MAN ON FIRE:

This one's the Denzel Washington one about the bodyguard who goes ballistic after the little girl he's paid to protect is kidnapped. Oh so it's like a combination of Costner's "The Bodyguard", "The Professional" and any typical vendetta movie? Right??

No, not really. The previews only hint very briefly at what the movie is like.
*Yeah, there are a few explosions,
*Yeah, the film is shot in a washed-out gritty way like the style used for "Traffic" and the opening credits of the TV show, "The Shield".
*Yeah, Christopher Walken has a few cool dialogue scenes.
*Yeah, there are cute moments with Dakota Fanning's character forming a bond with Washington's character.

But that's just scraping the surface. This one is about despair and redemption and the way people hollow out their souls for greed or revenge or ambition. Washington's character is called Creasy. And he's a total wreck at the beginning of the film. Think James Bond after his wife was killed, or "The Equalizer" after he quit the agency where he did horrible, horrible things to many people. Creasy has done horrible things (Covert-ops and mercenary work) and feels very guilty about it. He's finding it hard to function. He's just drifting through life. In one hand he holds a soul-reaffirming bible while in the other he holds a body-numbing bottle of alcohol. He's caught between not wanting to live and the desire to at least do something right for all the wrong he did. Yes, it sounds cliché but somehow Washington doesn't make it come off that way. And the weird thing is, everyone seems to sense an aspect of dignity to him.

He's hired on the spot by the mother of Fanning's character, the "Lois Lane"-like news reporter immediately realizes that Creasy is someone who isn't corrupt, the little girl Pita instantly likes and looks up to him and Creasy's friend (played by Walken) is very loyal to him. As far as he has fallen he still has a very strong code of honor and an approach of unapologetic honesty. What the preview don't hint at is the way Creasy strikes back. They can't. Because this guy is like the scary Punisher that Ennis writes about. Or the characters in the world of Brian Michael Bendis' "Daredevil". Have you read Bendis' Daredevil lately? That's the feel of the film. Subdued but powerful. Cruel and calculated. Cold and Brutal. Stark and shadowy. Creasy is focused. He doesn't leap into action and start firing. He's systematic and methodical. He does sadistic things but with the approach of a trained professional who doesn't let emotion get in the way. He doesn't enjoy inflicting pain. It's just what he does. It's the best way he knows how to get things done. He explains things patiently like that guy who paints "happy trees" but he uses knives and bullets to make his points and impressions.

This movie is like "Training Day", "24" and "The Shield" all mixed together. There's a scene where Creasy is getting information from one of the kidnapper's. A Spanish version of Toni Basil's "Mickey" is playing on the car radio while Creasy talks to the man whose hands are duct taped to the steering wheel with the fingers sticking out. Creasy very calmly and patiently explains that he will cut fingers off for each uncooperative response. The audience and the guy thinks he's bluffing or joking. But he's not. Oh my god, he is so not joking.

And that's when we start to realize what Creasy is. Why he's so torn up inside. This guy is like an avenging archangel who carries out his duty with almost demonic consequences. They hire him as a guardian angel but when things go wrong and the girl is taken he becomes an avenging angel again. The bible is guidance. It instructs on the nature of sin, how it corrupts and how one can overcome it's temptations. But it also details the fury of God's wrath and the unforgiving ways of the archangels. They did their duty flawlessly they destroyed cities, walls came crumbling down, vengeance was exacted. Creasy read and identified with both those aspects of the bible. He goes out and utterly destroys everyone who had something to do with or was in anyway involved with the kidnapping.

There's no glory in what he does. No triumphant music heralding his successes. Once he's back in his element. He becomes an angel of death and retribution. "Death is his art and he's painting his masterpiece" that's a corny line from the movie but it fits in a strange way. The deaths aren't gloriously created like those in "the Crow" with flaming signatures. That was artistic. Here, death is delivered as something the characters deserve for past sins. They profited from the death and abuse of others. Now, it's time to be punished. Again, it sounds cliché, but it didn't come off that way. It would have if Vin Diesel was in the title role. Then it would have been unbearably cheesy.

The movie is long. Almost 2 and a half hours. The first part is weird because it takes time to get used to the director's flashy and quick style of editing. It explains the twisted area of Mexico City where kidnappings are as routine as car accidents in New Jersey. It's a spooky atmosphere because Pita is totally used to the notion that a bodyguard has to be with her at all times because she is constantly in danger of being kidnapped. It's unnerving how easily she is able to accept that. The film editing style is frantic and frazzling at the beginning. It matches Creasy's unhinged and suicidal mindset at the beginning of the film.

Then the pace and direction eases into a zone of comfort as he starts to bond with Pita. Then as we enter the stage of violence at the end it gets sharp and striking again as Creasy enters a cold and brutal mindset. And then it starts to play tricks as you start to realize exactly how many people were involved. There is a bit of a twist to things. But I can't tell you anymore about that. But I can tell you that I did like the way it ends. It fits the unforgiving atmosphere of the film. And maybe, some might argue that film is about a Black devilish killer striking back at Mexicans who kidnapped a little innocent white, blond-haired girl. Well that's if you go by a very shallow view of looking at the surface. This film is about everything that goes on underneath. It doesn't matter what we look like on the surface, we're all susceptible to the emotions and conflicts that occur underneath. Everyone questions there sense of vengeance in the film. Everyone examines who they are and how far they are willing to go to get what they want. Creasy can easily go a lot further than most people. But there are still limits. There is one thing that can stop him. And that is one of the last twists in the film. You might guess it, but I'm sure not going to tell you what it is. You'll have to see it.

SO IS THIS WORTH SEEING?
Yes.
SHOULD YOU RUN OUT AND SEE IT RIGHT NOW?
It might not be playing very much longer. There are a lot of big movies coming out soon. This one will be edged out. If you're into films like this then see it, but make sure it's on a night when you have a lot of time and you're awake enough to watch a movie that can be slow and atmospheric at times. Not slow boring, but slow as in drinking in the emotions and the feel of the film like slow sips from a glass of wine. This is not a film to chug down quickly. It plays tricks with you. It's subtle and over the top at the same time. It should be cliché and cheesy but somehow it's not. It's deeper than that, if you watch it carefully. At the end the audience walked out quietly and a bit slowly like how they did after "Seven" or "House of Sand and Fog". It's that kind of film.

SCALE OF 1 TO 10?
Maybe an 8.5 or 9. The movie sticks with me. I keep turning it over in my head. And I loved that car scene with the "Mickey" song. Really great acting. Especially Fanning and Washington, but they're always good. I wish Walken had been given more to say (He even seems to comment on that at one point in the movie, it's weird.) But even the villains had weird quirks and not typical ways of acting. Especially the kidnapper in sunglasses during that "Mickey" car interrogation scene. Damn just see it for that scene alone.

It's not one of my all time favorite movies but I did like it a lot. Better than "the Punisher" but not as good as "Kill Bill". It is long, though. If you're not a movie maniac you can probably wait for it to come out on DVD. It's just that in the theaters some people saw it with the new Spider-man 2 preview. I didn't, but some did. That can be an incentive to see it in the theater.