The movies released by WWE Studios over its eleven year history have mostly been action movies starring wrestlers, comedy movies starring wrestlers, and when the company has been ambitious, action-comedies starring wrestlers. Many of those films were direct-to-video and critically panned. However, in the last two years WWE Studios has taken a smarter approach to its filmmaking. First, it has begun acquiring independent films for release (2012’s The Day was the company’s first movie that featured no wrestlers) and the company’s slate of theatrical releases cast wrestlers in supporting or cameo roles instead of lead roles. Such is the case with Dead Man Down, a revenge thriller which stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace and features wrestler Wade Barrett (real name Stu Bennett) in a supporting role.
I’ve seen some of the earlier WWE Studio movies and none of them left much of an impression on me, especially since they simply looked like direct-to-video movies. Generally the lighting was poor, the acting was barely passable, and overall it seemed like the directors and writers sleepwalked to their paychecks. Dead Man Down fixes many of those issues by not only casting Farrell and Rapace, but also Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper, Isabelle Huppert, F. Murray Abraham, and Armand Assante, and also reunites Rapace with her Girl With the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev (the original Swedish version) with a script by J.H. Wyman (TV’s Fringe). As a result, Dead Man Down is a true film and not simply a vehicle for one of WWE’s stars to promote to its wrestling audience.
Victor (Farrell) is a New York City mob gunman alongside his best friend Darcy (Cooper) under Alphonse Hoyt (Howard). But Victor has a secret that actually pits him against Alphonse and his gang. However, his true colors are soon discovered by his neighbor Beatrice (Rapace). The left side of Beatrice’s face is full of scars because she was injured in a drunk driving accident, an accident in which the drunk driver who hit her got off with just a slap on the wrist. Beatrice blackmails Victor into doing what she wants to get her revenge on the drunk driver or she will expose him for whom he really is. But as the two spend time together plotting their respective revenges, plans begin to change.
I’m always a fan of films set in New York actually being shot in New York, and much of Dead Man Down was clearly shot in New York. Much of this film recalls the gritty 1970s New York crime films, like Jason Statham‘s New York movie Safe. Farrell makes a good lead, and although he sometimes doesn’t make the best role choices (Fright Night and Total Recall, anyone?), one can never fault Farrell for always trying something different. In the same vein, Rapace’s English film career has had so far also had ups (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), blips (Prometheus), and downs (Passion), so it’s great to see her reunited with Oplev to play a character who isn’t the typical deadweight female lead who’s just there to get held hostage (not that she doesn’t get held hostage, but still, she offers a lot more than that).
And that’s the most significant problem with the film — what starts as a pretty smart take on the revenge thriller with a twisted subplot ends up heading straight for pedestrian territory. At it’s heart the film is about scars — both emotional and (in Beatrice’s case) physical. The pair do make very interesting characters. I just wish Oplev and Wyman found a unique direction to go with them, because in so many aspects this film really is well-made, well-acted, and directed a heck of a lot better than the “shaky cam” style of so many current action films.
One of my only other issues is that the film has just too much orchestration by composer Jacob Groth. During quiet moments between Victor and Beatrice we are subjected to blaring Disney-ish emotional music cues. It’s not bad music — Groth did the music for the Swedish Millennium trilogy — but it’s unnecessary and a heavy-handed way to telegraph the emotional tone when Farrell and Rapace are doing just fine on their own.
As a solid revenge thriller, Dead Man Down is a huge step in the right direction for WWE Studios. When the film began and the WWE Studios logo flashed on the screen I heard a few groans from the audience. Though I’m not sure the room full of critics all fell in love with the film, I bet at the very least they won’t be snickering as loudly next time that logo appears before a movie.
Rating: A well-made revenge thriller with a strong story and a solid cast, though it misses greatness (6/10).
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