I hate to ever talk bad about a movie starring Denzel Washington, but I found myself bored to death throughout this entire mess of a film, to no fault of Denzel or Dakota Fanning.
The primary fault falls on the shoulders of director Tony Scott, who hasn’t managed to disappoint me until now. Scott employs the directorial style he used in such hit films as Enemy of the State and Spy Game, as he uses a manner of jumps and quick cuts to try to build tension, unfortunately techniques that work for spy thrillers don’t work in this two and a half hour tail of revenge.
Man On Fire focuses on a recent wave of kidnappings that have taken over Mexico, which is causing several families to hire bodyguards for their children. Enter John Creasy (Washington), a burned-out ex-CIA operative/assassin who has found comfort in a bottle of Jack Daniels until a friend of his, Rayburn (Walken) brings him to Mexico City to be a bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning).
Pita is the daughter of Samuel Ramos played by musician Marc Anthony, and as Creasy’s interest in drinking has increased his interest in becoming a bodyguard is not too high on the list. After some convincing he takes on the job and builds a relationship with Pita, then one day she is kidnapped setting him on course for murderous revenge.
Despite good acting on the part of Denzel and Dakota Fanning their relationship is never believable and after an hour and a half of build up by the time it gets to the fighting you just don’t care anymore.
Most often in films like this even if it is slow to get to the good stuff it can be saved by fast-paced action, but their is absolutely no pace to Creasy’s rampage at all, as he slowly moves from target to target leading you to wonder if this film will ever end.
There is a movie here, and it should have had about an hour cut from it, which would have at least kept it moving along as opposed to Scott building up tension that wasn’t there in the first place, and if I ever see Mexico City jumping across the screen in a series of several flashes again it will be too soon.
I am a huge fan of Denzel and love just about everything Tony Scott has put together, but this picture falls way short of any expectation and ends up being a long example of direction gone wrong.
