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Created Mar 09, 2013 03:54PM PST • Edited Nov 07, 2013 06:37PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Some great acting and more than a little visual excitement make Dead Man Down a richly entertaining action thriller. Overcooked dialog and an undernourished plot make it more than a little disappointing.

   The reunion of Noomi Rapace – the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – with her director from the first and best of the now four Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies augured greatness. As did an appearance from Dominic Cooper, a must-see actor after his turn as Uday Hussein in The Devil’s Double. Those three – along with the always handsome Colin Farrell and the always compelling Armand Assante – don’t disappoint, but are let down by a merely OK script.

   So on this slow March weekend – as far as movie premieres are concerned – Dead Man Down is a decent ticket. One suspects it will garner a more favorable reaction down the road when it’s available on-demand.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace have a tormented chemistry together. Interestingly, each affects a perfect American accent, though she’s Swedish playing a French immigrant to NY, while he’s Irish playing a Hungarian immigrant. Acting!

   Farrell’s classical handsomeness and buff middleweight physique are put to best usage the less he speaks, so the role of laconic avenger suits him. He’s like a low rent Bruce Wayne, complete with a Bat Cave behind his refrigerator.

   Rapace essays another scarred woman, this time visibly so after a horrific car crash left one side of her face looking like a subway map. She shows much more vulnerability however than as Lisbeth Salander. How could she not? Still, her terrific performance as a tragic young woman desirous of love marks an important step in her journey to well-rounded moviestar.

   The great Dominic Cooper appears the fool at first, not even immediately recognizable as the man who played Saddam’s son Uday. Then his inimitable character emerges: half foolish, half deadly. Brilliant.

   Terrence Howard disappoints as a cocaine kingpin, his high-pitched sotto voce simply not conveying its intended gravitas. He’s got a great look, but his voice is better suited for the silent era than the talkies.

   A trio of great old stars deepen the movie in their short time on screen.

   • Isabelle Huppert as Noomi Rapace’s lovely French Mama.
   • F. Murray Abraham as Colin Farrell’s partner in vengeance.
   • Armand Assante as a crime lord. Assante should be in at least one big movie a year. His IMDb Filmography says he’s busier than ever, but most of the titles seem to be low budget. Pity.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Niels Arden Oplev brings impressive visual inventiveness to the film, especially when Colin Farrell’s one man wrecking crew lays waste to a small army of bad guys, but also in the quiet scenes between two tortured souls living across a chasm of air in a low rent apartment tower.

    This isn’t surprising given the tremendous flair Oplev infused in his previous film, the first Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Let’s hope he gets a similar quality script to that Swedish masterpiece for his next outing.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Ladies and Gentlemen, the Oscar for best use of a Ram Pickup in an action movie goes to Dead Man Down.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.3

    Brutally violent. For we action movie fans, this is a good thing.

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.3

    Hyper violent firefights go on for extended sequences in midtown Manhattan with NYPD nowhere in sight. C’mon man.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.9

23. Biological Glib 2.0

24. Physical Glib 1.9