Man On Fire (2004/Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: B Extras: D Film: D
Though
few people realize it, Man On Fire
was originally a small thriller few saw with Scott Glenn (Silence Of The Lambs, The Right Stuff) in 1987 as an ex-CIA agent who
is hired to protect the daughter of a rich couple, only to have her nabbed
pushing him to hunt for her and her abductors.
For whatever reason, Tony Scott decided her could remake it and make it
work better, even recruiting Denzel Washington to be the ex-agent. But as soon as the child turns out to be
played by Dakota Fanning, who chews up more scenery than cows do grass to
produce organic milk, you know you are in for a torture test even Washington’s
skill cannot save us from.
Turns out
A.J. Quinnell wrote the book and writer Brian Helgeland decides to spool this
out to a whopping, dragging on forever 146 minutes where you start to hope the
bad guys would just have a massive shootout and kill enough characters for “The
End” to turn up so we can leave. Christopher
Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, the underrated Radha Mitchell, singer Marc Anthony,
the under seen Rachel Ticotin and the ever-welcome Mickey Rourke also turn up,
but they cannot stop this fire from being nothing but smoke and mirrors. You too will yawn if you make it through the
whole thing.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 AVC @ 29 MBPS digital High Definition image has the style of quick
cuts and some image degradation that has been a part of Scott’s films lately,
though not as bad as in Domino. That cuts into the fidelity of the image, but
Director of Photography Paul Cameron achieves this without cheating digitally
too much and goes for a grittier look that makes sense in its own was, so this
is the dramatic equal to a digital effects-loaded flick that holds its fancy
work as well as expected. However, you
can see the film and interesting use of grain, viewable here thanks to this
being a 50GB disc.
The DTS
HD lossless MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix was not bad in theaters, but this version
is unbalanced and the biggest disappointment sonically for a Fox Blu=ray since Speed had the same problem. You should not have to have your hand ready
to adjust the volume for any HD format disc at this point in time, but someone
fumbled again. Harry Gregson -Williams’
score is not memorable either and trailers are the only extras, if you want to
count them. We won’t.
- Nicholas Sheffo
