Deadfall is an above-average genre piece with a terrific cast that builds to a bloody Thanksgiving dinner shoot-out I found pretty close to unforgettable.
Tonally, Deadfall seems to be aiming somewhere between Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and the brilliant Pine Barrens episode of "The Sopranos," with a classic Western showdown at its climax. But the pedestrian writing holds it back.
Deadfall suffers most obviously from a sense of not being adequately developed.
50
Village Voice
Village Voice
There are hints of a fun, trashy film beneath the surface, but that film is always subservient to the dull one Dean and Ruzowitzky were more comfortable making.
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
There isn't much to the characters in this morose thriller.
38
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
None of Eric Bana's mildly rousing moments clearly rise above the laborious gobbledygook that Ruzowitzky builds up through the course of the film's 94-minute duration.
A crime saga cobbled together from scraps of genre predecessors, Deadfall's unbelievable silliness escalates at every turn.
20
Time Out
Time Out
Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) may be an occasionally interesting visual stylist, but storytelling-wise, his second English-language effort couldn't be more stillborn.