Denzel Washington (“Training Day”, “American Gangster”) stars in “Man On Fire”, a gritty revenge thriller from director Tony Scott (“The Fan”, “Top Gun”). This is a brutal film of the same calibre as “Dirty Harry” but many people do not actually know that this movie is in fact a remake of 1987 picture of the same name.

Set in Mexico City, “Man On Fire” follows John Creasy (Washington), an ex-C.I.A. man turned bodyguard. When he is hired to protect a rich family, he develops a bond with the daughter (Dakota Fanning “War of the Worlds”). The daughter is kidnapped and things go awry so Creasy sets his sights on the men responsible.

Denzel Washington is really good as Creasy. This is a tortured soul that finds friendship with a young girl and that is what brings him back from the edge. We feel his pain, much like we felt for Charles Bronson in the original “Death Wish”. Dakota Fanning is good as Lupita. Christopher Walken (“Wayne’s World 2”) and Mickey Rourke (“Double Team”) are both entertaining but feel underused. The film’s villains do not get a lot of screen time as Creasy spends much of the film trying to find out who exactly they are.

The performance from Washington is good, there are some clever twists and turns and the music is pretty darn great. However, my biggest problem with “Man On Fire” is the editing because it is just awful. So many of the sequences are edited like a music video and it becomes really annoying. Maybe the filmmakers were just trying to get around the censors as some of the scenes where Creasy interrogates the bad guys are quite harsh and disturbing. “Man On Fire” is rather lengthy in comparison to many other revenge flicks but I did not mind. If you are looking for a dark revenge thriller then “Man On Fire” will fit the bill.