The film tells the story of Victor, who begins his mission against the whole criminal world in New York for the purpose of discovering his old boss. Things turn out to be a completely bad course that has caused the death of Victor's wife and daughter. On the way, Victor meets Beatrice, who has the same goal as they cooperate to restore justice and righteousness within a short period.
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.
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.
A way-too-leisurely thriller whose destination is fairly obvious from early on, but to which the talented cast apply themselves with effortful seriousness.
It takes forever to get going, unspooling its hopelessly convoluted, unwieldy plot for so long that it loses whatever marginal narrative momentum it possesses.
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.
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.
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.
