Man On Fire in Blu-ray Will Blow You Away

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Starring: Denzel Washington (Deja Vu, Crimson Tide) as John Creasy, Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) as Pita Ramos, Christopher Walken (Pulp Fiction, True Romance) as Paul Rayburn, Giancarlo Giannini (Casino Royale) as Miguel Manzano, Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black) as Lisa Ramos
Directed by: Tony Scott (Deja Vu, Top Gun)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Korean, and Cantonese

The Story
Before we get started on this, I must confess Man On Fire [Blu-ray] is probably one of my favourite movies ALL time. I just love it and simply cannot understand some people’s hatred of this movie. It’s simply SUPERB.

It’s a simple story – emotionally closed-off guy meets a precocious 9-year-old girl. Girl brings out the human in said man. Girl ‘dies’. Man seeks revenge and finds redemption. But Tony Scott has done such a fantastic job here, along with Washington, Fanning, and the entire cast that you feel his pain, his anger, and his vengeance.

Washington plays ex-CIA operative John W. Creasy. He is a burnt-out alcoholic who decides to visit old pal Paul Rayburn (Walken) in Mexico City. Paul gets Creasy a job as a bodyguard for 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning). You see, Mexico City has become the kidnapping capital of the world.

Being emotionally closed-off, Creasy has trouble accepting Pita’s constant effort to reach out to him, but overtime, she wears down his defenses and finally breaks down the emotional wall he has built around himself. Her father is a struggling businessman who has little time for her, so Creasy becomes her surrogate father. They show each other the love and support each has been missing.

But one fateful day after a gunfight in which Creasy is seriously injured, Pita is kidnapped. Left for dead and implicated for the kidnapping, Creasy is hidden away by Rayburn and police inspector Miguel Manzano (Giannini). There, he is told the ransom exchange went wrong and Pita was killed. From there on, Creasy promises to kill all those involved in her kidnapping and death. Starting with the corrupt cop who kidnapped her, he tortures and kills him, then works his way up the foodchain, showing no emotion as he dispatches those who were involved.

Just as the trail leads him to the man who instigated the kidnapping, he finds out that Pita is still alive. What we see next is a man finding redemption and making the ultimate sacrifice for the love of the innocent. , finding true peace at last.

The performance from Denzel Washington was without piers. To see him open up to someone, only to lose her, and his suicidal mission to seek revenge on all who harmed her was spellbinding. He deserved an Oscar for his performance.

Speaking of great performances, what about Dakota Fanning? She is so wise beyond her years. Her performance was truly riveting. The way her character opened up the closed Creasy bit by bit like an onion was superb. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Fanning at the UK premiere of War of the Worlds and she struck me as being an extremely bright, funny, and amiable young lady.

My favourite was when he was interrogating the head of the anti-kidnapping task force with the help of a capsule containing high explosives rammed up the bent police chief’s arse. When asked if he could make one last wish, Creasy replies, “I wish you had more time.” Then coolly walks away from the human bomb. Boom! Pure class.

The movie runs for 146 minutes. I give it 10/10.

The Visuals
Director Tony Scott chose to use many unusual filming styles to make this movie: over-saturation, reverse crank filming, hand-held cameras, and sudden changes in film speed. With the use of subtitles, some people hated this, saying that it was distracting. I loved it because it added to the urgency of this movie.

Despite all these various styles of filming and film stock used, the pictures look superb, razor-sharp, and full of detail. The black levels are super, as is shadow definition. Close-ups and distant shots alike are unbeaten. Just look at the urban sprawl – it looks fantastic, in a grubby kind of way.

This is what you get when you use a high bitrate AVC video encode as Fox have done. At the beginning of the movie, you can see just how burned out Creasy looks – truly fantastic. My score is 10/10.

The Audio
Yet again, Fox has done the business with an explosive dts HD Master audio soundtrack. I can’t wait to hear this in all its glory when I get back from holiday next week.

Even though I heard only the 1.5mbps dts core, it sounded super. Again, director Scott chose to use a number of tricks when recording the soundtrack and they were reproduced faithfully here – beautifully disorienting.

The haunting score plays out beautifully. The vocals are clear, as is the action – a top drawer mix. My score is 8/10 for the core audio. This will have to be a 9 or 10 when I see it in dts HDMA. I’ll readjust the score when I watch it again next week. Also note that there was also DD5.1 in French and Spanish.

The Extras
What the hell happened here, Fox? What happened to all the extras that appeared on the Collector’s Edition Steelbook that appeared last May? The 2 commentaries, the excellent Vengeance is Mine documentary, the alternative ending, with director commentary, the 14 deleted scenes again with commentary by Scott, the multi-angle scene study, the photo gallery, and the music video – where did they all go? Perhaps they were kidnapped.

All we get is 4 trailers – Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Man on Fire, Entrapment, and The Sentinel – shown in HD. This is pitiful and unforgivable, especially considering the just-released DVD had everything. When is Fox going to stop taking its customers for a ride and start treating us movie fans (who have already paid through the nose to have hi-def in their homes) with the respect we deserve? My score is 1/10.

Overall Impact
Man On Fire is a must-see movie with exemplary performances by all on board with superb audio and visuals. The only let-down is the half-hearted – actually, almost non-existent – special features. My score is 9/10.

Popularity: 59% [?]