Man on Fire
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Movie Reviews of Man on Fire
Movie Review: That 'Man' And My Corneas
Summary: 5 Stars
"Man On Fire", the new Denzel Washington revenge flick, is a work out for the eyes. The camera is shaky and the picture is either terribly bright, blinding you, or horribly dark, making you squint. However, all these elements put together make this movie lovably gritty. It's like "Finding Nemo", (my third favorite movie), with guns, knives and Jack Daniels. No joke. This movie recieved bad reviews up the yang, or anal cavity (inside joke) before it was even released. It was called "too violent, and way over the top in profanity". Well, this is coming from the same guy who "adored" "Kill Bill'. Yes, this movie is violent, but only in the second half, and yes, it is heavily profane, but, well, I have no reason behind that. I enjoyed this movie because it took time to develop its characters, the first half ( 1 hour, 14 minutes) of this movie is spent setting up Creasy (Washington), his hire Peta (Dakota Fanning), her mother (Rachel Tictoctin), and her father (Marc Anthony). The director, Tony Scott, slyly tricks us by saying the parents names only once, and it is shown in a newspaper. Another great touch added to this movie are the subtitles, scraping across all angles of the screen, and sometimes appearing moments after they are needed.
The plot of the film, simplistic then complicated and highly abstract, is basically a character study, only with a few of the characters dying violently or getting C4 shoved up their ass*es. The setting is Mexico City, and John Creasy has just come to see his friend Gudo (Christopher Walken: In the book his characters name was Guido and had a much more significant part, at one point killing a man for Creasy). Unbeknownst to Creasy however, Gudo (prounouced Goodoa), has arranged for him to be a Mexico City body guard for Lupita Ramos (AKA Pita). See, Gudo and Creasy served together in the war. After that passed, Creasy lost all connections and became a drunk. Creasy promises to do his best to protect Pita, as there have been at least one kidnapping an hour in Mexico City. The kidnappers torture their victims by taking fingers, ears, eyes, and tongues from their "checks". The kidnappers then force families to pay the ransom, all in the same way, which leads to Question #1. The kidnappers make the people paying the ransom go to the center of the town and drive around in the round about for ten minutes, waiving a shirt from the window. This is revealed on the news during the closing montage of the film, so wouldn't you call the cops if you saw a guy waiving his shirt out a window. I would. Anywho, Creasy is about as hard to break as one of those cheap Macy's hand bags.Pita wants to open up to him, but he won't respond. Then, one day, he comes through. They then become friends of sorts, with Creasy getting a new out look on life. Then, the inevitable happens. Coming out of piano practice, Peta is taken away from Creasy, who is left with blood on him and bullets in him. He then vows revenge against Pita's kidnappers, saying that he'll kill every one of them, and everyone who tries to stop him. By the time Creasy leaves the house to kill people, the body count is already around 30, 40. The scenes of Creasy killing these people are hard to watch, but harder not to. There is a big thing in this movie about how Creasy buys the "Blue Bayou" CD, and he is always listening to it. Now, I have to admit, at the end, I teared up and started to cry a little when Creasy says "It's time for me to face my own Blue Bayou". The whole theater was galking at me. I'm also a really unsensitive person. but here, I was balling! This movie gets an extra boost from the wonderful acting of Rachel Tictoctin. She must be the most versatile actress in Hollywood today. At one point she shows sadness, then in the next scene she is able to look happy and care free. This is a very good moie, at one point tragic, then heartbreaking, then excitingly violent and bloody. This is an absolute must for die-hard Denzel Washington fans and die-hard action buffs. I must admit, though, the original reason that I saw this movie was because of Denzel.
Title: "Man On Fire"
Director: Tony Scott
Screenplay: Brian Hegeland
Cast: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, Rachel Tictoctin, Marc Anthony, With Uncredited Appearances By Enrique Iglesias, and Brian Hegeland
Running Time: 148 Minutes (2 Hours and 28 Minutes)
Rating: ***** Of ***** (5 Of 5)
Rating: Rated R For Graphic Bloody Violence, Including Torture (Cut Off Fingers and Ears, A Severed Tongue Is Shown Briefly), And Strong Language, Including Visual Sexual Innuendo
Year Of Release: 2004 (Remake; Original Released In 1987)
Movie Review: Superb action film with a running sociological analysis and redemption story.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: A vicious and brutal masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
Man On Fire is, in many ways, a two act play. In the first act, we are introduced to John Creasy (Denzel Washington), an emotionally shell-shocked former black ops / foreign legion assassin who has done things and seen things we definitely don't want to know about. Creasy, having lost almost all faith in humanity, has taken to Jack Daniel's as if it were his job. In an attempt to help his friend, his friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken), now a successful businessman, gets Creasy a job as the bodyguard for a young girl named Pita Ramos. It is in this detailed, meticulously plotted first act that we watch the adorable Pita finally break through Creasy's steel heart and make him a human being again. As a drama within itself, it's quite lengthy and effective. But then the second act begins. Pita is kidnapped, and John Creasy channels his inner demons into an explosive rage for her sake. Creasy unleashes Hell in Mexico City, and it's brutal. Make no mistake, Man On Fire is BRUTAL. The second half of the film will truly push away some, as Creasy is no "good guy." The things he does to get the answers he wants will shock and horrify some. But there's no mistaking its purpose.
