8. Man On Fire
The late, great Tony Scott's Denzel starring revenge thriller is the second adaptation of A. J. Quinnell's 1980 novel of the same name. The first adaptation came from the largely unknown lie Chouraqui in 1987. And despite boasting an impressive cast featuring the likes of Scott Glenn, Joe Pesci and Jonathan Pryce, it underwhelmed both critics and audiences on release. Nowadays, even though Scott's adaptation was unfairly lamented by many critics, the 2004 adaptation is the film seen by most and often highly praised by many audiences, as the original has faded into obscurity. It features a brilliant cast with the likes of Denzel's former CIA officer going on a rampage to find the abducted "Pita", played by a young and impressive Dakota Fanning. The cast also includes Christopher Walken and Mickey Rourke for your viewing pleasure. Man on Fire is a well-paced and fantastically directed revenge-thriller - a sub-genre that often captures people's imaginations on screen so that we don't have to in real life. And despite the fact that revenge-thrillers often get people's overly political correct knickers in a twist, Man on Fire poses debate of moral ambiguity and asks how far will people go to do the right thing, and when does that right thing become wrong? One thing that can be said about Man on Fire is that the violence isn't glorified; Creasy kills when he has to, and it is evident that he gets no satisfaction from doing it. But we will receive satisfaction from watching a film from one of the greats.