.
It might, though, not be as we would like to see the world. Writer and director Andrew Dominik makes the point that most of us seem to be far happier eschewing the violent, lethal reality of the killer Pitt and instead prefer to accept the anodyne, risk-free, no-smoking, ginger ale world of Obama and his vacuous rhetoric. Remember, it was Obama who gave the green light to the - well, murder - of Osama Bin Laden in a foreign country. Whether or not you agree with what he sanctioned and what was done, one must wonder exactly how much his liberal principles played in the decision to give that assassination the OK. For, whether you think it justified or not, a murder it was.
In a sense Pitt is just Obama without the liberal veneer: he does what he is paid to do - America is business - and is under no illusions as to what he is doing.
So be warned: yes, you'll get lots of tension-building gangster scenes and, yes, you'll get your guts full of gore if that's what you want (and many, of course, do), but Killing The Softly is a million miles away from being the kind of gangster flick you (and my son, who started watching it with me, but gave up halfway through) expect. The point it makes - and even 'making a point' will lose it Brownie points with many punters - is not particularly original or profound, but, for this punter at least, Dominik has made a thoroughly entertaining and watchable movie, much as he made with The Assassination Of Jesse James... which also starred Brad Pitt.
PS. I like and have always like Brad Pitt, a very gifted actor (his appearance in Inglourious Basterds is nothing but an aberration and is Tarantinos' cock-up, not his). I should like to seem him demonstrate his talents in a more 'talky, stagy' film. I am confident he could do it.
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There is a good case to be made, at least here in Britain, for prosecuting Killing Them Softly under the Trade Descriptions Act. But I for one shan't be on the sideline cheering on the suit. Many, I'm sure, tuned in - went to the flicks, bought the video, watched online illegally - after hearing that Brad Pitt is a hit-man called in to clear up a mess, and they will, most probably, have been disappointed.
Killing The Softly is most certainly not your average gangster flick. It's most telling scene comes right at the end when Pitt, the hit-man, talks to the crooks' lawyer who is there to pay him for for the murders he has committed on behalf of his paymasters. The scene is played out against yet another of those superficially rousing, although, in fact, pretty vacuous Obama speeches long on sentiment but pretty short on anything much else, in which he tries to grab the heart of America in order to garner a few more votes. Such soundbites permeate the film. Pitt's character has heard it all before and then some.
In the final scene he is accused of cynicism by the crooks' lawyer, but in truth - and oddly - he is one the film's most honest characters. He does what he does, looks a situation squarely in the eye, calls a spade a spade and does what he is asked to do. He doesn't try to justify or excuse his dirty work. The rest of the characters, from the two losers, who kick off the whole stupid charade on behalf of another loser who thinks he has a clever plan, to the sap who is bumped off by Pitt for no very good reason but to keep the gambling punters happy and is paying for a past transgression, to the hit-man called in from New York who for one reason or another has lost it and is sent packing, are more or less living in their own dream world. All have a working explanation, none of which, however, is worth a row of beans. Only Pitt, the effective, professional killer sees everything clearly.
It might, though, not be as we would like to see the world. Writer and director Andrew Dominik makes the point that most of us seem to be far happier eschewing the violent, lethal reality of the killer Pitt and instead prefer to accept the anodyne, risk-free, no-smoking, ginger ale world of Obama and his vacuous rhetoric. Remember, it was Obama who gave the green light to the - well, murder - of Osama Bin Laden in a foreign country. Whether or not you agree with what he sanctioned and what was done, one must wonder exactly how much his liberal principles played in the decision to give that assassination the OK. For, whether you think it justified or not, a murder it was.
In a sense Pitt is just Obama without the liberal veneer: he does what he is paid to do - America is business - and is under no illusions as to what he is doing.
So be warned: yes, you'll get lots of tension-building gangster scenes and, yes, you'll get your guts full of gore if that's what you want (and many, of course, do), but Killing The Softly is a million miles away from being the kind of gangster flick you (and my son, who started watching it with me, but gave up halfway through) expect. The point it makes - and even 'making a point' will lose it Brownie points with many punters - is not particularly original or profound, but, for this punter at least, Dominik has made a thoroughly entertaining and watchable movie, much as he made with The Assassination Of Jesse James... which also starred Brad Pitt.
PS. I like and have always like Brad Pitt, a very gifted actor (his appearance in Inglourious Basterds is nothing but an aberration and is Tarantinos' cock-up, not his). I should like to seem him demonstrate his talents in a more 'talky, stagy' film. I am confident he could do it.