Man On Fire

Crime, Action

Denzel Washington	Creasy
Dakota Fanning	Pita
Christopher Walken	Rayburn
Marc Anthony	Samuel
Giancarlo Giannini	Manzano
Radha Mitchell	Lisa
Mickey Rourke	Jordan
Rachel Ticotin	Mariana
Jesus Ochoa	Fuentes
Gero Camilo	Aurelio Sanchez

Director	Tony Scott
Producer	Lucas Foster; Arnon Milchan; Tony Scott
Writer	Brian Helgeland; A.J. Quinnell
Cinematography	Paul Cameron
Musician	Harry Gregson-Williams

Style trumps substance in Man on Fire, a slick, brooding reunion of Crimson Tide star Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott. The ominous, crime-ridden setting is Mexico City, where a dour, alcoholic warrior with a mysterious Black Ops past (Washington) seeks redemption as the devoted bodyguard of a lovable 9-year-old girl (the precociously gifted Dakota Fanning), then responds with predictable fury when she is kidnapped and presumably killed. Prolific screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential) sets a solid emotional foundation for Washington's tormented character, and Scott's stylistic excess compensates for a distended plot that's both repellently violent and viscerally absorbing. Among Scott's more distracting techniques is the use of free-roaming, comic-bookish subtitles... even when they're unnecessary! Adapted from a novel by A.J. Quinnell and previously filmed as a 1987 vehicle for Scott Glenn, Man on Fire is roughly on par with Scott's similar 1990 film Revenge, efficiently satisfying Washington's incendiary bloodlust under a heavy blanket of humid, doom-laden atmosphere. --Jeff Shannon