‘Man on Fire’ is overly doused in bloody revenge

JOHN DEPKO

High-gloss production values and first-rate acting are evident

throughout every twist and turn of “Man on Fire.” But this quality

treatment by a major studio cannot hide the fact that this is a

formula action film with a schizophrenic twist. Beginning as a sweet

story of redemption and newfound friendship, it becomes a predictable

tale of bloody revenge and serial killing where gruesome torture and

death are the order of the day.

Denzel Washington is undeniably excellent as a burnt-out, hired

killer who takes on a simple assignment at the end of his career. He

becomes the bodyguard of the 10-year-old daughter of a wealthy

Mexican businessman. The first half of this overlong film is a total

chick flick. It covers the deepening relationship between a

hard-boiled gunman and a very cute girl who is wise beyond her years.

The brutal second half of the film begins when the darling daughter

is kidnapped by a ruthless ring of kidnappers whose leaders operate

at the highest levels of the police and government.

The setup to make the audience hate the bad guys is long and slow

and deliberate. It has to be so. The viewer needs to hate the bad

guys in a visceral way to be able to watch the many grisly scenes

where they are dispatched into the next world in the most macabre

ways imaginable. This film is very well made but the last hour has

the B-movie feel of Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish” series. You can

admire the technical quality of the effort while you realize it’s a

familiar story that’s been told a thousand times before.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator

for the Orange County public defender’s office.