Reviews

Man on fire is the story of Creasy (Washington), an alcoholic ex-agency man living with the demons of his violent working past and trying to find solitude at the bottom of a bottle. He is offered work by a friend and ex-college(Walken)to be a Bodyguard for a family in Mexico city and reluctantly agrees. The first act of the movie is a slow burning story of the relationship between Creasy and Pita, the young daughter of the family he protects. This part of the movie was always going to risk being cheesy as Creasy forms a warm bond with Pita and starts lowering some of the barriers he has to the outside world. The movie, however, deals with the relationship without being cheesy, mainly due to a superb performance by Washington. The first act ends with Pita being Kidnapped and Creasy left shot & injured. From here on, the movie keeps it simple and goes into revenge mode. Creasy hunts down everyone linked to the kidnapping and this ultimately leads to the major plot twist at the end of the second act. The second act, like the first, is excellent and prevents itself from slipping into boring routine because of the performance by Washington. The problem, however, arises in the final act where a typically Hollywood plot point prevents this Urban-noir movie from having the ending it deserves.

Hilarious from start to finish, this movie covers the story of an alcoholic safe cracker who works as a shopping mall Santa to steal money from the mall on Christmas eve. The concept of the movie is simple and the script is razor sharp with well drawn characters enhanced by faultless performances throughout. As with all good comedies, the material is inspired but it's the delivery that makes it unforgettable. Thornton proves that when it comes to Dead-pan comedy, there's no one better! His performance alone would be enough to make this film good but the fact that his high standards are maintained by the rest of the cast elevates it to a classic.

Absolutely brilliant- give these people a budget they deserve and ensure that we no longer have to watch the rubbish Hollywood tells us is meant to be funny. The title and concept were enough to get me intrigued but I wasn't expecting much from this movie. About ten minutes into it, however, I was hooked. The great script, the effort of making everything original including the soundtrack & score and the tongue-in-cheek acting simply make this the best second coming of Christ battling vampires musical-action-comedy you're ever likely to see(although I know there's not much competition in that genre!). On the downside, some sub-par editing in places and a slightly overlong second act mean the film is not quite up to the 10/10 that I gave it, but the fun the cast seems to have had making the movie and the fun you'll have watching it bumps up the rating. Ideally don't watch the move without a big group of friends (it works best as a shared experience) and be wary that some might find it offensive (although from an objective point of view it doesn't intend to offend and is not negative regarding religion).