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Catch a Fire
User Score
6.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 15
  3. Negative: 2 out of 15

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  1. JasonE.
    Mar 7, 2007
    6
    Despite its obvious well-meaning humanistic intentions, "Catch a Fire" remains mired in genre trafficking despite its ambitions to convey the power of self-realization. By repeatedly flushing the screen with the hopeful, joyous chantings/dances of the saintly natives he overshadows the smaller personal story of one man's triumphs over his own mild-mannered acquience to the injustices that plague his nation. Robbins adds a stern introspection that adds slight dynamicism to this otherwise didactic tale.… Expand
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  2. ChadS.
    Nov 3, 2006
    8
    When Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) reaches ANC headquarters, it'll become crystal clear as to why "Catch a Fire" does the story of apartheid some justice. We meet Joe Slovo (Malcolm Purkey), leader of the South African Communist Party, who easily could've been the male protagonist in another film. Thankfully, the filmmaker didn't Alan Parker this baby, and allowed a black man to tell the story of his own reduction. To make allowance for this box office-killing gambit, unfortunately, there's an action scene that seems phoned in from another movie, seemingly, as some sort of cockamamie compromise to give apartheid some sizzle. If you're going to use bombast, use it to honor the memory of the dead, not some flick starring Harrison Ford in full sweat-mode. When depicting the violence that pervaded apartheid, "Catch a Fire" lacks that one defining moment in which we see and feel the monstrous evil of this government-sanctioned racism. It's okay for Patrick to be a bigamist, and Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) to be a good family man (we want complexity in our characters), but apartheid itself should be painted in broader strokes. It pulls back on the blood, which prevents the audience from a few hours of rabble-rousing after leaving the cineplex. In "Mississippi Burning", the ugliness of slavery becomes all-too-visceral when some klansman kicks a young boy in the face. "Catch a Fire" lacks such a moment.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. EddyG.
    Oct 23, 2006
    10
    Extremely powerful movie. Excellent.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. richardhaber
    Nov 2, 2006
    9
    Powerful and moving. An important historical film.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. TimidTimes
    Oct 29, 2006
    7
    A great movie for Tim Robbins to star in and another great movie about the history of Africa. However its no classic like "Cry Freedom" or "Hotel Rwanda". It seems to be looking for the blockbuster getters instead of focusing on the real issues at hand. It's an airbrushed ride through the case of a man. With a PG13 rating and a foggy stardom, it seems only to create havoc for many audience members. But I enjoyed it and I think many people will too. Too bad it flopped in the box office.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. fotp
    Aug 11, 2011
    9
    Apartheid movies. I went into this one thinking that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. If within ten minutes, any film can shatter even one of your prejudices or preconditions, you know it’s bound to be something special. First and foremost, the cinematography is excellent. And God knows whether it was Bob Marley’s Exodus or Could You Be Loved playing in the background of a lighthearted scene, a chill ran down my spine. For a good portion of the film, I’d sworn I’d read a passage somewhere which said this film was wholly fictional. As much emotion as this film conjures, I had myself convinced that this at worst could be a liberal exaggeration. I was determined not to allow a conflict formed for entertainment to spark my hate for a regime which was ousted before I was even born. However, In the final seven minutes, the cameras took me to the home of the real Patrick Chamusso and I realized this was no joke. Regrettably, I’m going to have to break that [spoiler] wall in this post as the entire thing was just gripping. There’s a scene where Patrick, the protagonist, has endured several days/weeks of torture after the bombing of Secunda CTL, a white owned synthetic fuel plant which became a vital target of one anti apartheid movement. Despite the fact that Patrick played no role in the bombing and was even out of town that night, the main antagonist, Nic Vos, is unconvinced of his innocence. This character (thankfully fictional), from the get-go, becomes one of the most mentally twisted and mangled characters I’ve ever seen portrayed. The facade he displayed had me unconvinced as to whether this man would truly develop into the antagonist he appeared to be or a Donald Woods type character. It could have gone either way. Not until the climactic scene above, where Patrick is kicked into a room and left to crawl around blindfolded before bumping into the brutalized body of his wife, do you truly see that this man is psychologically…evil personified. As Vos goes on to milk every facet of this secret after Patrick divulges it, Patrick finds that all he’d valued in his life of Apartheid complacency is being ripped away from him. And then…something catches fire within this man. Terrorism. I was just reading an interview with the cast from a time when this film was one you’d call recent. The interviewer asked Tim Robbins, the actor who portrayed Vow if he genuinely thinks Patrick was a terrorist. Right away, he picks apart the connotation Americans instinctively draw of the concept after the turn of the century. One could surely argue that the former definition and the current one hardly deserve to be classified under the same word. But then again, I think ignorance plays a central role in the redefining of the word to us. Never before has such a sheltered civilian population had such a media and to a lesser scale, physical, barrage unleashed on them. If The object of terrorism is to foment fear and wage war on an opponents psychological ability or will to wage war, it’s remained exactly the same. In this film however, ANC commandants explicitly command Patrick to take no lives in his mission. That seems to be a lost art among this generation. I did read the words of a few IMDB reviewers. Not the positive - The negative, as there were bound to be at least a few. The only one to give it 1 star out of 10 would be the expected ‘offended’ viewer who was disgusted to see the perception of moral good, the ANC, and the perception of moral evil as the Afrikaners as evil, so overtly nudged on by the director. To that, I say you can make anyone appear the victim and the offender depending on what scope you’re looking in. Unfortunately, if you look at the big picture here, no amount of roads or fuel plants the Boers could have built would justify even one man tortured or killed. Of course, he was quick to draw on the movie’s failure to depict the downturn of South Africa’s economy proceeding the crumbling of Apartheid rule. I’m sorry this wasn’t the documentary he was looking for. Aside from that, another viewer recognized a flaw that even a newly indoctrinated true believer like myself could agree to. The film starts slow and ends fast. By the time Apartheid finally loosens it’s grip on the country, Mandela rises to power, and Patrick and his fellow political prisoners are set free, there’s no movie left. Furthermore, yet another reviewer claims that despite every conflict that occurs in Catch A Fire, a coherent theme is not established. Forgiveness. Albeit a slowly developing one is the theme I believe comes to the fore undoubtedly as the movie fades to credits. Still, Catch A Fire’s easily become one of my favorite movies of all time.… Expand
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    Stories of resistance to oppression will never become obsolete, but this feels like a picture that should have been made a long time ago.
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  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    70
    Comparisons to "Hotel Rwanda" make sense up to a point - both feature heroes who have the scales removed from their eyes - but "Fire" is no tearjerker, and here the story of Chamusso's conversion serves mainly as prologue to the main plot, a history-tinted cat-and-mouse policier in which he will attempt to finish the job he was wrongly accused of starting.
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  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    50
    In the end, Catch a Fire plays like some weird hybrid on the crazy-quilt filmography of Phillip Noyce, which includes small productions made in his native Australia and the Sharon Stone sexcapade "Sliver." What it's definitely not is the standard-issue movie about apartheid; there's no white protagonist, no pale-faced hero riding in on his high horse to save the oppressed black man.
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