Man On Fire | Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning | What an odd place to put a bomb!

Man On Fire | Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning | great

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Man On Fire

	Man On Fire Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning Fox Home Entertainment, 2004 average customer review:based on 305 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Style trumps substance in Man on Fire, a slick, brooding reunion of Crimson Tide star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott. The ominous, crime-ridden setting is Mexico City, where a dour, alcoholic warrior with a mysterious Black Ops past (Washington) seeks redemption as the devoted bodyguard of a lovable 9-year-old girl (the precociously gifted Dakota Fanning), then responds with predictable fury when she is kidnapped. Prolific screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential) sets a solid emotional foundation for Washington's tormented character, and Scott's stylistic excess compensates for a distended plot that's both repellently violent and viscerally absorbing. Among Scott's more distracting techniques is the use of free-roaming, comic-bookish subtitles... even when they're unnecessary! Adapted from a novel by A.J. Quinnell and previously filmed as a 1987 vehicle for Scott Glenn, Man on Fire is roughly on par with Scott's similar 1990 film Revenge, efficiently satisfying Washington's incendiary bloodlust under a heavy blanket of humid, doom-laden atmosphere. --Jeff Shannon

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What an odd place to put a bomb!

A movie that taps into the alter-ego of a perpetually liked actor, maybe even one of the most favorite actors in Hollywood, is always a tempting and dangerous proposition. Whereas some may go in opposition of their nice-guy façade for a sappy, genre-bridging attempt at drama (I'm talking to you Jim Carey), others, like Denzel Washington, have embraced the dark side of his repertoire, and taken on roles in which their characters are disturbed at best, and borderline maniacal at worst.

Man on Fire is part revenge, part crisis, a movie that plays upon humanity's protective nature and sympathies for children. John W. Creasy (Washington) is a former soldier whose expertise is in death-dealing; he is a firearms, demolitions, and battle expert who has many notches on his belt of death. Unfortunately, his propensity for alcohol has diminished his skills and marketability, and has led him to Mexico to work as a bargain-bin bodyguard for a wealthy family. His mission is to protect Pita (Dakota Fanning), the daughter of Samuel (Marc Anthony) and Lisa (Radha Mitchell). As Pita is quick to point out - and quote stats - there are a bunch of kidnappings in Mexico City, especially when there are unprotected children of prosperous foreign families running around.

Sure enough, Pita is kidnapped, and the Pandora's Box of Creasy's vengeance is opened. I can't really blame the abductors; Creasy didn't look imposing. However, his worn-down but determined visage belies the cauldron of vindictive sadism ready to explode on anyone and anything that gets in his way.

From there the direction of the movie uses a jerky, staccato filming style to convey the internal grief of the characters and the impending chaos that Creasy is about to unleash as he uncovers those responsible for the kidnapping. I especially like the interactions between Creasy and the Spanish-speaking criminals, as the translation is shown on-screen in a very unique manner, adding to the frantic feel that the window of opportunity to save Pita may be eroding. Along the way he receives help from a friendly journlist (Rachel Ticotin) hell-bent on removing the veil from the face of police corruption. He also gets assistance from a former soldier buddy (Chrisopher Walken), who refers to Creasy's skill as a soldier and a killer by stating that Creasy is an artist of death about to paint a masterpiece.

I love the film,, but had trouble feeling any remorse for Creasy. The film sets up for redemption, and plays upon the audience's pathos, but the effort (which works for Pita) just doesn't work well for Creasy - possibly a direct result of his passion for revenge and muder juxtaposed against his seemingly pious regret aimed at his carnage-filled past. Nonethelss, this movie is superb, and highly recommended.

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great

this is a must have movie for anyone who have that moment in life and thinks that everything is going wrong after watching this movie you will just say wooow

Man on Fire

This purchase came in a timely manner & was in great condition. I would buy from the person again.

Wow. . .

I can pretty much take anything cinema has to offer (I survived "Caddyshack II", for example), but I gotta admit, MAN ON FIRE made me look away from the carnage at least once or twice. Any movie headlined by Denzel Washington translates into an instant spellbinder; Washington puts an extra gear into all of his roles. Yet the gritty, malevolent, gratuitous violence of this film transcends Washington's powerful acting--and it's violence enhanced, yet ultimately punished, by director Tony Scott's eery cinematography.

The plot is certainly nothing original: A man with emotional baggage befriends a youngster (a precocious Dakota Fanning), then embarks on a one-man apocalyptic quest to avenge a kidnapping gone awry. Yet this is not your grandmother's quest for vengeance; Washington punishes the bad guys until your stomach flip-flops, and his brooding protagonism is amplified by camera shots and angles and blurs and stop-motion and hand-held sequences. . .compelling cinematography so dominant it eventally interferes with the story itself. And because much of this movie (set in a very urban Mexico City) is in Spanish, director Scott dubiously inserts subtitles--even when the dialogue is in broken English.

Scott is also the star of this DVD's extra features; he tells us, gleefully, about shooting the auto smash-ups, dusting off and using an old 1910-ish winding camera--he even recalls a delightful story about his bodyguard getting beaten up by gangbangers during a late-night filmmaking session in the bowels of Mexico City. This is all good stuff, and only enhances the "ick" factor of this most troubling film. MAN ON FIRE gets your attention, and keeps it, through all the muck and the gore, even while you're wishing the camera shot would stay still, and come into focus.
--D. Mikels, Author, Walk-On

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