Review of Dead Man Down (2013) by Josh L — 31 Jul 2013

I had high expectations for this movie since it was reuniting Noomi Rapace with the director of her breakthrough role in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev) and although it did not live up to my expectations thanks to a mediocre finale, the movie is an entertaining slow burner that is worth a look for people who want smarts along with their revenge thriller.

Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace give good performances as people who want revenge for what has happened to them and therefore bond in ways that most people never will. Their relationship is awkward and completely believable.

Terence Howard is decent as the villain and gets a few good scenes in, while Dominic Cooper is mostly wasted in the friend role. The movie has excellent dialogue in a couple scenes and absolutely nails some suspenseful moments, but unfortunately after an excellent hour and a half of building up slowly, the finale is entirely disappointing and just ends the movie in shootout fashion.

In another movie this might be okay, but Dead Man Down is so smart and well done that you expect something much better to happen towards the end than just a shootout. That's really the only reason I can't fully recommend it to everyone, but I enjoyed most of it.