Man on Fire (All
Access Edition)
Picture: A-
Sound: A- Extras: A- Film: B
Director Tony Scott always reminds me of another director,
“Oh yeah, that’s right his brother Ridley!”
His films continue to look, feel, sound, and he even casts his films
similar to his brother, but never quite reaches the ability. His latest film Man on Fire (a remake
of the 1987 film starring Scott Glenn as the lead) is another attempt to catch
up with Ridley’s status, but despite being a good film still has its flaws. Tony Scott originally wanted to direct the
1987 film, but at that point in time he had very few films under his belt and
was not ‘qualified’ by the powers that be during that time.
Man on Fire carries all the recent characteristics of a
Tony Scott picture, which of course have a bit of Ridley throughout including
the music this time around, which involves Lisa Gerard who became recognizable
after Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator.
If you also notice with this film the production design resembles a few
others films including Ridley Scott’s Hannibal and even casts Giancarlo
Giannini as well. The one thing that
does stick out to some degree is the rapid cuts, although some of the camera
style has the documentary texture, which was featured in Black Hawk Down
(yet another Ridley film).
Man on
Fire stars Denzel Washington in the role of Creasy, a man set
out to protect the life of a wealthy businessman played by Marc Anthony (yes
the singer). Dakota Fanning gives
another brilliant performance has the young daughter, who befriends Creasy and
gives him the will to want to live again, instead of drink his life away. Our story is set in Mexico City, where
kidnapping occurs round the clock as a new way to make millions of dollars for
crime bosses. What I certainly
appreciated this time around though was that the story unfolds and we have good
character development and that enables the viewer to care about the people
involved. Even with Creasy’s best
efforts the kidnappers take the businessman’s daughter and want her back for a
hefty reward, but the betrayal and corruption spreads much further and the only
person standing in between fate and redemption is Creasy.
One thing that annoyed me a bit was the rapid cutting that
seemed to never end, which was very similar to Scott’s 2001 film Spy Game. I thought that Spy Game
used the editing to enhance versus detract from the story, unlike in this
film. The story still works, but the
cutting became nauseating. Both films
were edited by Christian Wagner, also known for working on such films as Face/Off and Die Another Day. Paul
Cameron’s cinematography is exceptional and was just as impressive as his work
on another particular film I liked Collateral
(2004) directed by another great modern filmmaker Michael Mann.
The anamorphically enhanced scope image at 2.35 X 1 looks
very good with nice sharp detail and excellent color balance. You can tell with the minimal amounts of
softness that the film was shot in Panavision versus Super 35. Even darker scenes hold up incredibly and
even projected from a Sanyo HD Pro Wide the film looks stunning and
film-like. This is certainly one of
Fox’s best transfers!
Not only does the film have good marks in picture quality,
but also in sound, which is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS
5.1. There is no reason to even bother
with the Dolby because the DTS is top notch!
While the design for the film does not engage as much as some of the other
DVD’s I’ve heard, this is still a nicely executed effort. It would be interesting to hear this film in
a full-bit DTS-ES version, but what we have here is good too, considering that
the DVD (being the ‘All Access’ Edition) it gives some goodies too.
Fox seems to be hitting the mark with their All Access
series, which was the case with I, Robot
(both widescreen versions of that film reviewed on this site) and this as
well. Consumers can expect to see more
titles pop up as well, which will cause some complaints from the customers who
purchased the first edition, which does not contain near the amount of
extras.
The extras here are not quite as abundant as I, Robot’s, but are still lengthy and
good. For starters we have two separate
commentaries, one by Tony Scott and the other by Dakota Fanning, Producer Lucas
Foster, and Screenwriter Brian Helgeland.
As can be expected the commentary by Scott is more in depth pertaining
to elements in the film, while the other commentary provides little details
from Fanning working on the film and the writer and producer chime in about
their contributions.
The first edition of this film to DVD contains everything
mentioned thus far, but where this edition differs begins with disc two. Disc Two of this set contains a documentary
on the film, which is really interesting and is the bulk of the extras, while
Tony Scott also provides optional commentary for an alternate ending, deleted
scenes, and a study of a multi-angle scene.
These are quite good too, but you will most likely want to hear Scott’s
comments on them to get the full effect.
There are also a few little extras like a photo gallery, trailers, and
the music video for Oye Como Va by
Kinky (not Tito Puente).
Man on
Fire ranks as one of the better action films of 2004, but most
of its business was probably lost due to poor advertising. Not just poor advertising, but my
speculation is that a lot of viewers saw the trailer and thought it looked like
a similar film to Denzel’s 2003 film Out
of Time, which I did not like as much as this film. Man
on Fire still did ok and this DVD edition should kick that up a notch as it
delivers what all consumers should want and that is good picture, good sound,
and a nice stack of extras to top it off.
For this critic, I would have to say that I did not enjoy
the film near as much as Spy Game, but
is one of Tony’s better films despite the fact that he is attempting to be just
like his brother. It would be nice if
he could keep the momentum going and establish himself as a significant
director of his own, which could happen, but he does way too many action films
for that to happen and is turning into another Michael Bay, just what the world
needs…yikes.
- Nate Goss
