This is intriguing. Dead Man Down feels like a blend of a European revenge thriller with a more straight-forward American crime film. Director Niels Arden Oplev has established his credibility with his work on the original version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, even it I am less fond of the film than most. His first America film is an interesting experiment, even if Oplev can’t quite pull it off as seamlessly as the material requires.
Dead Man Down buckles a bit under the weight of two sets of genre requirements. It is by turns quiet, withdrawn and introspective, but also loud, overwhelming and exposition-filled. These two facets of the film – feeling like the demands of a European film against an American mainstream release – seem to be at war with one another. The result is something that is more interesting than entirely satisfying.
They do make a bloody mess…
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alphonse, colin farrell, crime, Crime film, Dead Man, Dead Man Down, dominic cooper, F. Murray Abraham, film, Movie, Niels Arden Oplev, non-review review, Noomi Rapace, Oplev, review, terrence howard, United States, Victor | Leave a comment »
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