Fury

Maryanne and I recently watched Man on Fire, renting the DVD through Netflix. We both enjoyed the movie. It's a memorable revenge tale, and it builds tension quite well throughout the first and second acts, if you will. From then on it gets muddled down a bit, bogged down by perhaps too much action, but it's hard to completely fault the movie when it features such a superb cast, including Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, and Dakota Fanning. It's long, perhaps too long, and some of John Creasy's (Denzel Washington) righteous fury gets lost in the length.

The film paints a grim picture of Mexico City: a beautiful and historic city steeped in rich culture but marred by organized crime, kidnapping, and corruption. Quite a stark contrast to Maryanne's experiences there with her mother's family. It left me with a lot of mixed emotions. Any city the size of Mexico City is going to have its share of crime, but the corruption in law enforcement and the prevalance of organized crime, especially kidnapping and extortion, is so stressed that there are moments that one can't help but feel the bleakness and hopelessness of it.

Critics were harsher on the film than the average movie goer, but most respectable critics, like Roger Ebert, were able to find some redeeming qualities in the film. Still, if you subscribe to the idea that "revenge is a dish best served cold," then this is a movie for you.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: The Who: "Who Are You"