YMMV / Killing Them Softly

• Critical Dissonance: Killing Them Softly earned mostly positive reviews from critics, garnering a "Fresh" rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, moviegoers hated the film for the most part, only garnering a 44% approval rating. In fact, it is one of only twenty-one films ever to receive an "F" grade from Cinemascore, and it's also the most acclaimed film on Rotten Tomatoes to get such a grade.
• Jerkass Woobie: Markie. He robbed his own casino the first time, lied about it, and then bragged about it to the same people he robbed. Yes, he's no saint but he had no part in the second robbery but was brutally beaten up before being murdered so the people he robbed wouldn't be seen as "soft". Markie's greed was part of the reason he winds up dead but it's still hard not to feel sorry for the guy.
• Magnificent Bastard: Jackie Cogan is a cynical, yet highly efficient hitman who works for the Mafia. After three thieves rob a poker game run by Markie Trattman, Jackie is appointed to find those responsible and to eliminate them. Despite knowing that Trattman had nothing to do with the robbery, Jackie has the man senselessly beaten before he personally assassinates him to keep the other criminals in line. Jackie hires Mickey, another hitman, to try and kill one of the targets, but when he realizes he's in no shape to do his job, he orchestrates his arrest by hiring a prostitute to get into a fight with him. After convincing Frankie, one of the thieves, to give up his partner-in-crime, Jackie successfully kills his target before later murdering Frankie to tie up any loose ends.
• Memetic Mutation: Frankie's◊ extremely◊ Sawed-Off Shotgun, is a very popular cursed gun design around the internet. In some respects it's probably way more popular than the movie is.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The brutal, messy hit on Squirrel. His writhing and moaning demonstrates exactly why Jackie Cogan prefers to kill them softly.
  • The opening sequence is... disorienting.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Sam Shepard as Dillon, another mob enforcer, who appears in a single flashback scene.
  • James Gandolfini shows up for two scenes as Mickie, and earns his star billing by utterly stealing the show.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Given the similar setting, tone and having three of the same cast members, including James Gandolfini, it's very common and easy for fans to view this as a feature length film adaptation of The Sopranos.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Given the gritty setting of the gangster genre itself, it can be hard to root for Jackie or any of the other gangsters themselves.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The last line of the film is Jackie giving a major Take That! to both Thomas Jefferson, claiming that the idea of America as a country is a joke when it's being expressed by a man who enslaved his illegitimate children. By extension, he also gives one to Barack Obama for expressing that sentiment. Of course, one should also keep in mind that Jackie is a rather cynical hitman who makes this speech while demanding that the Driver pay him the full amount for the hits he carried out.

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