DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star![]()
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop![]()
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange![]()
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Man on Fire
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 108 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Crime | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Brian Helgeland
A.J. Quinnell (novel)
Directed by: Tony Scott
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 23, 2004
DVD: September 14, 2004
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and strong violence
Starring Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, Rachel Ticotin, and Mickey Rourke
Denzel Washington stars as a government operative/soldier of fortune who has pretty much given up on life. In Mexico City, he reluctantly agrees to take a job to protect a child (Fanning) whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. He eventually becomes close to the child and their relationship reawakens and rekindles his spirit. When she is abducted, his fiery rage is unleashed on those he feels responsible, and he stops at nothing to save her. (20th Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Crimson Tide Days of Thunder Deja Vu Domino Enemy of the State Spy Game The Fan The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 True Romance
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Man on Fire, with a best-ever Denzel Washington, is the first (nonreligious) sure thing to hit the multiplex this year.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
By no means perfect - a twist in the tale overextends its already lengthy running time - but it is terrific fun.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The dead-serious Man on Fire awakens a genuine sense of bloodlust in the viewer. This is a slick, big-budget, A-list production designed to stoke our basest impulses -- to make us long for, and cheer at, bloody, merciless vengeance.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
For what Man on Fire delivers, it's worth enduring Scott's hyperkinetic visual techniques.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's resolutely grim and rather predictable but very compelling, and it offers a commanding star vehicle for Denzel Washington.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
No one rises above the material, though, except for Walken, who looks pleased with the paycheck and the top-shelf tequila. As a shady lawyer, Mickey Rourke is smooth and funny, but recognizable only by his familiar purr.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Washington's stoic persona here conceals a volcanic rage, and the cast of pros--including Giancarlo Giannini, Mickey Rourke and Rachel Ticotin--support him with relish.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Ultimately more bleak and furious than most Hollywood tales of this sort. Man on Fire plays it out to the bloody end, like theres no fire extinguisher in Mexico but for the oceans that hold its borders.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Employs superb craftsmanship and a powerful Denzel Washington performance in an attempt to elevate genre material above its natural level, but it fails. The underlying story isn't worth the effort.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Not too many R-rated revenge pics depend on "Uptown Girls'" Dakota Fanning for the stronger scenes. Yet once the 10-year-old star exits the picture, Man on Fire starts blowing a lot of smoke.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Man on Fire, which starts off as a good example of super-glitz moviemaking, gradually turns into a movie on fire -- another helter-skelter, big-studio spending spree. Too bad. It could use a lot more of Walken, Fanning and some more honest drama.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
One of the more absorbing and palatable entries in the rather disreputable "Death Wish"-style self-appointed vigilante sub-genre.
Read Full Review >Village Voice David Ng
Intentional or not, Man on Fire's over-the-top evocation of Christian retribution goes a long way to making this otherwise standard revenge fantasy watchable.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
The film as a whole, while possessing a kind of vicious beauty, feels as cold and as embalmed as a corpse.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
That there's moral ambiguity to his actions represents some sort of step up from the cinematic norm. Alas, Christopher Walken has very little to do as Creasy's best buddy.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo
Scott apparently decided it was a good idea for his subtitles -- much of the film is in Spanish -- to shimmy across the screen, to fade in and out dramatically, and in general do even more to distract us.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
If your idea of a bargain is two bad movies for the price of one, then shell out for Man on Fire. And don't fret about that incendiary title because this thing is all fuse.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Whenever the movie's point of view turns omniscient, and we're seeing events from the director's vantage point, Man on Fire becomes a blurry, shaky mess.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
On the plus side, the casting is superb - and the acting, too. Although the context is overwrought and the moviemaking over-the-top, Washington acts from the ticker out.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
A schizophrenic outing from habitually hysterical director Tony Scott (True Romance, The Fan), Man on Fire is a movie of two unreconcilable halves.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Despite its high craft level and Washington's participation in it, this movie's showy violence is finally as deadening as the over-emphatic violence in these kinds of films generally is.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Where Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" radiates freshness and vigor, Man on Fire feels vaguely like something left over from the 1980s, when action heroes were one-note tough guys methodically picking off baddies.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Scott swaddles this fundamentally straightforward revenge story in a jumble of bleary freeze frames, random changes of color saturation and film stock, jump cuts and stuttering montages, splashing text from some menacing word soup onto the resulting collage of chicly disturbing images.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The first hour is sharply directed, character-driven drama that ranks with Scott's best work. Then he lapses into his usual mode - more a bombardier than an entertainer, filling the screen with sadistic violence and arbitrary plot twists. In all, a wasted opportunity.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Seriously, someone needs to stage an intervention, sit Scott down, and tell him that repeated jump cuts, slow-motion shots, and fiddling around with the exposure dont enhance the viewing experience.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It is a good hour too long, although it does boast Christopher Walken.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Scott's latest exercise in assaultive excess nevertheless lingers for two and a half hours, like a drunken houseguest who won't leave.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Man on Fire is as ludicrous as "John Q," "Virtuosity" and "Out of Time," yet substantially more violent, artificial, self-conscious and dull.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
This is a time-tested movie con, but rarely has it been deployed so contemptibly.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This movie is a predictable, gruesome piece of business.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The movie's leisurely, elegant setup makes its action payoff seem, by contrast, particularly mechanical, cynical and grotesque.
