Already Dead

The family man Thomas Archer (Ron Eldard) is successful at work and happily married with his beloved wife Sarah Archer (Marisa Coughlan) and they have an adorable boy. When a burglar kills his son and the babysitter and beats Sarah, Thomas fights the killer and glances at a tattoo on his wrist; however the killer escapes and the lives of Thomas and Sarah are destroyed. Neither Sarah nor Thomas recover from their loss and when the detective (Patrick Kilpatrick) informs that the case will be closed due to lack of clues, budget and manpower to proceed, Thomas is forced to go on therapy with the psychiatrist Dr. Heller (Christopher Plummer). Three months later, Thomas has no psychological improvement and Dr. Heller offers an expensive alternative method to resolve his trauma: Thomas should pay US$ 500,000.00 to a secret group of vigilantes that would deliver the criminal to him and he could revenge upon the man that ruined his family. Thomas accepts the deal and is summoned to an abandoned facility monitored by cameras where he meets a gagged man (Til Schweiger) tied up to a chair in a room with instruments of torture. Thomas tortures the man that should be the wanted killer but out of the blue, he finds that the man does not have the tattoo on the wrist. He calls Dr. Heller to explain the mistake but the doctor tells that the only way to leave the room is killing the man that is a scum. But Thomas does not accept the offer and teams up with the man. Will they succeed to flee from the place?

"Already Dead" is a suspenseful low-budget thriller with an engaging story and great performances. The plot about revenge builds up tension and the twists are predictable except the last one in the very last minute. But the film is very enjoyable. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

An interesting twist to the typical revenge movie.

Ron Eldard's life is turned upside down after his son is killed and his wife (Marisa Coughlan) is attacked during a burglary. This information is presented in brief flashbacks as he proceeds to a room where the supposed burglar is strapped to a chair and a table full of implements a la Hostel is available to him to exact his revenge.

Christopher Plummer plays a psychiatrist that arranges for former law enforcement officers to find the perpetrator when the police fail. But, things don't go as planned and Eldard ends up running for his life.

An exciting thriller with lots of action in the second half, and an unexpected ending.

The premise is simple and the movie takes place in a warehouse: one man has been given the killer of his son to exact vengeance, but that's not really how it is...

The acting was good for the most part - the script was fine, the direction was solid and the story line was fine with small doses of suspension of disbelief. But hey it's not a documentary.

Maybe the denouement could've been a little more clear but it worked.

Quite gory and a lot of violence so this definitely isn't one for the family video night until the kids are asleep.

Enjoy.

I have to be in the mood for thrillers as I often find them a little predictable. Not so with 'Already Dead'. (Btw, the title seems to be a very poor choice, coming from a glib one-liner in the movie and has no relevance to the plot whatsoever nor even to what you might think the plot might be.)

When Archer's happy, affluent life as a ordinary man is destroyed in a moment of life's cruelty as a result of the murder of his young son, he and his wife are devastated by the tragedy. It is tearing him up inside and destroying his marriage. When without really thinking about the implications, he is given or led into a clandestine opportunity to get his own back, without recrimination upon himself, against the man who destroyed his life he embarks upon a course of actions that leads where he would never have expected. There are some surprises in store.

In the hands of a different Director, this movie could have been so much better IMO, but for all its many Directorial faults, the acting skills of the people playing the main characters and a plausible storyline carry the film and make it eminently watchable, indeed, extremely suspenseful at times. Ron Eldard (Archer) and Til Schweiger (the 'man') are outstandingly good in their roles, although Plummer is just being a ham.

There are times where the pace slows a little and I felt a little bored whilst waiting for something to happen where a better Director would have used suspenseful music or switched scene or added dialogue, also occasionally better lighting would have not been a bad idea - watching a black screen whilst two men are fighting but you can't see them is a bit frustrating. Nevertheless I was intensely interested to see what happened so I stuck with the movie despite the less skillful Direction.

I am being rather generous with my rating at 8 stars, but the film deserves some merit for a very interesting storyline, convincingly portrayed by skillful actors despite only passably competent Direction.

Worth watching to the end despite a few lulls in pace. Overall a good film, with a few twists and several incredibly tense scenes that should stop you switching it off. For all its faults, I enjoyed it.

I wasn't completely sure what to expect from this movie given the plot summary, title and no previous user comments.

The movie starts slightly 'within' the story so we are given a few flashbacks at the beginning to let us know why this slightly dishevelled guy is walking with a big black bag (hmmm, I wonder what's in it!). However, although it seemed to start out pretty predictable, it was still intriguing enough for the first 15 minutes or so to keep me watching (that's my usual time limit before I decide to switch off or not).

There are some twists and turns along the way, though the seasoned movie aficionado will probably guess them all anyway (I try not to work it out - I prefer to just sit back and go along with the ride). It does get a little slow in the middle, but then picks up again towards the end.

The acting was fine, particularly Til Schweiger (The Man), who should be doing better in Hollywood than his Filmography suggests.

If you like a bit of suspense and a bit of action without too much thinking, then I can recommend this movie. It wasn't terrible but it won't win any Oscars either. 6/10