Amazing Revenge film, one of the best I've ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2010)

I saw Taken not too long ago, with a friend of mine who suggested Man On Fire, which had a similar plot. Loved both, but Man On Fire was definitely better.
John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is an alcoholic with the type of past he doesn't want to think about anymore. (as is evidenced when he keeps hearing/saying "No more killing") Creasy is given a bodyguard job from his friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken). The job details looking after a girl named Pita (Dakota Fanning). Her parents (Marc Anthony & Rahda Mitchell) are afraid of the recent amounts of kidnappings in their home in Mexico City.
Of course the inevitable happens, and Creasy goes after Pita's kidnappers with an incredible rage. "I'm gonna kill them all" he says, and as he does, we feel for this washed up old mercenary.
I haven't liked any of Tony Scott's films as much as I liked Man On Fire. The entirety is a relentless look at the character of Creasy, who we never like the way we like Liam Neeson's character from Taken. Creasy is beat up and always inches from breaking point. But when we see Creasy's breaking point and the power he unleashes with it, we have to applaud, and maybe laugh. (i.e. the anus & bomb scene)
I would've given Denzel an Oscar for his role. Everyone else is outstanding, Dakota Fanning gave a haunting scream that keeps playing over in Creasy's mind. Walken is outstanding (he always is), and Mickey Rourke's three and a half scenes were great.
It's a powerful story about revenge, and it's one of the best movies I've ever seen.