This is a remake of an 80s movie. But before you go all out and yell at Hollywood not being able to make unique new movies, consider this: The original wasn't that good to begin with. And frankly I'd rather have them remake a movie that had a strong central idea but wasn't executed as well (for whatever reason that might have occurred, money/time/actors/filmmakers),than make something ridiculous and try to sell it to us as the best thing ever.

This of course isn't the best thing ever either, but with Denzels strong lead performance (sometimes literally),it does have a way of convincing you. Mr. Scott is known for his visual style and he doesn't disappoint here either. Quite a lot of things going on, that on the other hand might be distracting to some. Supporting actors and a very fast paced narration lead to an enjoyable (sometimes a bit violent) ride.

John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is a drunk and an expert at dark ops. An old friend Paul Rayburn (Christopher Walken) brings him to Mexico City where there's a wave of kidnappings. He's hired by the Ramos family (Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Dakota Fanning) as their driver and security. When the girl is kidnapped and the ransom is botched, he becomes a man on fire.

Tony Scott has all the skills of a great action director. He wants to built up Creasy's relationship with LuPita so that it becomes reasonable for him to react that way. He wants Creasy to love LuPita. I'm not opposed but it takes too long. There's got to be a better shorthand or there has to be more interesting insights. At almost 2 and a half hours, it could easily lose 30 minutes. Scott has thrown every camera tricks into the action in the 2nd half. It becomes quite mind numbing. This too could stand to be trimmed. All of it is too long for a fairly simple vengeance movie. It's really an hour and a half movie stretched out for an unnecessary extra hour.

Tony Scott's latest film sees the bombastic director moving further away from the action excesses of earlier in his career to concentrate on this deeply moving, human drama. The success of the whole movie hinges on the wonderful relationship between the young and brilliant Dakota Fanning and Washington, giving definitely his best performance in a film so far. This movie has all the trappings and storyline of a typical revenge thriller, with Washington going around cutting the fingers off crims and exploding them with C4, plus loads of gritty shoot-outs and other associated dramas.

But the film actually works best as a slow-burning suspense flick, about two very human people. There's Fanning's child, wise beyond her years, and Washington, burnt-out yet packed with emotion. The chemistry between these two actors is brilliant and the film is surprisingly sad, having me in tears at some points. The other cast members – Walden, Mitchell, Mickey Rourke, TOTAL RECALL's Rachel Ticotin as a reporter – are there to also give good performances, but they definitely come in at second place compared to the movie's central relationship. A realistic, suspenseful film which offers a glimpse of how things really are.