Dead Man Down (Niels Arden Oplev, 2013)

The star of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is reunited with that film's director, having earned the right to do Hollywood through its success, but this is much less interesting fare. Noomi Rapace is a woman disfigured in a car accident who discovers that her neighbour is a contract killer and threatens to expose him so that he'll get rid of the man who caused her injury. As the hitman is Colin Farrell, we are on well-trodden ground and naturally he is a brooding piece of damaged goods too, with his own revenge mission. An eventual falling for each other is of course on the cards, but not before the script has rather tiresomely hopped between extreme violence and musings on dealing with loss for two long hours.

4/10