What a bunch of queso!

Rating: 5/10 (29 January 2013)

This movie hits every trite cliché in the book, both before and after the kidnapping. As a bonus, this is basically two, two, two movies in one!
This first is "drunken man finds redemption and sobriety and reason to be happy in friendship with small child" and this is probably the better part. Dakota Fanning plays the typical winsome blonde kid who somehow cracks past Denzel Washington's crusty exterior. Fanning is a little cutie, and Washington is certainly a strong enough actor to pull this off. Still, you've seen this done before, and done better.
The second half of the movie is the "one man obsessed with revenge, oh and by the way, he happens a trained killer." You'll recognize this trope as having been done before and better. Denzel Washington is a fine actor, but he's a bad Schwarzenegger (for all his limitations, Ahnold is very good at amoral obsession, which is what Denzel is going for here).
It's not that it's a bad movie; there's too much talent (or at least experience) on both sides of the camera to make this bad. Still, it's trite and cheesy. There are better ways to spend 146 minutes of your life.