A Gritty Denzel Washington Revenge Movie Is Killing it On Streaming
Denzel Washington starred with Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire, currently in the top ten movies on Amazon Prime Video.
This article is more than 2 years old
The 2004 Denzel Washington- Dakota Fanning film Man on Fire is currently tearing up the streaming charts, hitting the top 10 on Amazon Video this week. It’s a solid action thriller with an always-impressive Denzel helping to elevate something that would otherwise be pretty forgettable, even with Christopher Walken pulling support duty. If you love Denzel and you missed this one when it came out, it might be worth checking out on your lazy Sunday.
Man on Fire stars Denzel Washington as John Creasy, an alcoholic former CIA operative and U.S. Marine Force Recon Captain who takes on a job to be a bodyguard for a young girl (Dakota Fanning) in Mexico City. When the girl is abducted, Creasy goes on a rampage to recover his charge. Along with Washington and Fanning, the supporting cast includes Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Rachel Ticotin, and Mickey Rourke.
Man on Fire would mark the second time that Denzel Washington and Tony Scott would collaborate and it wouldn’t be the last as the two worked together on Deju Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable in future films. Man on Fire was adapted for the screen by Brian Helgeland from the novel by A.J. Quinnell. This would actually be the second time Man on Fire was adapted with the previous version being released in 1987.
Man on Fire received pretty mixed reviews upon its release and the Rotten Tomatoes score is no less divided to this day. The critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is currently 38% and the audience score is 89%, which is a pretty large gap. One thing that the reviews have in common is that everyone thinks Denzel Washington gives a great performance, which is no surprise.
As far as the box office goes, Man on Fire wasn’t a flop but it wasn’t incredibly impressive either. The film brought in $77.9 million at the domestic box office and made a total of $130.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $70 million, so the film did make its money back. Undoubtedly, the presence of Denzel Washington brought enough people in, but Washington has certainly had better days at the box office.
Of course, since this film was released in 2004 it still had another chance to make some money on the home rental market, and Man on Fire was a pretty solid rental success, bringing in about $123 million in DVD and VHS rentals. Now that it’s fully the age of streaming, it’s getting a whole new life on Amazon Video too. Of course, this may not be quite as lucrative as those Blockbuster sales from back in the day.
If you’re looking to see a new project from Denzel Washington this year you’re going to be out of luck, since he doesn’t have any 2022 films planned. Fortunately, you’ll be able to see a new project from the actor next year as Washington has started filming for The Equalizer 3. Coincidentally, Man on Fire wouldn’t be the worst film to check out because The Equalizer 3 is set to reunite Dakota Fanning and Washington for the first time since then.
The Equalizer 3 is also set to be directed by frequent Denzel Washington collaborator Antoine Fuqua, who directed the last two films in The Equalizer franchise. Antoine Fuqua also directed Washington in arguably his best movie, Training Day, so we can probably expect The Equalizer 3 will be a little better than Washington and Dakota Fanning’s last collaboration. If you’re looking forward to this entry in the trilogy, you can check it out when it’s released on September 1, 2023.
While we didn’t get to see Denzel Washington in anything in 2022, you could revisit his most recent film The Tragedy of Macbeth which netted Washington an Oscar nomination for his work as the tragic Shakespeare character. The Tragedy of Macbeth was directed and adapted by Joel Coen and also starred Frances McDormand, Alex Hassell, Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Matt Helm, Kathryn Hunter, Moses Ingram, and more. You can check out that film on Apple TV+.
If Shakespeare isn’t your thing, Man on Fire could be the action fix you’re looking for. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime if you want to see Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning team up before their appearance in The Equalizer 3. People are revisiting the film for a reason, so it might be worth seeing what the fuss is all about.
