You won't be disappointed!

the audience applauded

Good movie but grossly overrated

A Disappointing Continuation

Denzel's 2004 version is one of my favorite one-man-army revenge flicks, so when I saw this title at the truck-stop $1 bin, I grabbed it. It's a most excellent take on the same story and well worth watching. Scott Glenn is a top-notch tough-guy actor who never got his big break, but he always does a great job and this is clearly some of his best work, IMO (also check out "The Challenge", 1982). This French/Italian 1987 version had only a small fraction of the budget of Denzel's film and it quickly sank out of sight in America, but it works on different levels and is very entertaining in its own peculiar way.Glenn's Creasy is a great version of the burned-out, PTSD-suffering, haunted, depressed former Special Ops bad*** soldier who has seen and done too much and has totally given up on life. Yes, this character is an action movie stereotype, but Glenn breathes a lot of life into him. He starts out bedraggled, but unlike Denzel he stays shabby-looking when he gets hired for his ultimately redemptive bodyguard job. After all Hell breaks loose, then he shaves and gets a haircut and the audience knows he means business from that moment on.Jade Malle was a 12-yr-old French actress, so it's a very different dynamic from Dakota Fanning's little girl, but it's interesting in a special way. Glenn's Creasy still sees her as the daughter he never had, but being older she's more of a pain in the butt than a sweet little girl would be. Some people always put a Lolita angle on these types of stories, but anyone who's ever been a father or an uncle or a big brother to a needy tween girl knows it's far more likely to just feel protective towards these girls. Miss Malle does some very nice, naturalistic, unaffected acting while depicting a lonely, neglected girl who fixates on Creasy as a down-and-out loner well worthy of salvage and her friendship, even though he initially has no desire whatsoever to be her reclamation project or her friend. But Samantha is determined to pull this poor lost soul back into the world of the living, and she gradually brings him around.Of course, we all know Creasy's not going to stay a cheerful guy who's found a reason for living and is glad to be alive again. There's trouble right around the corner and when it hits, Glenn is extremely effective as an obsessed, highly-skilled, heavily-armed vengeance-seeker unconcerned with his own survival. Also, among many other great actors and actresses in the supporting cast, we have Joe Pesci in the Christopher Walken role and he's fantastic as usual.Anyway, for fans of the one-man-army revenge films, this is a fine example of the genre. I also highly recommend my own personal favorite, the Korean "The Man From Nowhere", made in 2010. Don't be afraid of the subtitles or you'll miss out on a classic film.

I have to admit, I only watched this after I had watched the newer version (with Denzel Washington in it). So I guess I kinda knew most of the story before watching it. But it still could have made an impact on me, if it actually were better. As you can tell by my voting, I wasn't impressed. While there are remakes that could be deemed unnecessary (though studios never think that, especially financially), this one was more than ripe and really easy to top.While I do like Scott Glenn in general (you might also remember him from "Silence of the Lambs", but he's done quite a lot of other work, mostly small roles in a lot of movies), I don't think he adds anything to the mix here. Still I do like some of the ideas this introduced, although it never really got as raw as the budget was meant to be (or should have aspired for).

"Man on Fire" opens with a truly tedious relationship build up between Glenn and the twelve year old kidnapping victim, Jade Malle. I kept wondering, is she ever going to be kidnapped? The screenplay is very straight forward, with Scott Glenn miraculously recovering from several gunshot wounds, and then going after the kidnappers. Danny Aiello plays a very minor part as one of the bad guys. Joe Pesci more or less just revolves around Glenn's character, and really never gets involved in the action. Speaking of the action, a couple of explosions and a truck wreck, along with some gun blasting is about all there is. Character development is weak, and the film is way too dark in places. Despite the intriguing cast, I say don't bother. - MERK

The eighties curse:how many movies have been made,featuring the tough guy ,single-handedly taming and finally killing a bunch of baddies? You're going to tell me that Scott Glenn is a much better actor than SS, Arnold and co:that's true and he looks sometimes jaded,depressed,and even moving.But it's the same old story all over again:the little girl,the daughter of rich wealthy Italians is kidnapped by villains and so begins the task. Main objections:why ,when the movie takes place in Italy and only one character is American ,does almost everyone speak English in the original version?This is not natural,particularly for the girlie ;why were the prologue and the epilogue filmed in slow motion:it does not bring anything. It's Elie Chouraqui's first thriller.his first works were mediocre comedies ("paroles et musique" featuring Catherine Deneuve)