Man on Fire

Synopsis

An American who is struggling with his past, is hired to protect a family from kidnapping, but the people involved know more than he does.

Review

Oh man. This movie has not aged well for pacing. There is a slow, drawn out precense throughout the movie that does allow for the time span to make sense for the most part. However, there is one portion that makes no sense and I am not sure why they did it that way.

What I am talking about is a scene where Denzel's character tells Dakota that he isn't there to be her friend. In the next couple of scenes, they are best buds. I get why they did it, but it doesn't make sense from the aspect of what he just told her.

The action is fine. It comes in these short burst that make sense, but never feel drawn out which is nice. However, most of it doesn't feel real and we see a lot of the same clips through in.

After watching this, I totally understand why Dakota Fanning was expected to be so good. She is outstanding and probably the most believable person in this movie. Everyone else feels very stiff which makes her performance stand out even more.

The thing that upset me the most was the editing. They constantly flash back and forth between different camera angles that flashbang you as you watch. On an airplane it is almost unwatchable unless your brightness is turned down or the person sitting at the window weirdly has the shade up.

My Rating

I cannot tell you how upsetting, distracting, and annoying the flashing was. This movie is an epileptic's nightmare. It is probably 200+ flashes in some scenes and non of them are needed. I think this movie might have been better back in the day where some of this felt new or more stylized, but today it is just numbingly boring. I am giving this a 7.

Parental Rating

Lots of language and blood. The blood would easily stop mom from watching so it doesn't really matter if this is somewhat family related. The language starts strong, even for an early 2000s R movie, and doesn't let up. If you include the Spanish curse words, I think my dad would never finish it these days. There is something in my memory about my dad mentioning this movie and the language so it is easily a rejected by both movie.

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