Tony Scott (Spy Game, Crimson Tide), along with veteran screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River), have crafted together a powerful, emotionally provacative film. Scott's stylistic excesses threaten to sink the whole project throughout, with a mind-numbing number of slow-motion, fast-motion, blur filter, grain filter and even subtitle effects flashing across the screen at the speed of light thanks to the twitchy, blink-and-you'll-miss-it editing. If you thought Spy Game was visually too kinetic, Man On Fire has a few things to show you. Still, despite his over use of just about every modern cinematic technique known to man, Scott paces the film well, and pulls some startling and fantastic performances out of his cast. Washington is his usual, formidible self; just like with Training Day, he oozes a calm menace that reassures his place as one of the best actor's of my time. The rest of the supporting cast, which includes Walken, Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giavannini, Marc Anthony and Mickey Rourke, are rock-solid, which Mitchell in particular being superb. Most impressive, however, is Dakota Fanning, who plays nine-year-old Pita. The role of Pita could have easily become cliche, annoying and wasted (like Jake Lloyd's Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), yet Fanning clearly possess a true talent that is far beyond her years; Pita runs, swims, and breathes to a degree of reality that I have never seen out of a child actor. Fanning's talent and on-screen chemistry with Washington, when combined with Helgeland's sharp writing, creates a palpable, believable relationship between Creasy and Pita. We truly understand Creasy's fury when Pita is abducted, and it's necessary to justify the intensity of the second half of the picture.
Harry Gregson-Williams reteams with Scott (They worked together previously on Spy Game) to good effect on the film's music. While the Lisa Gerrard solos echo a bit too much of Gladiator, Gregson-Williams' tech-symphony style of composing is perfectly matched to Scott's erratic camerawork, and the end result is very good.
Man On Fire will not be please everyone. Creasy is sadistic and malicious in his quest, and the story isn't particularly happy at times. It's also not much of an action movie, with a (rightfully) drawn out introductory drama, and very brief and gritty spurts of action in its climax. But Man On Fire is a viciously well-written, sensationally well-acted saga of redemption and revenge that holds no punches. It may not be uplifting, but it's magnificently intense and emotional, and stands as Tony Scott's dark masterpiece.
Movie Review: Enter the world of Creasy a man about to redeem his soul...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a dark, clever and very surreal kind of movie. I wasn't sure what to expect when I got the chance to see a preview of it at a UK movie theatre this week.
It starts off as it means to go on, with the kidnapping of a teenage boy, his torture by his kidnappers, the payment of the ransom by his family and his release, a broken shell of the happy go lucky youth he used to be.
It is after this introduction we meet Creasy, played to perfection by the actor Denzel Washington. He is the tormented killer-come-bodyguard who is slowly drinking himself to death, a man who has forgotten how to live for as his friend Rayburn, the glorious Christopher Walken points out to a Police Officer, "Creasy is a man who has made an art out of killing..."
Dakota Fanning gives an excellent performance as Pita, the half Mexican, half American child who gets under Creasy's skin and into his heart and teaches him that it is okay to care and love another person.
When Pita is kidnapped and then murdered (or so Creasy thinks), a rage is born inside of Creasy that will only be quenched by the total annihilation of all those involved in her abduction.
With the help of a crusading reporter Mariana, the wonderful Rachel Ticotin and the cynical Manzano, a delicious Giancarlo Giannini, Creasy sets about enacting his vow and he does it in style!
This is not violence for the sake of violence, and though there is plenty of blood and guts flying, what surprised me was how well it was done! I am really quite squeamish and though there were a couple of times when I went, "OH YUCK" it certainly wasn't as bad I expected it to be and it fitted in TOTALLY with the plot.
