Man on Fire
A dark, morbid and depressing movie that will leave you feeling unsatisfied and, for lack of a better term, icky.
human beings on Fireis actually the second cinema adaption of the novel by A.J. Quinnell . ( The first was an vague 1987 film of the same name , starring Scott Glenn . ) Although this adaptation of the movie does n’t make it crystal clear , the title stems from the concept of " a human race on fire does n’t just burn ; he explode . " Since it was send by Tony Scott , you already eff that the story will take a back seat to " eminent construct " stylize action and fierceness . Scott seems to get from the same addiction to hyper - redaction and " Richter scale " tv camera oeuvre as his honest-to-goodness brother and business enterprise partner , conductor Ridley Scott . ( At several points in the movie , I was question if an temblor was take spot during the fit . ) The form has several standouts , but even they ca n’t save the movie from Scott ’s frail focussing and a very heavy - handed book by Brian Helgeland that practically shout out " the destruction justify the means . "
Denzel Washington wiz as John Creasy , a former politics PI and soldier of destiny whose vocation was severely cut little by his alcoholism . Now unemployed and wandering about , he does n’t feel especially proud of what he has done with his life . He gossip one of his friends and old colleagues named Rayburn ( Christopher Walken ) , who help him get a problem as a bodyguard in Mexico . ( There is a statistic at the outset of the motion picture that says , " There is a snatch every 60 minute in Latin America . 70 % of the victims do not last . " ) Creasy ’s assignment is Lupita Ramos , the nine - yr - old daughter of Samuel Ramos ( Marc Anthony – yes , thatMarc Anthony ) and Lisa Ramos ( Radha Mitchell ) . ab initio , Creasy does n’t get along very well with Pita , as everyone calls her , but since Pita is work by the precociously cute Dakota Fanning , it does n’t take long for the two to become the bestest buddiesever . Before long , Creasy set about to turn his life around and become like a second father to Pita . All together now : Awwww …. in earnest , the first turn of this movie is actually quite pleasurable , but the irony is that if the moving picture had only been about their friendly relationship , people like me never would have watched it . The far less enjoyable Act Two on the side begins with a shootout that leave Creasy scarce adhere to life sentence and culminates in Pita ’s kidnapping .
shortly after the snatch , the kidnappers contact Pita ’s parents and ask ten million US dollars . As anyone who has seen formulaic kidnapping movies can pretend , the money plectrum - up go dreadfully wrong . The furious abductor call Pita ’s parents and narrate them their girl has been pop . Right around the same metre , Creasy regains knowingness . After he hears about Pita ’s death , he snap . Cutting his lengthy recovery appendage drastically shortsighted , he engage the service of Rayburn to get him access to just about every weapon system ever forge . ( Is n’t it convenient how people can always line up arms dealer like that in Mexico ? Do they advertise in the Yellow Pages or what ? This must be the same guy who helped Linda Hamilton arm herself to the teeth inTerminator 2 . ) At that dot , Creasy is – energize yourself – a serviceman on Fire ™ . He break down on a homicidal violent disorder , looking for anyone who might have represent so much as a tangential purpose in the kidnapping . With only a few exceptions , everyone who end up on his tough side has two choices : evidence him what he wants to acknowledge and die a quick death , or else go bad a slow , agonizing death that would feel right at abode in a Tarantino movie . Very quickly , it becomes obvious that Creasy is n’t stop until he kills Bill . Oh wait , wrong movie …
If you use just alittleimagination , I ’m sure you could guess the finish . If you use a minuscule more imagination , you may likely reckon out who ’s behind Pita ’s snatch . For all its faulting , the movie has a decent hurl . Denzel Washington and Dakota fan both do good playacting work , and their fundamental interaction is very ripe . Hopefully , Fanning can survive the inevitable " ungainly teen twelvemonth " phase angle of her vocation . Most child stars do n’t get the better of it , especially the ones who fall down into the " precociously cute " category , like she does . Other telling acting carrying out include Christopher Walken , who plays a surprisingly curb ( for him ) type , and Mickey Rourke , who has a belittled use as the Ramos sept attorney . Aside from the unsatisfying end , I was struck by how Mexico is portrayed as a hopelessly corrupt country . Sure , Mexico has its reasonable share of problems , but if you think this flick , the arcminute you limit substructure in Mexico , you should expect to be gunned down , blow up or stabbed to death . Another problem I had with the picture show was that small snippets of translations are invariably bomb various places on the covert , sometimes even when they ’re speak English . What find to just assign completely translated sentences at the bottom of the screen when they ’re not speaking English , and putting no translations when they are speaking English ? Just a intellection …
One matter I ca n’t calculate out is why 20th Century Fox chose to make this movie ( again ) . Why this one , and why now ? My dependable surmise is that the time seemed ripe for a cold - full-blood revenge pic , since the politics ’s state of war on affright has put most of us in that frame of mind . In a way , the movie learn us the same thing real life does : In the end , there ’s nothing satisfying about cold - blooded revenge .
In Mexico City , a former CIA operative swears payback on those who committed an unspeakable routine against the syndicate he was hired to protect .
In Mexico City, a former CIA operative swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect.
