Man on Fire
Nobody like a good revenge flick more than I do, but Tony Scott's bleak, melodramatic Man on Fire blows its wad trying to redeem the soul of its titular character while going through the motions of a generic plot. That means no surprises and no redemption for this predictable, grizzly affair.
Denzel Washington's former special ops man, Creasy, sulks, mopes, contemplates suicide, tormented by a laundry list of sins past, while the little girl he is hired to protect teaches him to love and care about himself again. When she is kidnapped, as foretold by the harrowing statistics on the film's opening title card, Creasy sets his sights on revenge, as he should in movieland; but then movieland often has predictable ways of disappointing us. Man on Fire also manages to bore along the way, despite a slew of loathsome characters deserving of Creasy's creative methods of vengeance and death.
Want to see how revenge is done right? Give The Count of Monte Cristo a try. Man on Fire needs more kindling.
- January 15, 2008
DVD Extras
There's roughly squat on disc one, which is all I rented. But the disc did come with a robust DTS track—always a plus.