Well done but slow paced

Rating: 6/10 (31 October 2004)

** HERE BE SPOILERS **
Mexico City is a place where kidnappings are commonplace. Therefore Creasy (Washington) is hired as a bodyguard for Pita (Fanning). Creasy is old military that lost faith and turned to the whiskey bottle. Pita slowly reaches out to him and brings him about. It is because of that Creasy is devastated when Pita is kidnapped, and Creasy severely injured while trying to protect her. The ransom drop then goes awry and there is only revenge left for Creasy. The corrupt police do nothing, actually there seem to be some officers involved in the kidnapping. With the aid of a journalist Creasy starts to hunt down those responsible.
This is a very well made movie. The cast with Washington, Walken, Fanning, Mitchell and Anthony are all very good. All characters is well established, in fact the times spends so much time in establishing plot and characters that the movie, especially in the first half, becomes very slow paced and you just wish that it could skip along and bring on what will inevitable happen. I can think of some scenes that could be shortened or cut entirely (for example Pita's extensive swimming). Unfortunately the pace only picks up a little when Creasy goes on the revenge trip. One redeeming fact is that the movie is brutally blunt and honest, does not shy away to show some brutal moments and scenes. It seems that Creasy is actually rather inventive when it comes to revenge. However, there are some things that are really annoying. For one the characters switch between Spanish and English in the middle of conversations and a lot of the dialog is printed out on the screen, regardless of it needs to be translated or not. Then there are some cuts and cinematic tricks that may seem cool at first but in the long run just is annoying. So, some parts are very good, and some not so good at all. That brings the movie to just above average.
6/10