A Review by Phil Calabro
2004, Distributed by 20th Century Fox, Dir. Tony Scott - Starring Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, Rachel Ticotin, Jesus Ochoa, Mickey Rourke, Angelina Pelaez
'Man on Fire' is one of those movies that all of your co-workers and friends will ooh-and-ahh over until you finally see it and you would wonder why it's the talk of the town in the first place. It's got some odd plot features that make it a bit more interesting and more occasional filmgoers wow themselves to death, but in the end it makes me want to chant a little tune akin to that of 'The Wizard of Oz': "Violence, plot holes, and Denzel Washington! Oh My!"
CIA agent and former Marine John Creasy (Washington) is an alcoholic down-and-out agent in Mexico until he is hired to protect the daughter Pita (Fanning) of a wealthy Mexican family (Anthony and Mitchell). He's a very depressed man, and is guided by God, but is soon lifted up by the spry nature of Pita. But when a kidnap-and-ransom mob group takes Pita, Creasy sets out to find revenge on whoever committed these horrible crimes, blah blah bliddidy blah. So he hunts them down, guns them, cuts them, blows them up, and sets their cars on fire. More on that later.
I'm not sure if anyone else would agree with me, but Denzel Washington either bored me to tears or made me think he was overacting. He's not a very convincing alcoholic either, but I may blame that directly on Tony Scott's editing (more later). Washington is rather lackluster as the depressed Creasy,so when he has to be prophetic, it's like he's got a Bible duct-taped to the side of his head. Dakota Fanning just bothers me. She's another Queen Latifah - a young and talented actress who has the same role each time. She's her usual cynical curious smarter-than-her-age kind of kid, and once she steps out of those kinds of roles, then we'll see. Mark Anthony shouldn't be allowed to act, and Christopher Walken has worn out his time as the perennial supporting actor. He's in no real viable scenes, and mumbles off his occasional silliness like it's going to save the movie. It doesn't, he should've seen it coming when he did Envy.
Tony Scott took a great revenge movie and torn it to shreds with his overly stylized editing. The first half of the film feels like you've watched the first entire season of Pokemon, because there are so many flashing lights and scenes that it'll make your eyes tear up. It's also unnecessarily boring, drawn out, and filled with so much extra material that is usually reserved for the other features on the DVD. You've got a bit of drama, a bit of Christopher Walken mumbling, and some terribly sappy bonding scenes between Creasy and Pita. But then, the kid's taken away, and Creasy goes directly into 'The Bride'-mode and starts torturing everybody he finds accountable for it. He goes to the insane depths of blowing up men via explosive suppositories and cutting off their fingers systematically, which works in some movies, but doesn't work in the second half of this one. It feel misplaced and too driven.
I can't recommend Man on Fire despite its popularity in rentals. It's just a silly movie that will bore and freak you out for a couple of bucks just to slab on a rotten ending. It's either rushed, slow, or just plain off-the-wall. I feel that Denzel has had too many of these little streamlined action flicks for one year, let's see him in something that could at least get him a Golden Globe nomination.
1/4 stars
