What I'm Watching: Dead Man Down

FilmDistrict

With this post I will be bringing back something I started a few years ago called "What I'm Watching." I'll take any movies that I watch that are available on DVD (or soon to be available thanks to the power of the interwebs) and give brief reviews to help you decide whether or not it's worth it to pick up this movie at Redbox or whatever.

Why I watched it: there's a couple of reasons I watched this movie. For one, the cast is pretty good. Colin Farrell although not always the best actor is still usually pretty entertaining and a good action star. Noomi Rapace is a great actress and fast rising star since her starring role in the Swedish Dragon Tattoo trilogy. And the rest of the notable cast includes Terrence Howard (Crash, Iron Man) and Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double). Dead Man Down is also director Niels Arden Oplev's first American debut since the success of his Dragon Tattoo trilogy with American audiences. Put all these things together and this looks like it could be a smart, stylish, violent action-thriller.

What I thought: For the most part, Dead Man Down is quite entertaining. The action scenes, while not that different stylistically, are still pretty fun to watch. The overall tone tries a bit too hard to be dark when the content doesn't really live up to such a tone. At least, not in the way that the Dragon Tattoo movies did. The one thing that bugged me the most through the whole movie was the soundtrack. It's way too dramatic and constantly has these really intense effects for scenes that don't really need it because what's happening is obviously bad/violent/or whatever. The acting was pretty melodramatic too and Farrell's character hardly says anything and almost every time he does he's half mumbling. The story itself isn't half-bad but probably could've used a bit more harsh violence to make the bad guys seem even badder and the tone even darker.

Should you watch it: I'd say if you're in the mood for a semi-violent action-thriller, then yes! It's better than the average movie in this genre and while a bit inconsistent and unconvincing in places, it still manages to make for a pretty fun viewing.