Man on Fire (2004)

	Directed by: Tony Scott	COUNTRY USA/UK GENRE Action/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Man on Fire RUNNING TIME 146 minutes
	Produced by: Lucas Foster Arnon Milchan Tony Scott
	Written by (based on the novel by A. J. Quinnell): Brian Helgeland

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
John W. Creasy	Denzel Washington
Lupita Ramos	Dakota Fanning
Lisa Ramos	Radha Mitchell
Paul Rayburn	Christopher Walken	½
Samuel Ramos	Marc Anthony
Miguel Manzano	Giancarlo Giannini	-
Jordan Kalfus	Mickey Rourke	-
Mariana Garcia Guerrero	Rachel Ticotin	-
Victor Fuentes	Jesús Ochoa	-

Review

Tony Scott tried his hand at the trendy "CSI"-style of grainy images, erratic editing, and excessive use of slow-mo, and if it worked more for effect than as a distraction back when Man on Fire was released in 2004, it certainly doesn't now. What begins as small droplets of woozy camerawork and flashy cuts eventually turns into a full-out epilepsy attack by the final third of the movie. The picture should be taught in film classes as an example of how to overuse stylistic effects. And combined with Scott's predilection for milking narrative clichés, such as Denzel's alcohol problem, or how Dakota Fanning's loving character transforms him from an apathetic drunk into a loving teddy bear, or how he helps her become a swimming champion, this nullifies what could and should have been a rather engaging crime story based on A. J. Quinnell's novel and adapted here by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River). Some movies stand the test of time impeccably, others quite well, but this one has been completely obliterated by less than twenty years of aging. Quinnell's novel was also adapted in 1987, directed by French filmmaker Élie Chouraqui and starring Scott Glenn as John W. Creasy.