Man on Fire (2004)

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Violent revenge is the name of the game if you've seen a new theatrical

release in the month of April. One week after Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and The

Punisher hit screens, Tony Scott's Man On Fire blasts its way into your

heart with a couple of things those other films don't have: An A-list

protagonist and a running time that comes dangerously close to breaching two

and a half hours.

Fire isn't even April's only revenge remake, sharing that delightful honor

with Walking Tall (which is over a full hour shorter than Fire), as the A.J.

Quinnell novel on which the movie is based was already made into a 1987 film

with Scott Glenn. Here, Glenn's role of an ex-mercenary-turned-child

bodyguard is played by Out of Time's Denzel Washington, who has apparently

decided to only accept offers to star in films that follow the important

three-letter word/two-letter word/four-letter word pattern.

Washington's Creasy is a drunk who barely manages to land a job protecting

little Lupita (Dakota Fanning, The Cat in the Hat), the only child of a

struggling Mexico City business owner (pop sensation Marc Anthony) and his

American wife (Radha Mitchell, Phone Booth), from falling victim to the

lucrative Mexican kidnapping industry. Initially, Creasy tries to act

professional by maintaining his distance from Pita. But she's Dakota

Frigging Fanning - that shit's like Kryptonite, man. Soon he's helping her

train for swim meets and braiding her hair while they talk about the cute

boys in social studies. This goes on for an hour, and frankly, it would be

enough to frame most banal Hollywood offerings. Pita wins her big race,

Creasy scales back his alcohol intake, and even cracks a smile once or

twice. It's a happy ending. Thanks, Li'l Cracker!

Only Fire isn't over. You're only 40% into it at this point, which is when

Pita does get kidnapped despite Creasy squeezing bullets into her abductors.

When the dust settles, Creasy has killed four, including two on-the-take

cops, and is implicated in Pita's snatching (thankfully, Fire doesn't veer

into Denzel's typical Accused Black Man Against the Corrupt System

territory). After a brief recovery, the mad-as-hell Creasy decides to take

the law into his own hands, launching a revenge mission, Buford

Pusser/Beatrix Kiddo/Frank Castle-style. His old mercenary pal (Christopher

Walken, Gigli) gets to peel off a great line - "Creasy's art is death; he's

about to create his masterpiece."

There's a bit more to the story than just revenge. Creasy is a religious

chap who knows he needs to right a whole lot of wrongs he's created over the

years. Before she's taken, Pita gives him a St. Jude medallion - because

even a little kid could recognize Creasy is a lost cause - which gives him

something to play with during integral moments between cutting off fingers

and administering C4 suppositories to his victims. That should pretty much

tell you how Fire is going to end, and if you're in possession of at least

one-half of a brain, fingering those responsible for the kidnapping won't be

too difficult, either.

The predictability of Fire is one of two big glitches in the film. The

other - Fire's editing - is more a matter of individual preference. The

movie could have been called Editing Bay On Fire, as it veers into the realm

of a Michael Bay offering. If editor Christian Wagner was paid by the jump

cut, he'd have made way more than Tom Cruise's going salary. Personally, I

thought it was a bit much, but the really intensely cut scenes were usually

accompanied by a Nine Inch Nails song to help offset the visual insanity of

it all. And there's the little matter of not understanding how the offspring

of a Mexican could be so pale, but that's just being picky.

Thankfully, there's a lot to offset the above, and most of it is acting.

Washington, who re-teams with Crimson Tide's Scott, clocks in with his

strongest performance since The Hurricane. He's not my favorite actor in the

world, but when he's not playing a self-righteous character, I like him a

lot more. Fanning can still act circles around him, though. Her

preternatural acting ability is almost frightening, and Fire takes a big hit

when her character disappears with 90 minutes left. Both her and Washington

speak passable Spanish, in small doses, with seemingly little effort. Those

last three words would also be adequate to describe the paper-thin work of

Walken and Mickey Rourke.

2:27 - R for language and strong violence

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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1274536
X-RT-TitleID: 1131820
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X-RT-RatingText: 7/10