What I will say about this...

apparently having done a little time in the Hungarian army makes you as badass as James Bond or Liam Neeson in Taken.

The climax was really stupid, yes, but I sort of liked this up until then. The story was compelling and Farrell is always great. Casting Rapace as a French girl seemed rather odd, though.

Hehe, I suppose she'll just get cast for anything European as long as it's not British/Irish.

Still, weren't you bothered by Farrell's character's terrific abilities?

Of course, which is why I disliked the climax. Maybe Hungarian engineers are just super badasses, though.

The figure of the one-man fighting force characteristic of eighties action films such as Cobra and Commando is blended with an atmospheric, art-house influenced vision of urban grit and isolation in Dead Man Down, a muscular gangster film with the expected concerns, including action and vengeance, set apart by dynamite performances, a firm and ominous tone not always embraced by the modern crime picture, an unusual and welcome focus on the interior lives and longings of its character, and scenes of combat and violence which, in their confident framing and ferocious sense of motion, recall John Carpenter and Walter Hill at their best. The film turns on an intricate revenge plot which, of course, spirals further and further out of control. Beat by beat, the viewer is held captive on the edge of his or her seat, in part because each set piece and bend in the architecture of the storyline is crafted with such care and style and also because the film focuses on a pair of flawed, nuanced characters we come to understand and respect.

The financial evidence may not be sound, but I remain convinced Colin Farrell is the premiere film star of his generation. Whether driving through the front of a gangster's house and emerging machine gun ablaze or just staring through his window at the vast world outside, Farrell dominates the frame with the ice cold, masculine ease of Steve McQueen. And in a legitimate twist for a genre known for sidelining female characters as either inconsequential sex objects and/or one-note dangerous vixens (as parodied in last year's Seven Psychopaths), Dead Man Down also features a captivating female lead in Noomi Rapace, electrifying and moving as a troubled individual imprisoned by her disfigured face and eager for the man responsible to be punished beyond the court, an act she believes must be completed before she can transcend her past. Her belief is complicated and undermined over the course of the film, a representative symbol of an action movie able to explore the genre's fundamental themes, including paranoia, retribution, and violence, while also providing the high level of direct and visceral entertainment fans of the genre are in search of and expect for the price of admission.

B+

Hard Boiled must have a "stupid" climax, too.

Pussies.

BJs Grade

B-

Climax was sooooo very stupid, not bad though, but up to that point the film was pretty great.

What in the world is wrong with you people? A movie cannot end with an epic one-man-versus-several shootout anymore? We see action and suspense films for a tutorial in logic? The ending es perfecto.

February 21st:

The day Joe Wright will direct an ensemble piece starring Carey Mulligan, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Michael Fassbender, David will be banned from his theatre for furiously masturbating the moment the opening creidts roll.

I demand Nicolas Cage and Mia Wasikowska, too.

Dammit, how could I forget Cage. Shame on me!

DEAD MAN DOWN

I enjoyed this film. I was entertained. I thought Farrell and Rapace were good in their roles. Farrell had a nice haircut. The makeup on Rapace was good as well. The story kept me interested throughout, however, towards the end I was starting to feel like this reminded me of Drive in a way but without the good soundtrack to go with the film. The relationship between the two although the turn at the end was almost eye rolling, but I went along with it. The trailers had me thinking this would have a bit more action than what was presented since 90% of it takes place at the end. Overall, it was worth a view and I enjoyed the french woman who was also in Amour.

Grade - B

WHAT A BOLD PREDICTION!

Not a good movie. The premise is predictable but unnecessarily convoluted, the characters' intentions are nonsensical, and until the solid final shootout occurs, there's a whole lot of just people waiting around for things to happen. When the plot is this silly and you can't even offer more than two action scenes, there was absolutely nothing to hold my interest.

It's a shame because I liked the trailer quite a bit, but virtually all of the interesting shots and dialogue bits were packed into those two minutes.

Yeah, definitely agree about the plot being unnecessarily convoluted considering how simple everything ended up actually being.

This.



(B-)

Solid movie. Loved Noomi Rapace in it.

7/10 ( B )

Mmm nothing special but Colin Farrell's great as usual.

Premise is a bit ridiculous and dialogue questionable.

Dead Man Down

Competent, mature thriller, with a nice pace, good character building, and a stylish, if somewhat outlandish, ending. Colin Farrell has a brooding intensity and masters the deprived yet cunning Eastern European marksman intent on avenging his wife and daughters' death. Terence Howard could have been replaced with a more commanding presence as the main antagonist, but overall he performed well enough. Noomi Rapace played the scarred and strange woman-next-door to perfection, and her and Farrell's broken twosome crossing paths created a symmetry in the plot that played well against the other story at play. I was also impressed by Dominic Cooper, who usually doesn't do anything special, but here he mastered his small role. The music played a great part here, too, however it could have used the hand of a more seasoned pro to tweak it to perfection. It's not surprising that the film was a cool, calm and collected thriller since it was made by the director of Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, which is superb.

A-