A Slow Burn

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2004)

Man on Fire has its moments of originality but the movie as a whole seems to be a bust. The plot, involving Denzel as the bodyguard of a young girl who he bonds with, takes its sweet time setting up. However, once his character shifts into 'revenge mode', its a nonstop avalanche of bombs, bullets and blood. I liked the parts with Christopher Walken (who desperately needs a star vehicle for his massive talents), as well as the unique torture methods that Denzel utilizes in his pursuit of the Mexican mob and corrupt Mexican cops. However, this film shoots itself in the foot by convoluting the storytelling in two ways. Firstly, the film is roughly two and a half hours long, a bloated running time that could have been remedied by excising fifteen or twenty minutes of needless exposition. Secondly, director Tony Scott employs far too many camera tricks to tell the story, the most I've seen in any film since Natural Born Killers. It gives the movie the look of a music video, using techniques which are not only unnecessary but which also distract from the emotional character driven drama. A good film but it could have easily been much better.