Pretty good story, but direction is annoying.

Rating: 7/10 (13 February 2005)

Denzel Washington plays Creasy, an alcoholic bodyguard in "Man on Fire", who is hired to protect a wealthy family's young daughter Pita, played by Dakota Fanning. The family lives in Mexico, where we are told that a kidnapping occurs every 80 minutes; frequently.
Creasy is stone cold and straight to the point. we learn that he has in a sense lost some humanity while performing his line of work. While driving Pita to her destinations, she eventually befriends him. Pita's kindness gives Creasy some light at the end of the tunnel and makes him feel more humane.
However, Pita disappears from creasy's life when they are ambushed and Pita is kidnapped. Creasy heals, but swears vengeance on those who have kidnapped her.
All in all, Man On Fire was a bit disappointing from what i expected, but the film is still very good. Denzel puts in a convincing performance, but half the pleasure of the movie is in watching him and Dakota Fanning interact during the first act of the movie. She is so adorable, and their dialog is so real that it leaves you wishing that the eventual kidnapping never happens.
When it does happen, though, you become instantly depressed that Pita is dead and that Creasy's life is ripped up all over again. When Denzel sets out to avenge her, you aren't on the edge of your seat rooting for him, surprisingly. You definitely want to see what he does, but the fact is that you know you liked the first half much more.
Something else that is interesting is that the Police are on to Creasy, but they are merely piggy backing him because they're glad he's giving the kidnapping network proper justice. Remember, a kidnapping in Mexico City occurs every 80 minutes, which means that these cops have had to deal with a lot of broken hearted families and the fact that there's nothing they could do about it.
This movie would probably earn 4 stars from me had it not been for the terrible film making style and bad use of sub titles. The colors flicker, the scenes warp, and unusual sounds and unusually loud sounds rip onto the track. Tony Scott, the director, was probably just trying to make it look interesting and life like, but it was just annoying and distracting.
The subtitles were oddball as well. the people speaking Mexican and other languages get subtitles, thank you. But at certain points in the film some of the English was subtitled as well. it seemed subtly insulting because you got the impression that they didn't think you were paying attention.
in the end, i'll give it ** 1/2 out of 4. Not bad.