"A man can be an artist, at anything; food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece."

I really loathe the "MTV-style" of filmmaking. You know what i'm talking about - the quick and constant editing designed to keep you in a constant state of nausea while a furiously blaring soundtrack assaults your remaining senses. Thanks to MTV, directors like Michael Bay, Brett Ratner and Francis Lawrence (to name a few), who got their start directing music videos, continue to direct their films the same way. And then, there's Tony Scott. Now, Tony's not from that world, but he was responsible for one of the very first "MTV-style" movies - Top Gun. As the technology has improved, the camera trickery has worsened. Man On Fire features this type of trickery. Yet, I didn't mind it at all.

Denzel Washington plays John Creasy, a down 'n out ex-CIA operative who's three sheets to the wind and falling deeper and deeper into a bottle. After paying a visit to an old friend (Christopher Walken), he takes a job to bodyguard 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning) in Mexico City. As time passes, the two grow closer and she eventually ends up teaching him to appreciate life again. Unfortunately, as we're informed in the beginning: "There is one kidnapping every 60 minutes in Latin America. 70% of the victims do not survive." Halfway through the film, Pita's kidnapped and Creasy spends the rest of the film seeking revenge on everyone and anyone who had something to do with it.

Man On Fire is a strong, compelling film whose strengths lie in the performances of those involved and, believe it or not, the way it was told. Denzel turns in another solid performance, while Dakota continues to demonstrate why I think she's one of the finest child stars to hit the silver screen. The close to two and a half hour running time might be excessive to some, but I felt it was necessary to give Denzel and Dakota time to develop a relationship onscreen, making the ending of the film that much more tragic.

In fact, there are some great supporting performances from Radha Mitchell and Marc Anthony, who play Pita's parents, Mickey Rourke as the family lawyer and the always reliable Christopher Walken. Rachel Ticotin, as newspaper reporter Mariana and Giancarlo Giannini, as Manzano, director of A.F.I., are definitely worth mentioning too. 

In addition to the movie, there are also two audio commentaries on disc one. One with director Tony Scott, the other with Dakota Fanning, producer Lucas Foster and screenwriter Brian Helgeland.

The second disc contains additional material not included on the barebones release:

• "Vengeance Is Mine: Reinventing Man On Fire" documentary - This 1h 13m documentary was quite enjoyable. Broken up into five chapters, "Twenty Year Odyssey", "the Business Of Kidnapping", "Caught In the Crossfire", "City Of God" and "Fire And Passion", I thought "the Business Of Kidnapping" was the most fascinating. To hear Tony Scott tell viewers that, during their first week of shooting there were 26 kidnappings alone, was jaw-dropping. 
• Pita's Abduction- shows viewers how the abduction scene was put together. Included are on-screen script excerpts, Tony Scott's Storyboards and the final chapter which lets you choose from four different angles (or a four angle composite) that were used to make up the scene. You also have the option to listen to it with or without commentary from Scott.
• Deleted Scenes - There are fifteen different deleted scenes, totaling 32m 21s. Included are an alternate ending and the oft-rumored sex scene between Denzel and Radha.
• Photo Gallery
• Music Video - "Oye Como Va" by Kinky
• Trailers & TV Spots - Antwone Fisher, Entrapment, Men Of Honor, the Transporter and 3 trailers for Man On Fire. There are also four TV spots for Man On Fire.

Video: Man On Fire is presented in an anamorphic 2.40:1 ratio and the picture quality is excellent. Sure, at times the colors are faded or washed out, but that was the way it was intended. I didn't notice any edge enhancement, nor pixelation. This was a crisp picture.

Audio: Man On Fire features two English soundtracks - 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, 5.1 dts, as well as French and English 2.0 Dolby Surround.  I viewed the film with the dts track in full effect and I really like the workout it gave my speakers, particularly during Pita's abduction. The 5.1 DD was adequate, but i'm a dts fan. There are also subtitles in English and Spanish, and it's captioned as well.

So what'd ya think?:  It might take a few minutes to get accustomed to the style of the film, but once you do, the story and the performances will suck you in. When Pita is kidnapped, it does turn into a different film (rightfully so), and the aggressive brutalness might turn some off, but it's an excellent film that is Highly Recommended.

I would also like to take this moment to reprimand FOX for re-releasing these flicks so soon after the initial barebones releases. Sure, other studios do it. However, since "the Day After Tomorrow", "I, Robot" and "Man On Fire" were all released with extra content in other regions simultaneously, it's inconceivable that FOX would consciously screw the consumer like this. Perhaps if they had taken the time to issue a press release stating another version was to follow, like New Line did with "Lord Of the Rings", it might not be so bad. I saw "Man On Fire" in the movie theatre and, being the DVD fanatic that I am, I was eager to buy it when it was first released. However, I frequent the (pardon the plug) DVD Talk forums and, besides getting info on the other region releases and noticing that there was much more on them, one of our members gave us a heads up to let us know that FOX might have something in store, so I waited. I'm glad I did.