Man on Fire

A decent revenge flick in which young Dakota Fanning isn’t half as scary as she was in I am Sam. Actually, the actress does some decent work as Pita, recently assigned a bodyguard named Creasy (Denzel Washington) who does a decent job teaching her how to swim, but falls a bit short on the whole keeping her from being kidnapped thing. When she is abducted, Creasy goes nuts, cutting off people’s fingers and shoving bombs up their asses. As directed by Tony Scott, this film works on the power of Washington and Fanning’s performances, who do a good job making us care for the Pita-Creasy relationship before all hell breaks loose. Washington hasn’t had much luck with action films in the past, but this one is among his better efforts. Fanning could actually have a career on her hands. I just never want to see her in another movie with Sean Penn. (CPL, CR, CS, NM)