quote: Dennis Benjamin

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It had a "Seven" feel to it

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quote:

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I ... thought the camera effects added to the story

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quote: Mark J. Marshall

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Well over half of the shots had an "Opening Credits of Se7en" feel to them... which I thought was way too much.

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quote: Mark J. Marshall

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I thought they added about as much as a severely flickering xenon bulb and a bad intermittent sprocket would add to the story.

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Since I have never had either at my theatre, I can't compare it to that.
 

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Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 04-26-2004, 04:57 AM:
 
Too damn long!
 

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 04-30-2004, 01:33 AM:
 
aaah, April has been my summer moviegoing season with all the action movies out in the last 5 weeks. Dawn of The Dead was a fine start to my spring and Man on Fire ends it.

I found the movie watchable, but i left pretty pissed off at Tony Scott. He did an awful job directing this movie. Not only did he probably hire a trained chimp to use the camera, he also hired some trained monkey to include a jittery effect in the post production process in scenes where the camera wasn't shaky enough. And the use of those lightning like visual FX to denote some kind of mood was annoying. He overdid it. The pathetic thing is Tony Scott had a decent enough script to make an entertaining movie. He obviously is an insecure old man trying to be hip. Someone should tell him that the methods he overuses were trendy ... way back in 1995. I also hated the use of that Gladiator like song during the sad scenes. All I could visualize was Russel Crowe laying on the ground whenever that tune would come up with some lady singing in some foreign language.

Other than that, I am a sucker for vigilante movies, so I kind of liked it.
 

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Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 05-12-2004, 11:38 PM:
 
Finally saw this one tonight and ended up walking out. But what I did see I did not like (which is why, obviously, I walked out). Comepletely agree about the horrible camera effects. The opening titles gave me a whopper of a headache. But I thought to myself, this is just the titles, I'm sure the whole movie won't be like this. I wish I could say I was wrong.

Also thougth the movie was way too long. We know the girl is going to get kidnapped. Why did it take an hour just to get to that part?

Agreed that Christopher Walken and Dakota Fanning did excellent jobs. They were the film's redeeming qualities.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-13-2004, 12:43 AM:
 
SPOILER

I didn`t understand why Denzel had to die in the end (except to make it more dramatic). He had The Voice`s brother and his (or his brothers?) pregnant girl, shouldn`t that be enough to make him give up the girl?
How can parents name a child "Dakota"? That sounds like a cowboy name, like "Texas Johnson" or "Oklahoma Willie". Why do you give a child a place name? OK, "Dakota" is still better than, say, "Albuquerque" - the poor child with that name would have to spell it every single time the name is asked...

[ 05-15-2004, 02:52 AM: Message edited by: Michael Schaffer ]
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-13-2004, 05:48 PM:
 

quote: Pravin Ratnam

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Someone should tell him that the methods he overuses were trendy ... way back in 1995.

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Actually, you would need to go back nearly another decade for the shots to be trendy. That aperture flash-edit thing is pure, tired schtick now. The effect was seen in music videos for REM and others back in the late 1980's. Same thing goes for a lot of the other grungy, stressed camera effects too. The thing which really annoys the hell out of me about Tony Scott's recent directorial efforts (and the same thing can be said about Michael Bay and a number of other all-style/no-substance "I-wanna-be-John-Woo" guys) is he tries to make a movie survive by all the over-stylization and little else. All the jittery, gimmicky camera shots take you right out of the movie. "Man On Fire" had a lot more potential going for it than what delivered. Sort of the same result as Scott's "Spy Game".

IMHO, David Fincher is one guy who can do the flash and style thing correctly. He only seems to use it were it works "musically" with the feeling and rhythm of the shot and story point. Like Tony Scott, Fincher has directed TV commercials (as well as filmed lots of music videos), but I think David Fincher does more to pay attention to the movie as a whole rather than trying to make it feel like a 2 hour long movie trailer.
 

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-14-2004, 05:54 PM:
 
Hey, Michael, way to give away like three spoilers in the first two sentences! How about editing your post and adding a * * * SPOILER * * * warning?
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-15-2004, 02:53 AM:
 
OK, but now that I have already spoiled the ending for you, can you explain to me why

SPOILER

Denzel has to die in the end?
 

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Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 05-15-2004, 06:11 AM:
 
*** SPOILER ANSWER ***

When you've killed the head of the mob and a lot of other important people in the mob, you're going to die.

I enjoyed the movie, but it could have been shorter and less stylized. (Actually, my AMC's SDDS was dropping in and out and I'm not sure if anyone else would notice.) I kept thinking, were Tony Scott and Denzel Washington lucky that they found Dakota Fanning? I'm not familiar with her other work, but she could deliver lines like a pro.

Without getting too political, Denzel's vigilante revenge was harder to accept against today's news in Iraq. Does the end justify the means? It used to be just edgy to watch Jack Bauer of "24" kill enemies (and friends) without consequences. Now with a Congressional uproar, we might ask where a few people in the military might have gotten the idea that this stuff is OK. We're shocked in real life when stuff like this happens. The old question, does life imitate art, or is it the other way around?

Oh, does anyone want to go to Mexico City now? It's a special place I hear.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-15-2004, 02:27 PM:
 
SPOILER

I understand he pissed off a lot of people in Mexico, but couldn`t he just have gone back to America to live under a new name in a nice place like California`s beautiful San Fernando Valley?
 

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-15-2004, 05:54 PM:
 
SPOILER!!!

Well, he was about to die from his injuries from earlier in the film anyway. And we know he wanted to kill himself earlier in the film, but thought that he was given a "message" by the bullet not firing. I guess he felt that he'd let his life end on an act of redemption. That's the way I took it anyway. But I've been wrong before!
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-15-2004, 08:48 PM:
 
SPOILER

That makes sense. I am sorry that Denzel is dead though, I liked most of his movies.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-15-2004, 08:54 PM:
 
Somebody needs to spank Dakota's Fanny. I find her terribly annoying and in need of acting schoool.

I have not seen this in it's entirity due to its "style", but I have seen enough of this to launch my review. This movie sucks major ass...just like Sling Blade 2!
 

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Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 10-27-2017, 09:22 PM:
 

It has been 4913 days since the last post.

 

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-27-2017, 09:22 PM:
 
Normally wouldn't resurrect an old review thread. However, when I rewatched this movie over the years, I actually love this movie inspite of my initial review where I liked it but the style annoyed me as cliched for the time. All the visual effects that I found a little too dated and overused in the theater I saw, they come across as better on a smaller screen(my 60-70 inch TVs). (the not so bright projection didn't help plus I was probably not in the right mood to watch it at the time)

When I rewatch it, I can focus on the lead characters' narrative. ANd I think Denzel and Dakota nail their roles. And the vigilante slow burn pace really sunk in my brain after I watched the movie even the first time which made me rewatch it on TV later. I go from a so so review to one of my favorite movies from that year.

A
 

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