Why is this Two and a Half Hours?

Rating: 5/10 (19 June 2004)

Long ago I saw a nice small little thriller called Man on Fire with Scott Glenn. It wasn't the best movie, it wasn't the worst, it was a good little thriller. Now some years later Tony Scott returns to the source material of that shorter and perhaps better thriller and makes an overlong revenge thriller.
The plot is basically follows the down on his luck intelligence man begins work with a family. The daughter and he bond. When she is kidnapped and the ransom drop goes wrong he begins a long bloody trail to get revenge.
And there are twists and turns and...why is this so long?
More importantly why has Tony Scott been allowed to create one of the most annoying visual styles on record? The subtitles that seem to randomly appear make me wonder at Scott's sanity since they distract from the film not add to it.
There are nice bits in this. The acting is top notch. But its way way too long and seems to go on for no real reason.
Despite being too much its not bad (5 out of 10) but if you ask me, wait for cable.