Dead Man Down (2013)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie is good, well directed, good the recitation of actors, good the plot good the story-line, but the final scene. The final scene is the classic emphatic magnification of the hero able to face and beat the evil villains in few time. Tarantino was able to make good the final scene in Django where the hero could prevail in a very difficult way, so that scene lasted long time in order to manage every little particular. This comparison allows to conclude that a realistic final is better than a final full of exaggerations above all because currently the viewers are no longer the viewers of movies in the 80 years as die hard or lethal weapon. Told this, the movie is pleasant for the story, the feelings, the motivations, the goodness in the heart in confront of the cruelty of evil.

It's the acting that sets this movie way above so many others. Of course, there has to be a plausible story, and great direction and production. DMD has just about all that is required.I particularly liked the quite-often long pauses between sentences. That is the way real people talk, they stop to think, they look to one side or somewhere else. If I see a movie that is rapid-fire blah-blah, it will spoil the atmosphere. So, not here. Another good point is the occasional scene which does require some dots to be joined, ie, there is no explicit telling, we have to guess or understand what is going on, ie, Victor is seen walking towards Alex's house and a bit later Vic now knows about Alex's credit card payments, so... he must have gone into the house to get that info.Farrell and Rapace and Terence Howard the very suave bad guy, do such a good job, and Cooper is much better than the awful role in Mamma Mia (IMO). Interesting also is the brief mention of the ship "United States", looking a bit sad and neglected now.One event which is not really explained or even hinted at, is the remote gadget which makes a whole lot of other gear blink green lights. - explosives maybe, or a deleted scene? I'm not sure. The brief "extra" feature on the DVD shows how they prepare for the fights and the escape from the fifth floor, interesting. And both Farrell and Rapace say a bit too.

Wow, what a way to waste a good film. The visuals are interesting. The setup is neat albeit confusing to some degree. Unfortunately sloppy, lazy editing is where the viewer is given the knowledge that the next 2/3 of the film is going to be a loser. Without ruining the film, the "spontaneous video" shown could never have been taken with a phone camera. It's insulting to the viewer to even suggest it. And what begins to be a possibly interesting movement towards the conclusion begins to unravel badly into clichéd Hollywood moments.I give the film 2 points for great visuals. 1 point for some great actors doing their good work, Farrell being nothing special. And another point for a good start. And the last point because at least it wasn't terribly boring. But the last half becomes so unbelievable and the ending so preposterous and stupid that I almost feel like deducting points. I can only say that you should enjoy the film for part of the ride but be prepared to roll your eyes in disbelief and despair on multiple occasions on the way to the films pitifully Hollywood ending. Great start, limp to the finish.

Really solid and heartfelt gangster/revenge film with some interesting and original plot elements thrown in. All of the performances are top notch, and there doesn't seem to be nearly as much suspension of belief as is normally required for this kind of movie, although part of that feeling is no doubt due to how well this production is done. It carries a sense of foreboding doom throughout, but, by modern standards at least, the actual violence depicted is not particularly extreme or gratuitous, instead being rather sporadic, albeit fairly realistic and unpleasant when it does occur. This is one of those seemingly rare films which, while centered around criminals, doesn't seem to glorify them in any way, and, if anything, makes a life of serious crime look like a very bad choice. Another positive point is that the conclusion wasn't completely telegraphed, and so with both bleak and hopeful outcomes on the table, tension was very effectively maintained; however, with that said, it's the ending where this film lost so much of the magic it had been so carefully crafting, and why I dropped it down from a 10 to an 8. Specifically, and I'm sorry if this is a little bit of a spoiler, it was really disappointing when the grand finale degenerated into that of pretty much just another typical action movie, sadly squandering so much of the thoughtful plot development that had gotten it to that point. Suddenly it became necessary to very consciously suspend belief, which really broke much of the spell it had been casting. (My best guess is that someone made the unfortunate mistake of calling in Michael Bay to do some last minute script polishing, no doubt fearing that the film was otherwise too intelligent for broad commercial success.) All things considered though, it was still way, way better than most movies in this genre, which tend to be all quips and no heart.