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Man on Fire

Denzel Washington is John Creasy, a bitter former CIA operative. A friend (Christopher Walken) talks him into taking a job as a bodyguard in Mexico City. Dakota Fanning is Pita, the child Creasy is assigned to protect. She takes an instant liking to him and worms her way into his heart. When kidnappers shoot Creasy and take Pita, Creasy will stop at nothing to exact revenge.

Washington and Fanning are terrific, the supporting cast great, the script well thought out (though some people may be disturbed by Creasy’s cold and deliberate methods of obtaining information and dispatching with the kidnappers). What ruined this picture for me was the directing/editing. Tony Scott uses lots of slow motion, which is always distracting, along with jumpy flash-frame editing sequences that pulled me right out of the action – I had to look away from the screen it got so annoying. Those sorts of visual stylings may be appropriate in the TV commercial world Scott came from, but it was way overdone here. The addition of those mostly pointless sequences certainly contributed to the film’s two and a half hour running time.

The standard DVD release includes two commentary tracks as the only extras. One is with Scott. The other features Fanning, producer Lucas Foster, and screenwriter Brian Helgeland.

I recommend the film for the outstanding acting and strong script, but the intrusive cutting and camera-work will certainly keep me from watching it again.

Written by: Auriette Lindsey

Reviewers Rating: 5.5
Reader's Rating: 6.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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