Midway through watching Man on Fire last night I wanted to look
something up about it so paused it and put a search into Google. One of the top
results was its IMDb score which was a very impressive 7.7/10. Now the IMDb is
a great resource but its rating system is susceptible to the whims of the
masses and as a result, many films which don’t deserve them get high scores. On
a related note, Star Trek into Darkness
just yesterday crept into the IMDb Top 250, perfectly illustrating my point.
For me Man on Fire is another example
of this sort of overly hyped mass critical reception. While at its heart there
is a great revenge story, it is surrounded my poor musical choices and
cinematography which is so ill judged that it made concentrating on and enjoying
the movie close to impossible.
Mexico City is one of the kidnapping capitals
of the world and to protect his daughter (Dakota Fanning), businessman Samuel
Ramos (Marc Anthony) hires a bodyguard to protect her when she’s out of their
home. The bodyguard is former Marine and covert-ops officer John Creasy (Denzel
Washington), a man with a drink problem and issues connecting with other
people. Unsurprisingly the child is kidnapped and in the ensuing fire fight,
Creasy is seriously wounded. When on the mend, though still critically ill,
Creasy takes it on himself to track down the girl’s kidnappers and on a
revenge/killing spree gets closer and closer to ‘the voice’ a master kidnapper,
responsible for the taking and murder of several children.
