andrewpeterfarrow
Denzel Washington at his best, although a brutal story, with redemption at its core. Fantastic music score, stay with it as the beginning takes time to build to one if the best crescendo I've seen in movie making.
d_klimov
Despite the film's predictability, thanks to Denzel Washington's presence, it manages to stay interesting throughout.
A typical revenge story here, with Denzel playing a mysterious bodyguard, who, seeking redemption for his past sins, accepts a job offer to guard rich parents' (Radha Mitchell and Marc Anthony) daughter named Lupita (Dakota Fanning) in the midst of a highly active kidnapping the rich kids season in Mexico City.
What makes this film standout from amongst it's genre peers is the level of intensity, which isn't lowered from beginning to end, with a few minor coffee breaks here and there.
It is well acted, with Washington stealing the show with his portrayal of this complex character, with barely any backstory, but still interesting enough to root for. The supporting cast consisting of such well-established names in Hollywood as Christopher Walker and Mickey Rourke felt kinda misused, and their screen time is extremely short. Especially Rourke. With his charisma, there could have been so much more to his lawyer character then we got.
I absolutely loved direction and effective editing, with it all being flavored by an awesome soundtrack.
The plot, though, could have been better structured then it is done here. The antagonist is an empty space. As sad as it sounds. I did not buy into the whole "plot twist" either. The script just seemed unfinished, as if it was completed as they were going.
Overall, the film is more then watchable. The ending is surprisingly satisfying, and the production is top notch. But the story and it's main concept was a huge ditch, leaving much to be desired. I'm scoring it 7/10. It's a great film, but could have been so much better.
Blue_Pill
Alcoholic mercenary Creasy (Washington) is all washed-up, until his friend (Walken) finds him a job in Mexico City, as bodyguard for a rich family's little girl Pita (Fanning). The taciturn man and melancholy girl slowly develop a strong bond... that is utterly shattered the day that Pita is kidnapped and that negotiations are sorely mishandled."Man on Fire"'s title works against it. It proclaims an adrenaline- fueled action film, when in fact what we get is very different. What could be mistakenly thought to be a prologue (Creasy is introduced, meets Pita and the relationship is shown) constitutes a good half of the film's running time. Washington and Faning are on top form, the former tortured and angry and the latter endearing without being cloying, so it is a tribute to Scott and screenwriter Helgeland that the film takes its time showing their odd relationship. This makes things all the more hurtful and outraging when she is captured in a kidnapping that leaves Creasy severely scarred, both emotionally and physically.The film earns its title in the second half, not because of non-stop action - which it fore-goes in order to give us something more pondered and cruel - but because Creasy is literally ablaze with silent fury. As he hunts down anyone who participated or profited from Pita's kidnapping, dismantling rings of Mexico City's tower of corruption, his methods get bloodier while his movement actually get slower. Creasy races against time and his own likely death, as a tragic figure who's newfound reason to live has been taken away from him.
said-buet10
This has a good story and some great actors in it. So it was bound to be enjoyable and it didn't fail to live up to that expectation.But I've got an issue with the making. The editing of some scene(where the camera shakes, a lot of cuts happens. I don't know the right term for this) was simply annoying. If I somehow saw this in big screen I wouldn't be surprised to see some people get dizzy!! If the movie lacked this annoying bit I would've given it 7/10 easily.One thing I loved about this movie is how adorable Dakota Fanning was. Her acting was superb and complementary to the great acting from Denzel. An on the topic of Denzel's acting we cant expect anything less from the great actor.All in all this is far far better than typical action movies which addressed some real life problem of that time period in an entertaining way. Without that one issue this could've been a perfect action film.
AD
