Man on Fire (2004)

Man on Fire does this kind of weird thing at the end where it kinda sorta wants to make you believe its based on a true story, they do an epilogue thing with captions about what happened to characters afterword's. Well it ain't true, not even as a heavily fictionalized adaption of something that is. No in fact Man on Fire is a remake, of a 1987 film of the same name staring Scott Glenn, which in turn was based on a 1980 novel by D. J. Quinnell, set in Italy and the first in a series of books about the character "Creasy" formerly of the French Foreign Legion now turned bodyguard. Apparently Tony Scott wanted to direct that original movie but he was too new to directing for the studio to entrust the project to him, so 17 years later he made his own. Perhaps the fact that this is a remake helps explain its low Rotten Tomato's score, because I thought the movie really worked as the kind of revenge action movie it is.

The stories setting has been updated from Italy to Mexico City to keep it more current, and Denzel Washington's "Creasy" is former Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance, burnt out and self hating, his soul is renewed via friendship with new bodyguarding charge, a little Dakota Fanning, but when the bad guys get her, he goes loco nuts and out for revenge with all the weaponry Christopher Walken can supply him. I suppose its nothing special, but its a well done and satisfying example of the kind of thing it is. Washington gives a better performance then the film probably deserves and has a real chemistry with Fanning, you can feel his pain when she is abducted, and that makes the subsequent busting of heads somewhat meaningful. Also this vaguely counts as exposé, because criminal justice in Mexico is really corrupt, more so even then here in the states. ***