Deadfall movie poster
D
Our Rating
Deadfall movie poster

Deadfall Review

Now available on Blu-ray and DVD (Buy on Amazon)

The curse of the obsessive movie critic strikes again. Despite warnings and outright cautions and having ignored the telltale signs, I gave in to morbid curiosity, and morbid curiosity had its way to me. Deadfall, the aimless thriller that has recently clawed its way onto DVD, is just that: aimless. And pointless. And barely worth the words in this movie review.

Deadfall stars Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam, and for some reason Sissy Spacek, and shows how talent can be wasted so easily. Momma always taught me that using "and" three times made it a run-on sentence, but that's just how Deadfall feels: a meandering gasp of moments that grows tiresome long before it gets to the point.

The plot has something to do about a casino heist gone wrong and an unlikable killer named Addison (Bana) and his sister Liza (Wilde) who are trying to reconnect amidst a winter storm. Liza seduces a local boy named Jay (Hunnam) with intentions to help Addison escape, but she ends up falling for Jay - and he for her - because he is Charlie Hunnam and she is Olivia Wilde. Meanwhile, Addison ends up taking a husband and wife hostage, who just happen to be Jay's parents.

Basically, Wilde and Hunnam spend much of their time having sex and inadequately trying to convince the audience that they are in love with one another, while Bana mumbles around killing people here and there. Oh, and there is a subplot about a police officer (Kate Mara) who gets no respect from her father the sheriff or her fellow officers.

It's one of the most contrived and pointless subplots ever put to film.

Very little happens in Deadfall and when it does, it's a shallow attempt at not being shallow. The acting isn't good because the actors don't care, because there is nothing to care about. This is Deadfall, and that is all there is.

Morbid curiosity. It's an evil, evil thing.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.

D
Our Rating