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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 3257
Released: September 14, 2004 |
| Our Price: $4.99 |
| Used Price: $1.98 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Hard-drinking, burnt-out ex-CIA operative John Creasy (Washington) has given up on life--until his friend Rayburn (Oscar winner Christopher Walken) gets him a job as a bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning). Bit by bit, Creasy begins to reclaim his soul, but when Pita is kidnapped, Creasy unleashes a firestorm of apocalyptic vengeance against everyone responsible.
Description of Man on Fire:
Style trumps substance in Man on Fire, a slick, brooding reunion of Crimson Tide star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott. The ominous, crime-ridden setting is Mexico City, where a dour, alcoholic warrior with a mysterious Black Ops past (Washington) seeks redemption as the devoted bodyguard of a lovable 9-year-old girl (the precociously gifted Dakota Fanning), then responds with predictable fury when she is kidnapped. Prolific screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential) sets a solid emotional foundation for Washington's tormented character, and Scott's stylistic excess compensates for a distended plot that's both repellently violent and viscerally absorbing. Among Scott's more distracting techniques is the use of free-roaming, comic-bookish subtitles... even when they're unnecessary! Adapted from a novel by A.J. Quinnell and previously filmed as a 1987 vehicle for Scott Glenn, Man on Fire is roughly on par with Scott's similar 1990 film Revenge, efficiently satisfying Washington's incendiary bloodlust under a heavy blanket of humid, doom-laden atmosphere. --Jeff Shannon
Man on Fire Reviews:
Heart-wrenching fast-paced thriller 
2009-10-18 - I viewed this on a 42" Panasonic Plasma and BD35 Player. Transfer is a 4/5 on PQ and 4/5 on AQ. This will probably take its place among my favorite Denzel Washington films. While it is highly stylized in shooting style, the story and relationship between him and the little girl and his redemption made this an above average thriller. Dakota and Denzel are outstanding, and this film is a nailbaiting rollercoaster ride to the end. Highly recommended.
Over-the-top violence with a bloated-looking Denzel 
2009-10-01 - Really though. An American becomes a bodyguard for a 9-year-old girl and in a matter of days he is devoted to her. So devoted that, when she dies at the hands of kidnappers, Washington goes on a killing rampage in Mexico City. Of course, Denzel zips around Mexico City like he's a native. He buys weapons like he's a native. In a matter of hours he's found the killers and the manipulators.
This is truly the Ugly American in Mexico City.
He is withdrawn and surly. He is reluctant to talk. He broods and drinks. Why doesn't he just go back to his native New Jersey where there is no violence, no bad guys and no one worth saving? Where there are no crooked cops?
Here is the problem with this story/film: there is a heavy element of racism. A dead American necessitates the killing of countless Mexicans. Bad guys, yes, but killed in the streets. He's the judge and executioner. And in heinous ways. So what makes Denzel's character any better? Well, he has miliary op training, so that gives him a license to kill. Especially "foreigners" in their own country.
So, what are the prospects of sparks between the mom, played by Radha Mitchell, and Washington? There is a moment in the movie when it seems possible, but then I thought back to Washington's quotes years back that indicated he would not kiss a white woman on the screen, saying Hollywood does not make black women desireable on the silver screen, I just knew that would not happen.
And he once told Will Smith to NEVER kiss a man on the silver screen. So there goes the chance of sparks between he and Marc Anthony, who plays the dad.
As to Dakota Fanning, the movie makes her into am adult child.
She talks and flirts like a 20-year-old. Her vocabulary is excellent. She has wisdom of a 50-year-old. In other words a child who is not believable. And it is creepy the way Fanning flirts with Washington.
This film has one thing going for it. Extreme violence: Explosions. Knifings. Gunfire. Mutilations. It's a great film for 20-year-olds who like never-ending violence.
And what's with the bloated Denzel Washington? Did he gain 30 pounds to be the alcoholic he acts out? Does he need more fiber in his diet to ease his inner turmoil?
Like I said, maybe his character needs to go back to Jersey. But when he bonds with another child and if that child is hurt, will he go on a killing spree in jersey to avene that death? hardly.
