Man On Fire

There's an inherent jealousy that most people have of the rich and famous especially when they achieve success at a relatively young age. While I myself may have this jealously once in a while it's rare that I feel such envy towards a child actor (considering the usual downward spiral that occurs after the childness wears off). However Dakota Fanning is a notable exception. She's barely in her teens and she's already worked with Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Mike Myers, and in this movie's case Denzel Washington. All my envy aside I shall leave it at the door when I review this movie. I will also admit that I saw this movie on a cruise ship when I had limited access to the outside world so I viewed it much like a pilgrim would view any hint of land on the Atlantic crossing. And now we shall view this with an objective eye.

Aaaaaaaand plot! The movie opens with a kidnapping and gives a number of depressing statistics about the survival numbers. Cut to Samuel (Marc Antony), who is in need of a bodyguard for his daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning) since his wife won't let her out of the house otherwise. Luckily they know Christopher Walken who knows John Creasey (Denzel Washington) a burnt out Special Forces operative with a severe drinking problem and a bit of a death wish. With his background Creasy is an ideal bodyguard and does his best to do his job without maintain human contact despite Pita's attempts to be friendly. Soon they find common ground and Creasy begins to feel like his life has purpose. But good things can only last so long and Pita is involved in a kidnapping attempt that wounds Creasy. Once he's somewhat healed Creasy unveils the bad man underneath and goes after anyone involved in the kidnapping.

As the title of this review may indicate this movie is essentially two movies. Part one is actually my favorite part where Creasy learns to live again. The pacing is slow but sure both Denzel and Dakota demonstrate a great deal of charisma and bring a good deal of humanity to their roles. It's also fun to see them joke and watch the relationship bud.

The second half by contrast is bloody, brutal and does a complete 180 from the first hour. While it does make sense and I saw it coming a mile away since this is the part they showed in the previews, I couldn't help but pawing at the screen wishing the first part of the movie was the only part. Not to mention the fact that watching Denzel be overly brutal and cold seemed uncharacteristic from a guy that has been the good guy all but twice. Lemme splain Normally if someone is trying to find information in a revenge tale he may give them a punch in the face or kill their friend or something like that. See Kill Bill for the killing stuff and nearly any cop drama for the interrogation. Here Denzel tortures people in ways that may have inspired the Saw movies. It was certainly not necessary by any means. Not to mention one of the interrogations reminded me a little too much of Commando.

The movie also uses that semi-irritating visual style where everything seems darker, grainier, and greener that it would in real life. Here we run into that same problem we ran into with Minority Report, with how it affects the visuals. I will say though I wasn't entirely against it. Because a good portion of the film is gritty and violent seeing it through a gritty filter makes sense. At least ten times more sense than doing that stupid grindhouse effect that both Tarantino and Rodriguez did a while back but that's for a different time.

Also there really needs to be a discussion about how much should go on in a movie before it's classified as an action movie. Granted the movie has a lot of violence but every action sequence is over and done with right after it starts. Perhaps we can start classifying movies like this as action thrillers.

So do the two movies rolled into one work? It's hit or miss. Because of the extended story the movie runs a bit long for its plot at two and a half hours when all you're really waiting for is the happy ending. Truthfully maybe you should just watch the movie sped up for the second half until the end and view it like one of those quick montages that two hour movies use. I'm also very interested to see a reinterpretation where Creasy and Pita go on vacation together with Pita's mom for the sequel Man on Fire 2 Escape From Maui. Which will probably never happen but knowing the industry nowadays keep an eye out for Man on Fire 2 with a relatively unknown black actor in a similar role.