Quite Cold.

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2006)

Man on Fire (2004)
Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Walken, Marc Anthony, Giancarlo Giannini, Mickey Rourke, Gustavo Sanchez Parra. Directed by Tony Scott.
Spoilers herein.
Former Marine/CIA operative and depressed alcoholic John Creasy is sent to Mexico to help protect the daughter of an industrialist after a series of kidnappings occur in Mexico City. At first Creasy just wants to do stick to his job and nothing else, but he slow starts to befriend young Pita. Pita is suddenly kidnapped out of nowhere and Creasy is badly wounded, but he vows revenge on those who took her and anyone who gets in his way.
'Man on Fire' really could have been another typical, dumbed-down thriller, but it ends up being intense and very different from most in some areas. The plot of course does not sound original at all, and it isn't, but the directing and editing are the main parts that are different.
Denzel Washington is simply amazing in his role  he actually gives one of his very best here. I wasn't too big on 'John Q', but I still thought he did great in that film as well and saved it from being below average, and that convinces me that Washington is still one of the best actors working today. Dakota Fanning is very good for her age as Pita, and I think she will probably go on to a higher acting career, as she gets older. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty good too, for those whose faces are familiar.
The real only main flaw here is too much of Scott's visual style running wild. The editing and camera work do get very irritating after a while, though they do work strong in some scenes. I really expected this to be a typical Michael Bay-like blockbuster, but I actually think of it as one of the most underrated films of 2004, and it definitely works as both an action film and a character study. 4 stars out of 5.