See the movie for yourself. It's slick but in the final analysis, lacking substance, meaning and reason.
perfect 
2009-09-05 - This was a great buy shipped fast was in great shape when i got it i would buy from here again perfect!!!
Superb action film with a running sociological analysis and redemption story.
2009-08-02 - Leave your reason behind and get carried away by this relentless movie
of another "justice whatever the cost" "enforcer", but this time, well
filmed, acted, and with a woman that can hold a gun. And without any
unnecessary "love interest". Which was your favourite scene? Mine was
the moment before "crossing the bridge" near the end *(can't say more
for obvious reasons). Like in Gladiator, but probably creating far better empathy
for it's more related to "something we could all eventually do". The scene with "Fuentes" (the Mexican chief of the brotherhood) is also
very good, even funny in a sick sort of way. The kind of image you
remember long after the film is gone.
The script is perfect, just following Poe's "rule" of "not one word in vain". Thanks to Amazon I
just learnt the auteur is Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A.
Confidential). A good story can make or break a movie, no better proof
than this one! Unlike in Gladiator, here our hero has a black past to
expiate, no family to be lost and then revenged. He's got to overcome
himself. As the film presupposes a religious view, we sort of know how
things have to turn out. Notice the importance of religion: Casey's
knowledge by heart of the Bible, and even Samuel's plush sanctuary at
his home, full of candles, obviously built for bargaining with the
Guadalupana Virgin.
The fight at the shanty town is
VERY real. The film is not (where did all the dwellers go? How did
the dirty copper get caught by a single man?) but we don't want "
reality principle" to be part of our films, right :)?
Characters: Casey, a "philosophical copper" who can learn to feel sorry for something
external to himself steals the movie, the rest of characters are just
filling up space, making things happen. He's no dumb
killing machine, notice how he deals with "Samuel" among others. G.
Giannini plays a small yet pivotal role. Pita is lovable, but doesn't
overdo it or get sticky. Such gift for acting is rarely seen. Lisa is
ethereal but not as stupid as we'd expect from her stereotyped role.
Walken and Rourke act as naturally as we breathe.
"Sociology": Daniel Sanchez
"family first", Lisa's passivity & machismo and the whole contrast
between the isolated ultra rich and the numerous very poor is what sets
this film apart from Chuck Norris, Stallone, Van Damme and all the
other blockbusters with the same disregard for "society" and good
taste. The phrase: "I-I'm a professional" shows how when the system is
corrupt, no individual action could bring lasting change. I think for those of us who inhabit a third world country, this film just shows the future, if not the present if we open our eyes.
Director:
Judging from his filmography, this is definitely Tony Scott's Masterpiece! It's hard
to believe somebody who made films from Spy Game downwards could
achieve something really well done but it's good to remain open minded.
Luckily I didn't pay attention to who the director was when I saw it, I
humbly recommend the viewer to to the same. I suspect the brothers mustn't be very nice people...
"Philosophically" this film
is of course dangerous: "Justice by your own hands" leads to an anomic
society, and probably even a corrupt state is relatively better than
"might makes right" alla Thrasymachus (Plato's Republic's). Jeff
Shannon on Amazon is as usually accurate: "both repellently violent and
viscerally absorbing".
What glues all together: Music is fine (I couldn't help crying in the end), moving but not overbearing.
Photography is just the best, finding beauty where there is none.
Edition is alluring but a bit overdone, "it borrows heavily from MTV
videos" as "Flagrant-Baronessa" on IMDb writes on another of Tony's
lesser films, "Domino".
Remember: "there's no such thing as tough".
The sheep that got lost.
PS: By the way, this film "endures a 2nd viewing" as J. L. Borges would quip. In fact I just saw it for the third time on air TV, dubbed into Spanish, and I also felt for Casey, so I guess this proves what a good product it is.
Creasy creating a master piece
2009-05-06 - Denzel Washington needs no kudos'...no pat on the back...he is simply great. In this gritty urban crime drama that takes place in Mexico, drapped in the underworld kidnapping rings, Denzel delivers. With almost an all star cast Scott Free productions has done it yet again. For any one who truly loves a brilliant, fast paced, beautifully shot actioner...then look no further. The story will keep you guessing until the end...and you will be holding your breath until the credits. One of the best of its kind ever.
