Amazing

Rating: 9/10 (24 April 2004)

When I first saw the previews for "Man on Fire", I honestly didn't know what to expect. There have been a lot of revenge movies out lately - "Punisher", "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2", etc. I honestly expected it to be like that. I personally, didn't like either of those movies. Anyways, I went to go see, "Man on Fire" tonight. What I saw, honestly blew my mind. I was so impressed by both Denzel Washington, but mainly Dakota Fanning. I have seen her in other movies, but this one really impressed me. The scary part was, she looks so much like my niece that it chilled me to the bone.

I loved the way it was portrayed. Creasy (Denzel) as the ex-military "Soldier of Fortune" hero who drinks a lot and has basically given up on life. Then you have Pita (Dakota), the beautiful and very intelligent ten year old (and she is 10 too!) who gets under Denzel's skin and makes it okay for him to "live" again. You have Samuel (Marc Anthony), who plays the concerned father without singing for once and his beautiful wife Lisa (Rahda Mitchell) who actually plays the concerned parent that enlightens Creasy character that Pita has a special love for him and wants him to be happy.
Somethings that bugged me for starters is that the movie DOESN'T HAVE A SOUNDTRACK!!!! This movie is great and the singer from Gladiator (When Maximus is walking in the wheat fields when he dies) sings songs for this movie as well. But, there is no soundtrack. I would love there to be a score for this movie, but I have found none. One of the other things that bothered me was the fact that the acting surrounding Marc Anthony's character "Samuel". It wasn't that the acting was bad...it was terrible. You see the character crying and such and you can tell that it is fake. Even when he smiles, it looks like he is putting on a facade.

I did not know at the time of watching "Man on Fire", that it was a remake. The ending actually made me believe that this was a true story. I returned home and did research on it and found that it was NOT a true story. I was actually kinda hoping it was. But all of the acting, except Marc Anthony's character was amazing. I can not wait to get this movie on DVD when it comes out. Very very powerful, especially the ending. When "Pita" screams, it was like - ahhhhh. It was bone chilling. I highly recommend this movie to anyone. Cheers!