The sight of the WWE studios logo at the start of this action thriller doesn’t inspire much confidence. When it comes to orchestrating large men in leather pants pretending to hit each other with chairs, World Wrestling Inc may be second to none, but in terms of producing quality movies they’ve yet to prove themselves capable. To date their films have unsurprisingly been dumb action fests, mainly showcases for wrestlers wanting to prove their acting abilities extend slightly beyond the pantomime of the wrestling ring.
But here WWE seem to be aiming a little higher. There’s plenty of explosive action but this is less of a straight shoot-em-up and more of a European style revenge drama. Director Niels Arden Oplev is best known for the original and superior Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and he tries to bring some of the same neo-noir qualities to Dead Man Down with its sombre tone and grungy shadows.
It also has a far classier cast then most of the studio’s previous output. Whereas their previous work was headlined by the muscle-bound likes of John Cena, Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin; Dead Man Down has proper actors Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper and Terence Howard as the main players in its story of revenge.
And it’s an enjoyable but deeply flawed story. The main problem is that despite its flashy cast and visual flourishes Dead Man Down is still, at heart, a very dumb action film. The script has some pretty clever and unexpected twists and turns but it still feels like Oplev and his cast are operating on a level beneath them. To be fair Oplev has publicly stated that the film was taken away from him in the edit and it’s easy to imagine the bigwigs at WWE Studios being handed a Point Blank style revenge thriller and doing their best to mould it into something their target audience of aggressive teenage boys and mullet sporting rednecks would understand and appreciate.
Of all the cast Farrell feels the most wasted. His stoic avenging father and husband, working from within to take down Terence Howard’s gangster and his crew could have been played by a much less talented actor, including any of the aforementioned wrestlers. All he really needs to do is look alternately miserable and furious, and although he makes a convincing badass it’s still generic stuff and it’s hard to reconcile the fact that this is the same actor who gave such a funny and moving performance in In Bruges.
Noomi Rapace gives probably the best performance in the film as a troubled and bitter French woman living with her deaf mother (Isabelle Huppert) in New York. She gives a convincing performance, too convincing in fact as her scenes feel almost like gritty social drama that don’t mix well with the video game violence and logic-defying action sequences.
Unfortunately, as good as Rapace is and as much as she’s playing a strong character she eventually just becomes a standard damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by the hero. It’s a shame that after seeming like it was trying to go in a relatively original direction the film descends into action formula and culminates in a typically overdone and unrealistic explosive showdown. But it’s still reasonably entertaining as an action flick even if it’s too long and takes itself a lot more seriously than any halfway intelligent audience will. The extras are run-of-the-mill making of featurettes that don’t reveal any of the supposed on-set tension between Oplev and the producers.
Overall Verdict: An entertainingly pulpy thriller that takes itself far too seriously and wastes its talented cast but still has some admirably unpredictable twists and enjoyably ridiculous action.
Special Features:
Staging the Action: The Firefights
Revenge and Redemption: Crafting Dead Man Down
Revenge Technique: The Cinematography
Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon