In this action\/crime drama Denzel Washington is John Creasy, a former CIA killer whose past haunts him and has reduced him to an alcoholic.\u00a0 He is visiting his friend and associate Paul Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken in Mexico where he has a security business that provides wealthy businessmen with bodyguards.<\/p>\n
(Spoiler Alert \u2013 Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)<\/p>\n
Rayburn convinces Creasy to take a bodyguard assignment to help him reconnect with life and take his mind off his past.<\/p>\n
And so, Creasy takes an assignment to guard Pita (played by a very young Dakota Fanning), the daughter of Samuel Ramos; a wealthy industrialist.\u00a0 And improbably, the little girl and the professional killer bond and Creasy regains his will to live.<\/p>\n
But a kidnap squad that includes members of the Federal Judicial Police come for Pita.\u00a0 Creasy kills four of the kidnappers but is himself critically wounded and the girl is taken.<\/p>\n
While Creasy lies close to death in a hospital the kidnappers negotiate a ten-million dollar ransom which Samuel agrees to pay.\u00a0 But dirty cops who know of the payment ambush the kidnappers, steal the ransom money and kill the ringleader\u2019s nephew.\u00a0 After this betrayal the ringleader informs the Ramos family that Pita is dead.<\/p>\n
Somewhat recovered from his wounds and outraged at Pita\u2019s death Creasy vows to Pita\u2019s mother Lisa that he will kill everyone involved in Pita\u2019s kidnapping and death.\u00a0 With weapons furnished by Rayburn and information provided by a crime reporter and an anti-corruption officer in the Mexican government, Creasy proceeds to do just that.\u00a0 With the liberal use of gruesome torture and threats of death he works his way up the chain of command in both the corrupt police organization and the kidnappers\u2019 gang.<\/p>\n
Along the way he finds out that Pita\u2019s father and his crooked attorney were involved in the kidnapping.\u00a0 And no one is spared.\u00a0 The anti-corruption officer follows Creasy\u2019s trail of bodies but allows Creasy to lead him to the kingpin, a shadowy character known only as \u201cThe Voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Creasy captures the kingpin\u2019s brother and pregnant girlfriend and tells him that he will torture them to death unless The Voice trades himself for them.\u00a0 But the Voice has a different bargain.\u00a0 He informs Creasy that Pita is alive and that he will trade her for the release of his girlfriend and brother.\u00a0 But there is the further stipulation that Creasy surrender himself to the mobster.\u00a0 Creasy agrees.\u00a0 He calls up Lisa Ramos and tells her where the rendezvous and trade will occur.\u00a0 Lisa will keep the gun on the mobster\u2019s brother at a distance until Pita is safely back in her hands at which point the brother and Creasy will be transported back to the mobster for Creasy\u2019s horrific fate.<\/p>\n
We have a final reunion between Pita and Creasy before she runs across a bridge to her mother\u2019s car.\u00a0 The brother is released and Lisa and Pita drive off.\u00a0 Then Creasy is shoved into a car and heads off into the countryside for his rendezvous with death.\u00a0 But between his earlier wounds and a gunshot wound to the chest he sustained while capturing the mobster\u2019s brother Creasy is already dying.\u00a0 We watch him expire while clutching the St. Jude\u2019s medal that Pita had given him earlier.<\/p>\n
We learn in a postscript that the mobster is killed in an arrest attempt by the anti-corruption officer soon after Creasy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the verdict on this extremely frenetic movie?\u00a0 The action sounds like the plot of a 19th<\/sup> century Italian opera.\u00a0 Death, betrayal, revenge, love.\u00a0 It\u2019s all so overwrought.\u00a0 But for me, it works.\u00a0 Maybe partially it\u2019s because I enjoy Denzel Washington\u2019s acting style.\u00a0 Whether he\u2019s chopping off a crooked cop\u2019s fingers and cauterizing the wound with a car\u2019s cigarette lighter or coaching Pita to reduce her time in a swimming competition Washington\u2019s Creasy is a rational, intelligent man who will accomplish his objectives in a business-like manner.\u00a0 But his motivation is to punish those who destroyed innocent life for money.\u00a0 Basically, he\u2019s atoning for his own sins as a killer.\u00a0 In an early scene Creasy asks Rayburn, \u201cDo you think God could forgive us for what we\u2019ve done?\u201d\u00a0 Rayburn shakes his head no and you can tell that Creasy agrees.\u00a0 At the end of the movie as he clutches his religious medal, I guess Creasy is hoping his self-sacrifice might even the score in heaven.\u00a0 The movie is very violent.\u00a0 But I think it is well made and if this kind of story interests you I think it\u2019s well worth watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this action\/crime drama Denzel Washington is John Creasy, a former CIA killer whose past haunts him and has reduced him to an alcoholic.\u00a0 He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3739,4639,793,43,38,1355],"class_list":["post-29877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-action-thriller","tag-christopher-walken","tag-denzel-washington","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n