Fuego con fuego

Similar recent action flicks with decent actors that were worse:The River Murders(3/10), Set-up(3/10), Takers(4.5/10), and Elephant White(4/10).

Donofrio is actually really solid as the villain here.

The story is very straight forward, but the brutality of some of the violence is quite nice. They really earned the "R" rating here, and that's always a nice thing when it comes to films like this. After all, there's nothing worse than the clean PG-13 version of these types of films.

I thought some of the power struggles between the villain and the cops came off pretty well. We get the sense that the villain here is practically untouchable, and that aspect of the film has a realistic edge.

The films has it's issues though. The lead character is poorly developed and a budding romance is glossed over like a 2 minute cliff-note.

This is borderline 5-6 for me, but I'm sticking with 53/100! That doesn't round up to 6; 6 really would be generous.

I was blown away by how many big supporting faces were in this film. Somebody dished out quite a lot of money on this cast. Too bad the script squanders the cast with suspect writing and a mail-list of decent actors that have one line in the film.

I actually felt like I got my money's worth here, but I only spent .50 for the 3rd choice out of the redbox.

Considering the excellent cast - it's a bit of a disappointment. BUT, considering the straight-to-video action write-off nature of the release - it wasn't half-bad. It was only 44% bad:)

You might like this if you liked:Death Sentence(about even, I thought Death Sentence was severely over-rated, 5/10), Set-Up(much worse), Elephant White(worse), Law Abiding Citizen(about even)or The Last Lullaby(better).

"Jeremy Coleman" (Josh Duhamel) is a dedicated fireman for the city of Long Beach who just happens to witness the cold-blooded murder of a convenience store clerk by a man named "David Hagan" (Vincent D'Onofrio), who is also the leader of an Aryan supremacist gang. Although he agrees to testify, what he doesn't know is that David Hagan is more than eager to kill him to prevent that possibility. As a result, Jeremy is put on the witness protection program, and while in New Orleans, falls in love with one of the marshals by the name of "Talia Durham" (Rosario Dawson). Unfortunately, this has severe consequences as David finds out and now has another bit of leverage to use against Jeremy. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that it started out pretty well. However, the last 20 minutes or so were completely ridiculous and really ruined a fairly solid film. So much so that I feel compelled to rate this movie as slightly below average.

Not worth watching. Bruce Willis is completely not necessary in that movie because he is doing nothing at all. The "Hero" transforms into a killing machine after shooting some cans in the forest, yea right. But the worst is the end. He burns down a house and several gangsters with 2 bottles of some inflammable liquids. That was one of the worst final scenes I have ever seen. It looks like the villains took a bath in that gas before they entered the building and walls and stairways made of stone do burn like paper and of course everything explodes because it is gas station but I didn't recognize that.

Summary: If this would have been an ad for some barbecue lighter then it was great but it wasn't. Stupid movie for simple people. Not even worth for Willis Fans. Now after this review I am asking myself why I still gave it 5/10 it should have been 3-4 at max. Probably because I am a Bruce Willis fan.

Okay, so 'revenge films' are nothing new. Ever since Charles 'Paul Kersey' Bronson lost his family to muggers, normally peaceful citizens have been taken to the streets in films to dish out a helping of vigilante justice. This is one of those films.

Here we have a firefighter who witnesses a gangland hit and has to go into the witness protection scheme. Trouble is, the people he's set to testify against find out where he's hiding, therefore forcing him to 'get them' before they get him.

And it plays out as you might imagine (assuming you've seen any of the other hundred or so revenge movies). You may notice I'm not going into great detail about the storyline. That's because there isn't really much to give away in terms of plot. It's just a revenge film. And it's not that bad. It's the sort of film you rent over buying and probably shouldn't pay too much attention to the minor plot holes here and there.

I didn't mind it and certainly didn't think I'd wasted an hour and a half watching it. However, the thing I was hoping for was to see the firefighter using his firefighting skills to flambé his tormenters. In fact... I thought that was the whole point of the film, i.e. he uses what he knows to start fires with which to exact his revenge. As it turns out he just buys a gun and shoots them.

Oh, and Bruce Willis is in it, too. But then it was never released in the cinema and Bruce seems to have a clause in his contract that states he must never appear in a film that's actually given a theatrical release.

Anyway, as I say, rent this before you buy. It's not bad (especially for a straight-to-DVD movie), but could have been a little better.

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

"I need you to trust me" - this is how our hero manages to save people from burning buildings.

Unfortunately there is nothing he can do to save this movie.

As a lover of American cinema, I have seldom seen so much bad acting and writing in one film.

The premise of a fireman going on a murder spree to fight for the love of his life, whom he met in witness protection program, is so dumb its painful to watch.

He is magically transformed into an killing machine after shooting a few rounds in the forest with his love interest, Rosario Dawson.

Every character seems to be made out of cardboard, Bruce Willis is at best a (poorly) supporting actor.

50 Cent is on screen for a total of 40 seconds, and I suspect it is a redeeming quality that we are spared seeing more of him.

Vinnie Jones is the usual British bulldog, apart from the fact that his ass is kicked by a fireman (this scene is so dumb, it made me cringe)

Vincent D'Onofrio is the only actor that is able to make his character slightly interesting as the antagonist.

Trying to build a climax our fireman hero resorts to arson to save his love, It would have been a perfect turkey if they could have written in a scene with the dialog "everything going to be alright now"

Maybe they did, at this point I actually left - so I would not know.

Apart from an obviously decent budget, high production values - there is nothing here worthy of a box of popcorn.

I need you to trust me, watch something else.