Best drama/action movie I've seen in years

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2004)

Although some of the plot twists are a little predictable, Man on Fire has plenty of them. If your jaw doesn't drop when Denzel turns action-hero and starts gutting the crime organization from the bottom up, you are probably not awake.
This movie gives us a good amount of time to become familiar with the characters and gain some insight into their lives and relationships. Cleasy is a very complex character who goes from loser to superman to crazy psycho avenger, and who finally discovers peace with a final selfless act.
Some people may not appreciate the visual experience that Man on Fire provides, but there are very good reasons for the strobe-like sequences and the extra subtitles. This movie uses accelerated flashes of images to emphasize a state of confusion or internal struggle within the characters' minds. No, it is not pleasant to look at, but that is the entire point--it shows that the characters are not just going through the motions and doing crazy things like it's just another day at the beach. It gives the audience a glimpse into the characters' (most notably Creasy's) minds as they try to deal with and make sense of chaotic thoughts and fragmented images.
Another effect used in this film is extra subtitling to emphasize key bits of information. Some of the dialogue is in Spanish, so of course there are subtitles for those of us who are not quite so fluent in that language. But during some key sequences the subtitles materialize briefly onto the screen to help us make the same mental notes that Creasy is making (either mentally or in his little notepad).
Of all the movies I have seen in the past couple of years, this is by far the best action movie; and it probably ranks withing the top 5 movies of any genre that I've seen in the past few years.