Dead Man Down (2013)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Sadly Over-hyped

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

DEAD MAN DOWN is another generic crime thriller starring Colin Farrell, who has lost a lot of the early respect I had for him back when he was making an effort in the likes of MINORITY REPORT and TIGERLAND. Nowadays he stars in stuff like this and the TOTAL RECALL remake, both fluff pieces with nothing new to say.DEAD MAN DOWN starts on a high note with a profane shoot-out full of violent spectacle. After this it soon slows down to a crawl by introducing a quasi-romantic relationship between a taciturn Farrell and a struggling Noomi Rapace, sporting one of those Hollywood facial scars which is supposed to make her disfigured but rather looks like someone drew a line on her face with red Biro.The two characters are set on a path of revenge against stock bad guy Terrence Howard but boy, do they take a long time to get there. Although book-ended by quite effective moments, the long slow mid-section of DEAD MAN DOWN is what lets this film down quite considerably. The script just isn't up to much and the characters feel clunky and dull as a result; the viewer can never get involved in their story. It's a pity, as this is another case of Hollywood's wasted potential.

This is going to be a short review. Not because 'Dead Man Down' is bad, but because - quite simply - it's nothing that hasn't been seen before. Colin Farrell is a man who's had his family killed. He therefore seeks revenge (and along the way meets a potential love interest).It's been done a thousand times before, sometimes better, most times worst. However, the two leads - Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace - are A-list and therefore bring enough quality and chemistry to this film to elevate it above the masses of similar offerings, plus it's stylishly directed as well.If you like action, if you like thrillers, if you like revenge movies, or if you simply like the two main leads, then you'll probably find this watchable. Not great, not bad but certainly not a complete waste of nearly two hours of your life.

"I didn't kill you because they've got you." A squared revenge. You could summarize this crime/drama like that. Victor (Colin Farrell) is a man who has already infiltrated some time in a corrupt gang, run by Alphonse (Terrence Howard), a not so kosher developer. They are responsible for the death of his daughter and asked an Albanian gang to scare them a bit, after the couple wanted to take legal actions. His wife is killed by the Albanians and they leave him for dead behind. The only goal in Victor's life is to make the gang , and mainly Alphonse,suffer with as much pain as possible, for the death of his family.However all his planning gets deranged by the hands of his opposite neighbor Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), who had a severe traffic accident in the past which was caused by a drunk guy. The drunk guy got a light sentence and merrily continues his dissolute life. But Beatrice is maimed for life and has painful scars, both physically and mentally, as a result. Beatrice has evidence in the form of a film on her cell phone that shows how Victor strangled someone in his apartment. She uses this to blackmail Victor, so he would murder the man responsible for the accident."Dead Man Down" has a promising start with the gloom, despair and the feelings of revenge as a central subject. It all looks gloomy and mysterious. Not only the two characters Victor and Beatrice take credit for that , but also the used environment and images. The apartment of Victor that looks poor and sober, the fragments in the cemetery where the light from a flashlight is used while searching for the graves of a Hungarian family, the phone-call in the evening of two neighbors on their balcony on the top floor. Everything is soaked in a pool of melancholy and deep-rooted sorrow out of which arises an ​​intense feeling of hate.Colin Farrell is ideal for this role. He has such a sad look that perfectly suits the person Victor. He must be extremely cold-blooded and reserved so he can empathize with his role as a member of the criminal gang. The sad and silent part of him is again an expression of his immense grief over the loss he has suffered. At times he reminded me of Ryan Gosling in "Drive". A strong piece of acting was when he rejects Beatrice in such a way that he can complete his mission. The combination of determination and helplessness was wonderful to see.Noomi Rapace, who plays Beatrice, is a kind of replica of him. Just as Lisbeth Salander in "Män som hatar kvinnor" she's a tormented and emotionally marked woman who wants to take revenge on those who have done something to her. Salander took revenge on a perverse and abusive lawyer, while Beatrice on a drunk driver who despite the heavy facts escapes from a heavy punishment. Beatrice is not only scarred emotionally, but also physically . The heavy traffic accident has caused scars in her face, and some surgical procedures were necessary to make her presentable. Initially she seems to be an unperturbed and ruthless person, who is not afraid to extort Victor and use him as a tool to reach her goal. Gradually she evolves into this compassionate and concerned person. The somewhat bizarre relationship that ultimately flows between these two people is touching. However, the friendship shared with Victor Darcy was much more convincing than those with Beatrice . The opening and closing scene was a clear proof of that.Niels Arden Oplev also happens to be the director of "Män som hatar kvinnor". It was the breakthrough for Noomi Rapace as an international star playing Lisbeth Salander. Also an honorable mention for Isabelle Huppert who played the half-deaf mother of Beatrice. A fairly annoying nosy woman who tried to hook up Victor with her daughter all the time. A terrible moment when she pulls out the photo album to show what a beauty Beatrice actually was. Superbly played anyway.How convincing and sometimes impressive the beginning of this film was, so terribly quickly it went downhill towards the end. There were some things I had second thoughts about. First, I didn't think the mutilations of Beatrice were that severe that you could see her as a freak or a monstrous person. In my eyes there was still something sweet about her and she was an amiable woman who looked charming. A bit exaggerated to my findings. The moment the recording, that Victor made ​​of a brother of one of the Albanians, was played, was so coincidental and terribly well-timed that it turned out to be completely implausible and ridiculous. That such a dark and melancholy film with a perfectly balanced morbid atmosphere can turn into a purely cheap action-packed monstrosity with all the cliché's of a Schwarzenegger / Stallone action-movie of the 80, was a huge disappointment for me. The end was like an A-team fragment of a jeep crashing into a mansion with huge explosions as a result, an exaggerated display of guns shooting around and loads of ammunition being used with gang members falling down everywhere, a terribly hilarious scene where the two leaders shot each other at the right time and the obvious ending with two bosom friends looking each other in the eyes like rivals. A typical Hollywood spectacle not worthy for this kind of movie. Like in the old musketeer films it was one-against-all again."Dead Man Down" had a promising start but dug his own demise by a lousy and rattling end. Oplev was hoping for an American success like his compatriot Refn, but this will not happen with this ordinary film.

