John Creasy has seen entirely too much death in his life and because of that he has lost his lust to live. He is a heavy drinker that cannot seem to escape his past of stars a government operative/soldier of fortune who was asked to do things for his Country that have probably scarred hum for life. While visiting an old friend In Mexico City, he reluctantly agrees to take a job to protect a child Pita whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. There seems to be some kind of conspiracy going on as a child is abducted at the rate of four children per day in the capital city. He eventually becomes close to the child and their relationship reawakens and rekindles his spirit and makes him want to live once more. But this all changes when she is abducted as well, by what appears to be a group of corrupt and dirty cops. This lights a fiery rage in him to punish all those who were involved or who might have benefited from her kidnapping. Once a master of death for his government, the kidnappers are soon about to find out they have kidnapped the wrong girl this time as Creasy unleashes war against them, as he will not stop at anything to save the girl who made him want to live again.

What truly saddens me is that this movie could have been one of the most incredible movies made in recent history, had they done a lot more editing and fixed the pacing of the movie. The movie simply put was drawn out, which made it drag at times. I completely understand that it is entirely critical to develop the relationship between Creasy and Pita but because of this it takes way too long to get to the action. There is quite a few scenes in the first hour that were entirely unnecessary, while we needed to develop the relationship between Pita and Creasy we did not need to spend time dwelling on Pita’s parents. Also once the action does get going too much time is spent with him dealing with each individual involved in the kidnapping, two or three would have been fine to get the point across but not the seven or eight they did. The movie had wonderful acting as Denzel Washington easily steals the screen and your heart at times. The movie had a wonderful story and truly did draw you into the movie as you were cheering for justice to be meted out. But what the movie did not have was good directing and editing. Their unique choice of subtitles at times, were very hard to read, and the pacing was all wrong a lot of the time. What this all means is that the movie was good but it was not great which it could have easily been. I did enjoy the movie and would recommend it but I have to question Tony Scott’s choices of ruining a movie that could have been vastly better.
3.5 stars out of 5