Hard to dislike, impossible to love

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2010)

In the realm of film and other assorted arts, its rare to find a piece that propels a conflicting feeling. Usually you like or dislike something, with varying degrees of each, but "Man on Fire" excels in its beautiful direction, acting, photography and then falls face down into mediocrity when it comes to script and plot.
If feels almost a waste that such a beautiful work offers little more than the cheap thrill of a vengeful chase. Its purported intelligent twist, which I guessed with certainty past one hour of its 2:30 running time, is nothing if not the old Hollywood compulsion of tying up all the knots and leave people safely satisfied.
Another reviewer on IMDb states this is a violent film and that it ignores 30 years of social blablabla, but the only violence in this film(other than the cartoonish deaths and bullet wounds), is the ease on which they turn the very serious issue of kidnapping into a thrill ride, all the while pretending they are serious in their approach.
This movie has a lot of good things in it(Denzel is top form in this one), and there are far worse offerings, but it really only works in the shallowest of ways.
How this has a 7.7 rating in this site is beyond me.
PS: for a truly good film on vengeace, try "Oldboy".