64
Metascore
42 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThis is an unrepentantly cynical take on the hope-and-change promised to the US in 2008; this year's election race makes it look even bleaker, an icily confident black comedy of continued disillusion.
- 100The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe film is terribly smart in every respect, with ne'er-a-false note performances and superb craft work from top to bottom.
- 100The PlaylistKevin JagernauthThe PlaylistKevin JagernauthUncompromising and uncommercial, divisive and brave, Killing Them Softly bitterly boils at the state of the nation.
- 70VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangA routine, even mundane crime story relayed in tones of world-weary fatigue, Killing Them Softly deglams the mob movie to coolly distinctive if rarely pulse-quickening effect.
- 70Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerBoxoffice MagazineMark KeizerKilling Them Softly tries hard - and succeeds - to be a film of the now with its political parallels right in front of us. Yet it's also an invisible companion to the dirty business at hand - and it is a business.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinHe's [Pitt] not particularly inventive - with his appraising eyes and a toothpick in his mouth, he's like Redford without the edge - but he uses his stardom cannily, to kill with softness.
- 60Total FilmJonathan CrockerTotal FilmJonathan CrockerTough, stylish, violent and studded with stars – but like so many of its American gangsters, Killing Them Softly doesn't quite get the job done.
- 60EmpireDamon WiseEmpireDamon WiseA good, efficient crime thriller, let down by clunky social commentary but lifted by excellent performances, including perhaps Brad Pitt's recent best.
- 50TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissDespite enough pummeling to flatten Rocky Balboa in all six movies, the only thing that truly rewards your attendance is Pitt in another effortless star performance.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe film's cynicism, like everything else, is nothing more than empty posturing, a fashionable pose adopted to ingratiate itself with a disenfranchised public.