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Washington plays Creasy, a special ops or black ops officer who has walked away from the game. He's weary of the killing and tries to escape the memories of the things he's done by drinking entirely too much. He travels to Mexico City to visit an old friend and retired colleague, Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn realizes that Creasy needs the distraction of work and suggests that he applies for a position as a bodyguard. Kidnappings for ransom are shockingly common in Mexico City; as frequently as every other day, a victim is snatched and too frequently mutilated or killed despite the cooperation of the ransom payers.

Creasy is interviewed by an affluent couple; Samuel (Marc Anthony) apparently comes from a wealthy Mexican family and his trophy wife, Lisa (Radha Mitchell), is an American from Texas. Lisa makes an immediate and instinctive decision; this is the man to protect their daughter. Pita (Dakota Fanning) is summoned from an adjoining room where she's playing Mozart on the piano. She, too, likes this gruff American. Creasy's emotional distance is a reflection of his psychic damage; he's so inward looking that he can't develop meaningful relationships. He's erected a formidable emotional wall, but Pita's charm and utter lack of guile slowly break down his barriers.

Pita's father is frequently away on business and somewhat cold when he's present. She longs for a surrogate father who can give her the validation and attention she craves. As Creasy trains her for a swim meet, helping her overcome her slow starts by developing a more skilled reaction to the starter pistol, they slowly bond. This establishes an emotional hook that invests the audience when the unspeakable happens. Pita is kidnapped and Creasy takes three bullets as he tries to save her. Alas, he cannot. She's whisked away by a band of ruthless criminals, highly organized and inclined to send body parts to the victim's relatives to provoke a quick response to their ransom demands.

When the ransom drop goes terribly wrong - provoking dire consequences - Creasy leaves his hospital bed, blood oozing from his wounds. He's determined to avenge himself on anyone who may have been involved in or may have profited from Pita's kidnapping. He purchases a considerable arsenal on the black market and, like Charles Bronson's vigilante, he systematically destroys the guilty after using brutal torture to extract the information he needs to work his way up the food chain. Creasy leaves in his wake so much forensic evidence that we suspect that he's no longer interested in his own welfare; we wonder just how far he'll go - how much he'll sacrifice in the name of that innocent child. Their linked fates, so intricately entangled, make this violent and emotional journey highly riveting.

Scott's directorial style is tricked up, using any number of techniques that distract. His use of erratically moving cameras, intended to disorient the viewer, can be truly annoying on a large screen. The performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Denzel Washington's damaged Creasy who slowly allows himself to care once again, and the remarkably instinctive Dakota Fanning, projecting an unexpected intelligence behind her vulnerability. The supplements reveal that for this role she learned how to swim, mastered enough Spanish to have a modest conversation, and became sufficiently proficient on the piano to play a piece by Mozart. I will be following her career with great interest.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This is another splendid transfer by the Digital Video Compression Center for Fox Home Entertainment. Razor sharp and devoid of edge halos, small object detail and fine-grained textures are outstanding. Director Tony Scott manipulated the palette with different film stocks and special processing in the darkroom to create a sense of hyperrealism, sometimes exaggerating the contrast, sometime exaggerating the color. During more conventional scenes, color accuracy based on skin tones is excellent. Primary colors are painted vividly to the screen with no chroma noise or smearing. Shadow detail can be a bit on the crushed side, but this may have been an artistic choice to create a sense of foreboding. I noticed no mosquito noise or macroblocking. This is a lovely, film-like presentation.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

There are two 5.1 tracks on this DVD, one in Dolby Digital and one in DTS. Each sports surround channels that are very effective but not audible with any regularity. I had the impression that Scott decided to apply surround effects only to enhance dramatic moments onscreen rather than to immerse the viewer. EX decoding worked very well; I did not experience a collapse to the center surround. Exceptionally deep bass runs through the film; explosions stimulated my anal sphincter. The atmospheric score by Harry Gregson- Williams is presented across a broad soundstage with admirable fidelity. Sound effects have a great dynamic range and emotional impact. The dialog remains distortion-free throughout. There is a solo vocal at the start of the closing credits; this is an excellent source to judge the quality of timbre while comparing Dolby with DTS. Once again, DTS is found to have the edge.

The alternative languages are in French and Spanish, both presented in Dolby Surround 2.0. Optional subtitles are in Spanish and English, for which Closed Captions are also available.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The DVD is programmed to open with a Fox montage and trailers (2:30, aggregate) for The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot, and Alien Vs. Predator. Inside Look provides a preview of Hide and Seek (0:53), which pairs Robert De Niro and Man on Fire's Dakota Fanning she's certainly getting to play with the big boys), and a preview (2:35) and a trailer (2:16) for Taxi, a Jimmy Fallon vehicle (no pun intended).

The only other supplements on this DVD are two feature-length commentaries. The first is by director Tony Scott. This is my kind of commentary; it's like sitting through a film school lecture. Scott correlates his techniques with the emotional fabric of the story he's trying to convey. He describes the look he was trying to achieve for each sequence and explains the method he used to deliver that look. He explains the visual language of film and how specific techniques evoke specific reactions in the audience. He peppers the commentary with comments about his players, their performances and methods, the experience of working with them, and their interactions. Scott also conveys anecdotes from the shoot, including a particularly harrowing incident in which he and some of his fellow filmmakers were victims of street crime in an impoverished area. Their bodyguard had his teeth knocked out and his nose was badly broken. Life imitating art.

A bit less successful is the second commentary with producer Lucas Forster, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, and young star Dakota Fanning. This is a more conventional discussion about character interaction and the plot. Differences between A.J. Quinnell's novel and Helgeland's screenplay are described. With Dakota present, she was often quizzed about her experiences on the shoot and the work she had to do to prepare of the film. Since Scott used so many cinematic tricks, Forster liked to describe them and mention how much he had to provide as producer to satisfy his director's needs. Dakota's comments make clear that she's an odd blend of child and adult. She's easily amused by her co- commentators and reacts in a way that's consistent with her nine years, but sometimes, she'll make an observation that speaks to a surprisingly insightful understanding of the characters and their arcs.

The 146-minute feature film is organized into twenty- eight chapters.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Parting Thoughts