There is always a big gamble with revenge flicks : these stories have been told so many times…it takes more than a few big names to make them memorable. Characters, dialogue, tension, subplots, impressive kills...If used properly, these elements will differentiate any formulaic revenge flick from the lot. While Dead Man Down is not a terrible movie, it's just another title that falls in the loop of quickly-released and just-as-quickly-forgotten anonymous revenge flicks.The storyline makes for a synopsis a thousand times more interesting than the actual product resulting from its lazy execution. We've got two parallel quests for revenge, and neither of them is ever able to capture any sense of depth or avoid clichés, thanks to typical sequences of Farrell watching 8mm tapes of an afternoon in the park with the wife and daughter, where they just laugh and do every possible thing to look like the perfect little family. The other quest for revenge, which involves Noomi Rapace's character, stays on the shelf for nearly the entire runtime, which makes it hard for the average and not overly sensitive viewer to become emotionally involved (or to simply give a rat's ass about it) at any point.The very few action sequences are poorly shot. There is not one moment where Colin Farrell is believable as a Hungarian mobster, nor is Noomi Rapace as a French woman that is both physically and emotionally scarred, thanks to the silly accents that both actors clumsily mimic. And while the acting may be Dead Man Down's strongest point (that says a lot), you can feel the cast is trying hard to bring some life to these frustratingly empty characters, especially Terrence Howard.It is a very typical story, and for it to become something special, its basics had to be strong. And it is not the case. Instead of working on its characters, Dead Man Down prioritizes clichéd rubbish visual elements to add some sort of an intrigue feel that never materializes. From the picture puzzle to the bars on the "f"s, the ensemble feels like it was written to feel way more complex than it actually is.Visually, Dead Man Down is equal to its script : we've seen this a thousand times already. A greyish tone to give it some sort of gritty edge, bland directing lacking anything fancy that is never able to generate any kind of dramatic tension whatsoever. It's all tame. Not awful, just awfully tame.This will be on the shelves of video stores for a month, and next times you will see a copy of Dead Man Down, it will be in 5 years, in the five-dollar movie bin at Wal-Mart, lost under a pile of similarly forgettable products.