Dead Man Down (2013)
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Critics Consensus: While the fine cast keeps Dead Man Down watchable throughout, the film is weighted down by absurd plot twists and a slack pace.
Critics Consensus: While the fine cast keeps Dead Man Down watchable throughout, the film is weighted down by absurd plot twists and a slack pace.
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Niels Arden Oplev, the acclaimed director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, makes his American theatrical debut with the new action thriller, DEAD MAN DOWN. Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star as two strangers who are irresistibly drawn to one another by their mutual desire for revenge. The film co-stars Academy Award (R) nominee Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper, from a screenplay by J.H.Wyman (Fringe). (c) Film District- Rating:
- R (for violence, language throughout and a scene of sexuality)
- Genre:
- Mystery & Suspense
- Directed By:
- Niels Arden Oplev , Niels Arden oplev
- Written By:
- J.H. Wyman
- In Theaters:
- Mar 8, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Jul 9, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $10.9M
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Cast
-
Colin Farrell
as Victor -
Noomi Rapace
as Beatrice -
Terrence Howard
as Alphonse -
Dominic Cooper
as Darcy -
Isabelle Huppert
as Valentine -
Armand Assante
as Lon Gordon
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Critic Reviews for Dead Man Down
All Critics (96) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (60) | DVD (1)
Suppose Armand Assante had played the mother, not as a father, as a mother. Suppose Isabelle Huppert had taken the Colin Farrell part. This may be no more than playful, but heaven knows Dead Man Down needs as much of that as it can get.
A way-too-leisurely thriller whose destination is fairly obvious from early on, but to which the talented cast apply themselves with effortful seriousness.
Explores a common ground for noir thrillers before stumbling and imploding in a climax that feels like it might have been hijacked from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
While a mob thriller can be as nasty as it likes, what it can't be is silly.
More a dark fairy tale about vengeance than the action-packed crime thriller it purports to be, the film is at times exhilarating, bold, and beautiful -- when it's not busy being ludicrous, fragmented, and just plain stupid.
It takes forever to get going, unspooling its hopelessly convoluted, unwieldy plot for so long that it loses whatever marginal narrative momentum it possesses.
The cast does all that they can, but, by the end, Dead Man Down plays as a confused, noble misfire.
It gives us no real themes to marinate upon, yet it gives us very little memorable action in which to revel. It's simply a mish-mosh and a shame.
The plot and characters of pulpy revenge thriller Dead Man Down are pure B-movie stuff, yet stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace lend the film unexpected class and conviction.
While Dead Man Down has a talented cast in Farrell, Rapace, and Howard, it ends up being a rather bland take on the revenge thriller, offering nothing new or stimulating to the genre.
It's more American nightmare than any manner of dream.
Dead Man Down is Oplev demonstrating the same great cinematic sense he did with Millenium Series, and that revenge is never a straight line, it's a thorny bramble.
A scatter-brained plot never quite works itself out.
The plot takes a bit too long to get any traction and consequently the film feels rather long. Still, I like the fusion of Hollywood and European filmmaking sensibilities
Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace are a knockout combination, their relationship grounded on a knife's edge of destruction
There are a couple of decent action scenes but this is just too ridiculous to be taken as seriously as it expects to be. With a slight re-edit, it could be re-released as Naked Gun 4.
It's a modern-day, edgy love story at heart ... The climatic ending ... is pretty spectacular ... Though nothing new, it's beautifully realised and shot.
Needless to say, the whole thing builds towards a big shoot-out, but none of the action is executed with any verve or style.
Dead Man Down is a self-consciously dark movie that's ultimately let down by JH Wyman's script.
As with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Oplev uses darkness to convey atmosphere despite the overt crispness of the movie's digital look. Some old-fashioned celluloid grain would have done it the world of good.
A sturdy potboiler that's directed with a European sense of space and rhythm, accepting of character flaws, and generous with time for characters to breathe and develop at their own pace.
[Rapace] will be enough to send some to this urban thriller but the film will send them away disappointed.
By the time Dead Man Down descends into ultra-violence, you'll be long past caring.
Here's yet another preposterous action movie that's made watchable by a skilful director and an engaging cast.
It soon collapses into violent and boring nonsense.
Audience Reviews for Dead Man Down
I feel I need to step in and defend Dead Man Down somewhat. It's received quite a lot of negativity but I'm really not sure why. Many of the reviews I've read from the American press critics attack the film by specifically mentioning that the director and three of the main characters are European. Some go as far as suggesting the European filmmakers should 'Go home'. The European critics however suggest that making the film in America is the problem. Both seem to agree that the film is ludicrous. Personally I really don't think where it was set really matters, it has very little to do with the story. I think people were expecting a A Girl With the Dragon Tattoo carbon copy because God forbid director Niels Arden Oplev try anything different. If he had made it in his native country Denmark then the American studios would have remade it anyway. It's not ludicrous either, at least no less so than the other 99.9% of films released that year. If you find Dead Man Down the most ludicrous and worst film of 2013 then you really didn't see that many films. It's hard to work out what audiences expect anymore, especially when Dead Man Down can boast a pretty decent performance from Colin Farrell - an actor I don't generally like, a strong supporting cast including Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper, and F. Murray Abraham who are all on good form and a brilliantly complex performance from Noomi Rapace. The big twist that happened fairly early on in the film came from no where, it was furiously intense and was one of the best single scenes of 2013. OK, so I'm not sure what Isabelle Huppert was doing here either and the car thing at the end was possibly not the best thing that could have happened but this film deserves way more credit than it has received.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Maybe I am a newfound Colin Farrell fan? because I thought that this was a pretty darn good movie. This is a revenge pact, romance, thriller. Good chemistry between the two leads. Good action. Good story. What wasn't to like?
MoreSuper Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Revenge is coming.
Good Film! It's a movie that never loses sight of what it originally intends, nor does it pander to taste or pretend to be better than it is. The script is solid and seamless. There are some shortcomings as to continuity and perspective of a linear timeline, but there is so much emotion in even the smallest scenes as to make this almost trivial. The movie bounces between crime thriller and romantic/love story. The added fun of secret missions from both Victor and Beatrice provide the twist this one needs. This one reminds at times of a couple of Mel Gibson revenge flicks: Payback and Edge of Darkness. Fantastic performances all around.
Victor, a rising gangland player, has infiltrated the crime empire run by ruthless kingpin Alphonse, with the single purpose of making Alphonse pay for destroying his once happy life. As he meticulously orchestrates his vengeance from his high-rise home, Victor watches and is watched by Beatrice, a mysterious young woman who lives in the apartment across from his. On the surface a fragile woman-child, Beatrice seethes with a rage of her own. When she uncovers Victor's dark secrets, she threatens to expose him unless he helps her carry out her own campaign of retribution. Each fixated on avenging the past, they devise a violent and cathartic plan that could change their worlds forever.
Super Reviewer
Dead Man Down Quotes
- Darcy:
- Are you coming for me?
- Victor:
- No. I am coming for her.
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