Review of Dead Man Down (2013) by Dave R — 11 Mar 2013

So movies explain everything to you, and some just lay it all out there and make you figure out what's going on, and that's what Dead Man Down does. This is kind of shot like the movie Drive from two years ago, but not as good.

Colin Farrell is as good as he's been in years, as the quiet no nonsense type. This story kind of moves all over the place, but I like it. When you think one thing is going on, something else is, and that to me is not a bad thing.

The writing is solid, and this is a good cast. Why did Terrence Howard give up his gig on Iron Man anyway? And where has F. Murray Abraham been? I almost didn't recognize the guy who challenged Amadeus all those years ago.

Now there are some issues with this thing too. Some of the timeline doesn't always fit, like "I'll be there in 15 minutes" and then two stops along the way and a trip up and down the elevator to the 18th floor would take like 2 hours, but it's not horrible.

This isn't super fast paced either, because I think the movie wants you to really absorb who these characters are, and allows you to do that. There's some flawed folks in this thing, which makes them more in line with reality.

This won't last long in the theaters, and is worth a look.