Man on Fire (18)

I loved Man on Fire and I have watched it multiple times! It is suspenseful and bascially keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very end of the movie! You learn that even a man who has endured overwhelmng hardships in his life stil has a soft side in him for the endearing character that Dakota Fannng plays oh so well.... What a professional young actress she is! Further, I can't conceive anyone else playing the role of Creasy except for Mr. Denzel Washington himself!!

This is a good film from start to finish. One of Denzel Washington's best films by far! I highly recommend this film to anyone who is looking for an action film with a twist. The action in the middle comes thick and fast, but the storyline is good if you can keep up. One of the best things about the film is the fact that you can see his friendship with the little girl growing stronger and stronger, and when she is kidnapped, how his life once again falls apart before he rages one big attack against whoever did the kidnapping. Truly a good film, and is a truly heart warming story as well as an action packed thriller.

We rented Man on Fire having heard good things about it, but assuming it was going to be a slightly more intelligent yet typical Hollywood action film. As in, more Die Hard than Traffic. While we were wrong about the action component, it was a highly compelling film. Denzel Washington plays Creasy, an ex-military man hired to protect young Pita from the threat of a kidnapping, as so many children from wealthy families in Mexico City have been abducted recently. He is an alcoholic loner who, despite his best attempts not to get emotionally involved with his charge, ends up becoming like a second father to her. One day she is kidnapped, and Creasy is nearly killed trying to prevent this. After the police botch the attempt to make the ransom drop, he then goes on a one man mission to find and kill everyone involved with the plot.

It's a tense and vicious depiction of revenge and of the intensity of the relationship between Creasy, his sense of duty and his attachment to Pita. The whole film is shot in grainy but vivid colour, almost as if to indicate that the whole thing is slightly out of sync with reality, and it adds to the unsettling ambiance of the movie.

This isn't an easy film to watch, and at times the plot development is almost painfully slow, but if you stick with it, you'll be rewarded in the end.

Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington (Training Day, Malcolm X) starts off with some rather shocking statistics of kidnapping in Mexico city and the rather slim rate of survival.

The film is based around Creasy (Washington), a self-loathing mercenary with a conscience who cannot seem to live life, he's an alcoholic with a rather disturbing desire to kill himself.

Creasy, in a rather bad mental state, goes to visit his friend, (Christopher Walken) in Mexico, a one time mercenary, himself now running a bodyguard business for wealthy families living with the constant kidnapping threat in Mexico.

In an attempt to bring some normality back into his life, Creasy, rather unwittingly, takes on a bodyguard job looking after a 10 year-old-girl, Pita (Dakota Fanning).

When Creasy and Pita make an unbreakable friendship, after a rather shaky start, and Creasy comes off the bottle, Pita is kidnapped while at her piano lesson and Creasy is shot numerous times and left for dead.

When Creasy awakes in hospital he is being accused of killing 2 corrupt cops who were involved in the kidnapping. Creasy is distraught to learn that during a drop off of the ransom money, the police (in their infinate wisdom) stormed in and killed everyone at the scene, including the kidnappers' nephew and in an act of revenge Pita is killed.

Once Creasy regains his strength it's his turn to wreak revenge on those he believes are responsible, and with only a glimpse of one man at the scene to go on he tracks down everyone involved (with some rather startling results). Beleive me, the way he condemns them to death is rather harrowing and genius in its portrayal.

Look out for a very impressive performance from Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black and Neighbours) as Pita's mother, as well as Pita herself.

This film is very gritty and full of suspense and shocks with a very good twist in fortunes at the end.

In my opinion, this is by far the best film this year, I loved it and beleive that anyone who likes this sort of film will enjoy it from start to finish.