Mickey Rourke plays the charming but sleazy lawyer Jordan and I was most impressed by Radha Mitchell who played Lisa, Pitas' mother, she reminded me of Tea Leoni, but with more class whilst Marc Anthony gives a solid performance as Sammy, Pita's weak but loving father and last but not least, Angelina Peláez who only has a bit part as the nun Sister Anna but who is able to see in to Creasy's soul and know he is a fallen angel.
"Man on Fire" is not an easy film to get your head around, the plot is quite complex, the cinematography is utterly surreal in parts, flickering in an out as we are treated to images both real and imagined and in the background there is the ever menacing present of corrupt public officials and a man know only as the "The voice" who has kept Mexico in thrall with his constant murderous kidnappings for profit.
The director Tony Scott has done a great job; I love this film with all its twists and turns, its many complex characters, the good but tormented soul, (Creasy), the innocent (the child Pita) the bad, (Fuentes a corrupt cop) the ugly (Manzano the good cop), the weak (Sammy Pita's father), the sleaze ball (Jordan the lawyer) the beautiful, (Mariana the crusading reporter), the tragic (Lisa, Pita's mother), the stupid, (Bruno the rather stupid Rave Master) and the downright evil (the Voice).
The film score is also a crackingly good example of how you can put music in a film and make it part of the whole visual experience.
In fact the music was SO good in my opinion I am breaking one of my rules, I'm buying the CD! I only do buy a soundtrack when I really LOVE the music; this is one of those rare occasions!
The whole film is quality on celluloid, and all the actors/actresses are perfect to the parts.
A film worthy of many Oscar nominations in my humble opinion but then quality has never been an Oscar trademark so I am not holding my breath in that department!
Movie Review: Not just another revenge movie, MOF has a beautiful twist...
Summary: 5 Stars
Revenge movies are so popular because we all like to feel that warm fuzzy of satisfaction when the guilty reprobate responsible for causing all that pain to our hero is finally blown up into tiny bloody pieces. It's a comfortable feeling of validation that makes us glow with a delightful feeling of righteous fulfillment. Right?
Man On Fire is not necessarily a great movie, but it is a great revenge movie, unique in its choice of location, actors, and resolution; and that makes it worthy of a peek.
Denzel Washington plays John W. Creasy, an ex-assassin from some sort of special ops group, who has retired from his work with Death to become an aimless and hopeless alcoholic. He travels to Mexico City to visit his old friend Paul Rayburn (Christopher Walken) who has settled into a comfortable life there.
Rayburn sets Creasy up with an easy job as a bodyguard to nine-year old Pita Ramos (expertly played by young Dakota Fanniing) daughter of well-off plant owner Samuel Ramos. Creasy does not like people, but young Pita manages to wiggle her way into his heart. Creasy is almost killed when she is kidnapped for ransom, and finds out through Rayburn that the ransom drop went bad. Creasy then teams up with tenacious and levelheaded reporter Mariana Guerrero (talented Rachel Ticotin) and sets out to do what he does best; dish out death to everyone involved in the kidnapping.
In Rayburn's words, "A man can be an artist, food or whatever, it depends on what he's good at. Creasy's art is death, and he's about to paint his masterpiece."
Watch out for some stellar performances by Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Rahda Mitchell (I am so glad to see this talented actress get another leading role besides Pitch Black, she was great in that movie too), Christopher Walken, Mickey Rourke, and (surprise) Marc Anthony. Yes, he can act, and plays his part of Samuel Ramos with a style and substance that is missing in his singing career.
There is wonderful scenery from Mexico City, a tight plot, a wonderful musical score, and a unique and bittersweet climax which all allow Man On Fire to rise up above the "just another revenge movie" it could have been. The movie itself was a pleasure to watch and IMHO, worthy of purchase. The only part of the actual movie that I didn't like was using too much of what I call Stutter-Flash scenes; jumpy, flashing scenes that alternate slow-mo and sped-up photography. While adding to the surrealism of Creasy's world, a little goes a long way, and I think the movie over-uses this effect.
What I didn't like about the DVD version was that the only special features available were the running commentaries that seem to have become popular with directors and actors. To me, this is like having people blathering on annoyingly in the theater while you are trying to watch the movie. I prefer interviews and behind-the-scenes features to the commentaries. Also, the subtitles on the screen during the Spanish speaking parts were tiny, forcing blind-ol-me to sit closer to the TV than I wanted to in order to be able to read them.
All in all, Man On Fire is a great movie; suspenseful and well acted with a little twisty surprise at the end that actually squeezed a tear from my withered and dried up soul. Enjoy!