A flaming revenge on the big screen
If you believe that justice should be served and enjoy a good "wham-bam swoosh" movie, as I do, action-thriller Fire with Fire is one for which to get the popcorn ready.
In the plot a young fire-fighter, Jeremy Coleman (Josh Duhamel), has to go into a witness protection programme after witnessing a brutal murder at the hands of a neo-Nazi murderer David Hagan (Vincent D’Onofrio).
While under his new identity, Jeremy falls in love with a deputy United States marshall, Talia Durham (Rosario Dawson), who is assigned to his case.
However, the fairytale is soon shattered when Hagan traces him, has his hit-man wound Talia in a gunfight and threatens to kill everyone Jeremy loves.
This unleashes a flaming fury in him, urging him to ditch the police and kill Hagan.
As a “ghost” without an identity in his favour, Jeremy takes out Hagan’s army of men one by one, after tormenting them to reveal his location.
It all comes to a climax when Jeremy learns Hagan’s location and, using his knowledge of fire, sets the building in which Hagan and his men meet ablaze, only to find out that they had kidnapped Talia earlier.
Bruce Willis plays the role of detective Mike Cella, whose partner was murdered by Hagan years ago and, seeing this as an opportunity to bring about justice, he covers up the evidence of Jeremy’s manhunt.
Directed by David Barrett, Fire with Fire has a fair balance of human compassion and action grandeur.
The film is not recommended for the little ones and has an age restriction of 16 years.
Although it was a tad predictable, I truly found this movie intriguing, and not just because Josh Duhamel was in a fireman’s suit, but it sure scored brownie points with me.
Fire with Fire is currently showing at Ster Kinekor, Northmead Square.TB
