Over wrought

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2004)

A guilt ridden, Bible reading, alcoholic ex-counter insurgency assassin, Creasy (Washington), takes a job as body guard for a little girl (Fanning) in Mexico only to see her snatched from under his nose by a Mexican crime cartel. Predictably, Washington then goes on a one man mission of revenge with a promise to "off" anyone who profited from the girl's murder. According to his compadre (Walken), he's an artist, his art is death, and he's about to paint his masterpiece. "Man on Fire", which fared much better with the public than the critics, is a run-of-the-mill action/drama which fills up its almost 2.5 hour run with lots of concocted drama, super macho action, and annoying visual effects which do more to detract than embellish. Washington isn't the usual sweaty, muscular Schwarzenegger or Stallone one man army and subtitles which jump around on screen changing fonts and zipping form the mouths speaking the Spanish don't help. Nonetheless, "Man on Fire" will be worth a DVD rental for Denzel fans and should make for an enjoyable no brainer small screen watch. (B-)