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Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2004)

Just seen this film and still find it hard to believe that the likes of Denzil Washington agreed to appear in it, and Tony Scott directs it. Though it was good to see Mickey Rourke appearing in a film and not looking like someone who was on death's door for a change.
Brutal and clichéd are how I would describe this film. The idea of the 'lost soul' looking for redemption reminded me of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. But unlike the western this slips into sentimentality and veers away from the true darkness of the main character. He can kill "sweaty and corrupt" Mexicans but the scripts veer away from the true brutality of the main character when threatening a woman or the girl's father. Not that I'm condoning violence against women, more the fact that the film did not stay true to the character - don't worry little girl, I've killed in cold blood, maimed and tortured individuals but I'm really a nice person and would never hurt any true blond haired, blue eyed American!
The choice of music - mournful vocals - was very similar to Gladiator. Were we also have a man of violence driven forward by revenge. But while Maximus was a character trying to escape violence and start a normal existence Creasy just comes across as an unoriginal, unstoppable killing machine. The scene when he was buying guns was right out of an Early Arnie film such as Terminator or Commando.
Finally the direction. What was Tony Scott thinking; stop trying to copy the likes of David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky. Stick to what you are good at set piece over the top action sequences - car chases, impossible shoot outs etc. The 'realistic' gritty edgy style here with digital cameras, ragged editing and jarring camera movements became from tedious very quickly.
Maybe one to rent on a wet Saturday