Reviews

I'm not sure what people are looking for nowadays, but from reading the reviews of this excellent movie, I fear it is some sort of escapist garbage: Killing Them Softly was one of those crime movies that just seems like a slice of real life just slightly above the gutter. I didn't know it was based on a George Higgans novel, either, and I was thinking while watching it that I hadn't seen a crime movie this good since 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle,' only to find out that both movies were based on books by the same author.

I just got sucked in, the tension was great and interrupted periodically by the dark humor that is so typical of lowlife criminals and junkies. I hope we start getting more like this, more realism in our crime movies, as this one grabbed me from start to finish.

I was a bit stunned by just how much *better* this movie was than the previous Matt Damon movie. This one held me in suspense throughout. And Malkovich pretty much owned the role. He played such a great, icey- stared killer throughout.

I had just gotten through seeing another couple of fine movies--well, one was a series, the 'The Bridge', and the other was the original version of 'The Killing', both such great flicks that I was looking for another 'crime' series, and somehow reminded myself of 'Ripley's Game,' and wondered how come it never seems to make any of these 'lists.'

Without doing the spoiler, I can just say that this one has it all, from Ray Winstone, playing an old crimey pal from Ripley's 'bad old days,' to Russian Mobsters being all violent and mercieless, to the 'good guy' and neighbor who ticked Ripley off, but who he came to befriend....luckily for the neighbor.

Ripley is throughout a very competent man, completely in control, while the neighbor just sort of stumbles through his tasks until Ripley, well, I can't say more, but even watching this for the 3rd or 4th time, I put this movie up there with a couple of my other American favorites: 'The Departed', and 'Heat.'

So if you like those two, and want a movie that you might have missed....well, see 'Ripley's Game' with John Malkovich and Ray Winstone, and you'll be glad you did!

A little background: I'm from U.S. and a few years ago, some friends had recommended I watch 'The Pusher' 3 part series, and that was so realistic, so entertaining, that I started following the main actors, see what other films they had done. And recently I'd done a search, and found Kim Bodnia was in this series, so that was main reason for watching it, plus, like many, I'd seen the U.S. version of The Killing and was curious again about Scandanavian movies.

So I read the reviews on here, and obtained and began to watch this series. I immediately liked the police officer played by Sofia Helin, and I presumed she had some sort of autism, tho I don't know enough about it to be sure, and figured maybe it was more an antisocial thing, but after a few episodes it became really appealing, and I've always liked Bodnia's gritty acting and he seemed a good counterpoint to Helin.

It didn't take but one episode to get me caught up in the crime drama, either. It was complex, and I had to go back a few times, and I could see the subtitles were lame at times, but still, when there are subtitles I just depend more on the acting, and it was great.

The violence was there, but not like US movies where it is overdone and become boring and cartoon like, here it was sparse and credible. I found myself truly frightened for the victims, and worried to the last episode over the fate of certain people.

Don't miss this one: I couldn't leave the screen it was so good. And I think myself that some of the role comprised in the US version of The Killing comes from this series, not from the original in Sweden, but the lack of emotion and inability to empathize that the police lady had in this series: well I think that was what the US actress was *trying* to achieve in her role. Watch this series, and then think of the US actress who played the police detective in The Killing.

Great series though,and one of the best crime stories I've seen

I sort of stumbled on this, actually was looking for more crime fiction movies, which this got put under somewhere. And yet, I quickly got engrossed in this movie. I think it was because it showed the joy of 'small things'. A man gets nothing in the beginning but hard luck, and yet, you see the joy and humor in his life, and in the lives around him. I immediately became a Aki Kaurismaki fan, and now can't get enough of him. But for anybody who has not seen this one, find the joy of independent film making once again.

From his hotplate when cooking, to his relationship with his 'landlord' I kept finding the humor addictive, and even romance, which I'll not spoil, but just to say that love exists in poverty and despair kept giving way to music and the comfort of another human being. To think that just smoking a cigarette, one of the few small pleasures the poor had been left with during the depression, became heartwarming...

There was nothing there: no drama, no great acting...I guess there was some heartfelt environmentalism, but...who cares? I was totally disappointed. Here is one of the greatest actors around, Willam Dafoe, and he had Sam Neil for backup, and the premise seemed interesting enough, but nothing happened. He plodded along, looking for this Tasmanian Tiger...but come on, somewhere in there I need a little tension, or *something* other than just fairly nice scenery.

I kept thinking, well maybe it's going to be another Straw Dogs or heck, Aussies are always making great movies, I just need to hold on and it will happen.

Nope...it seemed kind of like Film Class fare, but that was about it. I hate to ask for a plot anymore, but somewhere in there, I at least like a reason to keep watching. Well, I sat the whole thing out, and disappointed the whole way. I don't know how other people got so excited about this one. There's nothing there. And, just for the record: the scenery wasn't *that* good either.