Premiere Aaron Hillis
Not even within earshot of a masterpiece, Man on Fire, based on its ratio of production costs to quality alone, may prove to be the worst movie of 2004.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The movie's mortal failing is echoed in the religious medal Pita gives Creasy in a gift of innocent, uplifting love: Finding heft or coherence within all the lugubrious agitation is a lost cause worthy of St. Jude.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Man on Fire is ponderous and bloated, dragging the Bible and Giannini into its swirling cesspool. Scott can't give the movie any real emotional weight. And Washington gives his first lifeless performance.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's dispiriting to see good actors doing smart, solid work with so much unadulterated garbage swirling around them. Scott's art is also death, and we, the audience, are the ones he's jabbing at with his ruthless paintbrush. It's about time someone told him where to stick it.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 108 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
David W gave it a9:
This is one of my top 10 favorite movies in the last 10 years. I am a pretty harsh judge of movies too. The only flaw that I can see with this movie is that it is drastically overstylized but I dont have too much of a problem with it. The action is great, the suspense is great, the acting is very good. It has all the makings of a good action movie and makes me tingle every time I watch it because of the strong emotions in the movie. Denzel delievers a performance of a life time playing a burned-out ex-FBI agent. If I was going to watch an action movie with some substance I would definitely choose this one 8.6/10 The visuals are funky but they fit with the overly stylized music and plot.
Chris S gave it a10:
This movie was way better than the critics gave it credit for! I think they are simply jealous of Tony Scott.
jay d gave it a9:
Forget what the critics say, there profession is over-rated anyway becides there all a bunch of fat people with a few posh words. This movie is great to watch for a night in, unique, emotional, and realisticly, maybe.........probably true, meaning the methods of interrogation outside the law. My opinion along with everyone i know who has seen this movie, " I regret that movie critics should professionally exist! " :D 9/10 - high recommended.
Jay H. gave it a10:
One of Denzel Washington's greatest films. Second only to American Gangster and perhaps Training Day.
Jonathan D. gave it a10:
This movie is absolutely perfect the art direction is the best ive ever seen, the acting is top notch and this is one of the most emotionally engrossing movie ive ever seen... i rarely get upset at a movie and this movie i was almost in tears at the end. Critics really did miss the boat... the only downfall was the length... but i cant find a scene to take out so i think the length was necessary.
Angel H. gave it an8:
I cannot believe some of the scores from the professional reviewers. Were they watching the same film! Okay the film has some flaws but was always watchable and had another very good performance from Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning who is turning into an excellent actress. Some of the revenge killings may have seemed a little over the top and I'm not a great lover of Mr Scotts visual trickery which IMO derailed the middle segment of the film. However I cared about the characters and the relationship between Denzel seeking redemption and Dakota bringing a little light into his soul is very believable. The anger that he feels at the turn of events is and how he reacts because of his past as the only way he knows how. Altogether its an interesting blend of violence, emotion, humanity and also very heartwarming in places. It might not be a masterpiece but it was an excellent way to spend a couple of hours.
Chad S. gave it an8:
This movie is one of my favorites. Tony Scott is a good director, who has an extremely large amount of potential, and while Man on Fire shows off his skills, i still feel Scoott hasn't quite made his masterpiece. Excellent movie, highly reccommend it to anyone. Expect more, and better, from Tony Scott...just not Deja Vu.
