Man On Fire

Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Denzel Washington	Creasy
Marc Anthony	Samuel
Dakota Fanning	Pita
Giancarlo Giannini	Manzano
Christopher Walken	Rayburn
Radha Mitchell	Lisa
Rachel Ticotin	Mariana
Jesus Ochoa	Fuentes
Mickey Rourke	Jordan
Gero Camilo	Aurelio Sanchez
Jesús Ochoa	Fuentes
Angelina Peláez	Sister Anna

Director	Tony Scott
Producer	Lucas Foster; Arnon Milchan; Conrad Hool; Tony Scott
Writer	A.J. Quinnell; Brian Helgeland

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