Colin Farrell Has One Of Netflix’s Most Popular Movies This Week
A Colin Farrell movie you might have missed is dominating Netflix.
This article is more than 2 years old
Dead Man Down may not be one of Colin Farrell’s better-known movies, but right now it is the second most-watched movie on Netflix in the USA this week.
Colin Farrell is Victor, a man who has methodically infiltrated the criminal empire of Alphonse Hoyt (Terrance Howard), the ruthless kingpin whose set up in New York City. Victor has a goal though. It’s not to climb the ladder of Hoyt’s empire, but it is to bring down the kingpin. Victor needs to make Hoyt pay for murdering Victor’s wife and daughter two years earlier.
While Victor plans out his revenge, at the same time he is being carefully watched. Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) also has plans. Though Beatrice isn’t aware of Victor’s true intentions with Hoyt, she knows that Victor works for him. In fact, Beatrice has a video showing Victor killing a man for Hoyt.
When they first meet, Beatrice immediately lets Victor know her motivation. She will take the video to the police unless Victor takes care of her problem. She wants the drunk driver who disfigured her face dead.
While Victor struggles with this request, he continues on with his torment of Hoyt. Unbeknownst to Hoyt, the death threats he is receiving are actually coming from Victor. To get in even deeper and gain more trust, Victor saves Hoyt from a Jamaican gang shoot-out. Victor continues to pressure Hoyt, while all along Hoyt not only considers Victor a trusted employee but thinks all the threats and killings are coming from his rivals.
As things begin to reach their tipping point, Victor and Beatrice have become closer. Not wanting Beatrice to suffer any psychological effect the murder may have on her, Victor chooses not to kill the drunk driver. Beatrice, on the other hand, decides not to share a video of Victor killing an Albanian kingpin’s brother, one which Victor was intending to blame on Hoyt’s crew. She knows if she were to share it, Victor would be killed.
Does love have a place in gangland war? Two people who were out for the ultimate revenge find more than they bargained for and now must decide how to reconcile the horror that found them.
Danish director and screenwriter Niels Arden Oplev was the man behind the camera for Dead Man Down with a script written by J.H. Wyman. Critically speaking, Dead Man Down was a mixed bag. Many critics called the Colin Farrell film out for its pacing with Robbie Collin of the Daily Telegraph saying, “This is too dull to function as a thriller and too silly to qualify as anything else.”
On the other hand, Mike Massie from Gone with the Twins said of the Colin Farrell movie, “The vengeful gangster and his plight may be a repetitive backstory, but the cryptic structuring and competent acting strengthen the refreshingly fluctuating twists.”
While the film teeter-tottered between good and bad critically, fans didn’t find it especially attractive at the box office. Even with the likes of Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, along with Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham and two Oscar-nominated actors in Howard and Isabelle Huppert, the movie only saw an $18 million box office on Oplev’s $30 million budget. Not good numbers.
Colin Farrell’s career can be easily described as hit or miss. On the hit side is Hart’s War, Minority Report, The Recruit, Phone Booth, In Bruges, and Seven Psychopaths. On the miss side, Farrell has checked in with Daredevil, S.W.A.T. (a guilty pleasure), Miami Vice, and Total Recall. He also played the one-armed father in the uneven live-action Disney’s Dumbo.
Two of Colin Farrell’s more notable films were biopics. The first was Oliver Stone’s Alexander, where Farrell played Alexander the Great. The movie was a hit internationally but failed in the United States as his portrayal of the conqueror as bisexual created a huge controversy.
The second biopic was the much-better received Academy Award-nominated The New World. Director Terrance Malick brought Colin Farrell on as Captain John Smith, founder of Jamestown, Virginia, and told the story of Smith and his falling in love with the Native American princess Pocahontas.
As many know, Colin Farrell will next be seen as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which features Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader and Paul Dano as the Riddler.
If you’re in the mood for some decent gangland action, check out Colin Farrell in Dead Man Down on Netflix.
