Not bad but bring the motion sickness pills.

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2004)

"Man on Fire" is a remake of a movie from back in the 80's. Never did see it but I'm guessing it's nothing quite like this. John Creasy is a Jack Daniels swilling,down-and-out former CIA assassin who just happens to come across an old colleague, Rayburn (Christopher Walken) while in Mexico. Rayburn gets Creasy a job as a bodyguard for a businessman's daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning). If you've seen the trailers, you probably know what happens next. After the first 50 minutes of quiet banter between Creasey and Pita, the movie dissolves into a loud, out-for-blood revenge movie. This change of pace is fine at first, but couldn't make sense of the direction after that, when the killing starts. Between the herky-jerky camera styles and washed out colors, it's hard to stay focused on the plot. Can picture Tony Scott on a mechanical bull. Most of the characters look like they could use a transfusion along with Creasey. The actors do great work here, hard to find fault in that at all. A more subdued style would have worked fine and maybe shaved 20 min. off the final time of 142 min. The ending alone could have been compressed a little. With so much violence during the last acts of the film, the ending leaves you wanting just a little more to go out on.