I am used to seeing "leisurely" as an adjective exclusively, as in "walking at a leisurely pace." But today I read it used as an adverb in a New York Times review of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer." It seems archaic to me to use it so (emphasis added):
[The director's] first American studio effort, “Wanted” (2008), is a
modestly diverting if finally tedious exercise in which the stylized
violence almost upstages its star, Angelina Jolie. “Wanted” is the
kind of contemporary studio fun that shows a bullet exiting a human
head in slow motion, giving you time to marvel at how the skin around
the wound stretches as the projectile leisurely rips through the
skull.
Best Answer
My dictionary shows the word as both an adjective and an adverb:
In your example, it makes sense to use the adverbial form. Why? An adjective would have to modify a noun. What noun would it modify? The writer is not talking about a leisurely projectile, a leisurely wound, leisurely skin, or a leisurely skull. The only thing leisurely in that sentence is the ripping action.
As for describing the formation of an exit wound as leisurely, I don't know if that sounds archaic. Instead, I see the pronounced irony as intentional, as a way to comment on the mood of the director's film.