As this will be the last column of mine, I should probably spend a paragraph or so explaining how it has been an honor to have the opportunity to write for MOVE about a topic I genuinely enjoy. I should probably thank whoever signs my paychecks for actually paying me to go see movies I’d be seeing anyway. I should probably thank everyone who’s followed this humble little column (OK, maybe a little less than humble on occasion, but who’s counting?). So thank you, everyone, for making this semester a special one.

All right, now that the sentimental crap is out of the way, it’s time to review a movie that is essentially what would come out about nine months after “Pulp Fiction” took “Fight Club” out on a date. I’m talking about “Killing Them Softly,” an interesting film that provides a new perspective on the intricacies of contract killing and illegal gambling operations.

I should start out by saying this movie will appeal to a very small group of people and movie critics (who aren’t real people). For anyone familiar with Quentin Tarantino, this movie completely mimics his trademark tone. For anyone who isn’t familiar with him, I’ll try to explain it, but you should really just go rent “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Dogs,” because I’m about to butcher this.

Basically, the movie is more centered on the interactions between characters than the plot of the movie itself. It develops slowly over time as you wade through several seemingly mundane conversations between characters, which are occasionally interrupted by violence. Some of these conversations will last several minutes and lend almost nothing to the plot, but will be chock-full of incredibly dark humor you will either laugh at or hate. If you hate it, well, you’re going to have a rough time watching the movie. Not to say that the plot isn’t important though, because it is, but it’s relatively simplistic and takes a backseat to dialogue on many occasions.

Which brings up the movie’s biggest strength: the dialogue. As I’ve said, you’ll either find the entire concept hilarious and absolutely fall in love with most of it, or you’ll wonder why you’re being presented with a seemingly unimportant conversation and want to leave. It’s very hit-or-miss, thus the Tarantino comparison. Each character seemed to be both very well-written and acted, including Brad Pitt’s supporting role.

There were a few other strong points to “Killing Them Softly.” The humor is well done, especially if you are a fan of subtle dark humor, and seems to carry throughout the film. The production value is great, which is basically my way of saying that the film looked really pretty.

For the negative points, I’ll go ahead and dive right into the “Fight Club” comparison. The movie beats you over the head with an “everything in life is just business, people themselves are meaningless” message. For those of you who haven’t seen “Fight Club,” it centers on the idea that basically nothing matters. And by “centers on,” I mean it breaks open your skull and pounds it into you. You get the same skull-bashing toward the end of “Killing Them Softly.”

The only other real complaint would be a few of the directorial decisions made during a few scenes. Whenever a character is on drugs (which doesn’t happen often enough to be annoying) there’s a weird switch from the omniscient, third-person point of view to this weird inside-their-head-and-showing-weird-lights-and-cloudy-images first-person thing, and then back and forth. It’s mildly distracting and adds almost nothing to the film, but that’s barely a real complaint. A more superficial complaint, however, would be that there wasn’t enough Pitt, but I would advocate that there isn’t a single movie with enough Pitt. So I might just be biased.

Overall, though, “Killing Them Softly” is worthy of 3.5 quietly killed stars out of 5, and is definitely a movie that any major Tarantino fans looking for a quick fix before “Django Unchained” is released might want to go check out. I would recommend people check it out at some point, but probably not in theaters. If you have a friend who regularly forgets you owe them money, have them rent it or something when it comes out.

For the record, everyone needs a friend like that, especially if you can make them your roommate and convince them to keep ordering pizza for you.