Dead Man Down Reviews
Flix Capacitor
Dead Man Down feels like two different films struggling against each other. One a brooding Euro thriller, the other a clunky Hollywood actioner. Neither really works.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Daily Star
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
HeyUGuys
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Scotsman
Needless to say, the whole thing builds towards a big shoot-out, but none of the action is executed with any verve or style.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Observer [UK]
Dead Man Down is a self-consciously dark movie that's ultimately let down by JH Wyman's script.
Birmingham Mail
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Common Sense Media
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
This is London
[Rapace] will be enough to send some to this urban thriller but the film will send them away disappointed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Digital Spy
By the time Dead Man Down descends into ultra-violence, you'll be long past caring.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Contactmusic.com
Here's yet another preposterous action movie that's made watchable by a skilful director and an engaging cast.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Guardian [UK]
It soon collapses into violent and boring nonsense.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Film4
A lifeless attempt to fuse a taut crime thriller and a complex psychological drama.
Daily Express
You are left feeling sorry for the actors who do their best, including Britain's Dominic Cooper, wasted as a dorkish gangster colleague of Victor's.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Financial Times
Oplev, who made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, can do this stuff in his sleep and somnambulism is largely the style here.
Daily Telegraph
This is too dull to function as a thriller and too silly to qualify as anything else.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Sky Movies
A disappointingly by-the-numbers revenge yarn unspieled at great length ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Little White Lies
Any film in which Isabelle Huppert is cast and then given absolutely nothing to do is a crime against cinema.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Shadows on the Wall
Visual style and strong characters aren't enough to make up for a deeply flawed script that fails to make logical sense.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
ViewLondon
Scrapes a pass thanks to offbeat performances and a couple of enjoyably preposterous action sequences.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Birmingham Post
Dead Man Down is gripping.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
