All Rise...

Judge David Johnson sheds no tears for the Deadheads.

The Charge

Repentance by way of knife-fighting.

The Case

From the guy who brought us the cool if uneven The Man from Nowhere comes another back-loaded gangworld epic; that is, if you're looking for a slow-burn actioner that takes its sweet time getting spooled up then drops some insane violence, there might be something here for you.

The story centers around Gon (Jang Dong-gun), a guy with a broken past who, as these sad orphans tend to do apparently, finds his way into the world of murder for hire. An accomplished and lethal hitman, he bottoms out when a particularly bloody contract ends in the death of an innocent young girl.

Scarred and ready to exit the assassination game, Gon travels to Korea for one last job, only to discover that his target is the little girl's mother. Unwilling to follow through, Gon ends up in a full-on gangster war and that's the back end of your movie.

Right out of the chute: the action that caps the film is pretty solid. For a good half hour you're looking at nonstop mayhem. And it's varied: knife battles, gunfights, multiple explosions and some sustained hand-to-hand pugilism (punctuated by a few too many hard-to-believe near-death experiences).

I heartily endorse this stuff. As someone always on the lookout for inventive (and largely grounded) approaches to cinematic action, I was generally impressed with the staging of the sequences here—bloody, inventive and blistering.

However, your enjoyment of the film as a whole will hinge entirely on your patience. This is indeed a methodical climb for the first two-thirds (maybe more). Gon's journey of self-flagellation dominates the runtime and in a way it makes the culminating havoc more satisfying. The metric ton of guilt that he's heaped upon himself needs to be funneled somewhere, so why not in the service of extreme violence perpetrated against men with scoped automatic rifles?

If only this set-up could have been more streamlined. As it stands, No Tears for the Dead pushes 120 minutes (as all movies these days are apparently mandated to do) and it feels it. Even when the fireworks pop off, I was still squirming in my seat, restless and a bit bored.

All a bummer, because everything here is top-notch, from the acting to the set design to the stunt-work; it just could have benefitted from a scalpel whack or two.

High-performing Blu-ray from team CJ. The 1.78:1/1080p HD transfer is a winner, clean and clear and, paired with the aggressive Dolby 5.1 mix, provides a suitable A/V treatment. Two bonus features: a director's commentary and making-of featurette.

The Verdict

Sizzles at the end, but you're standing in the buffet line for a while first. Still, not guilty.

Give us your feedback!

Did we give No Tears for the Dead (Blu-ray) a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.

Share This Review

Follow DVD Verdict

Other Reviews You Might Enjoy

• Stealth
• Fearful Terrorist Movies
• Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)
• It's Easier For A Camel...