Review: In 'Man on Fire,' a new Creasy, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, capably takes the helm
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“Man on Fire,” premiering Thursday on Netflix, is the third adaptation of A.J.
Quinnell’s 1980 novel of the same name and maintains the tradition of setting the action in a new place, with a new story.Following the films “Man on Fire” (2004, starring Denzel Washington, set in Mexico City) and “Man on Fire” (1987, starring Scott Glenn, set in Italy), it stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, unfolds in Rio de Janeiro and has little to do with previous versions, apart from pairing a damaged security operative and an imperiled young girl.Abdul-Mateen plays John Creasy, a CIA operative who hit the skids after an operation he was supervising remotely went fatally wrong, leaving him with a case of PTSD and a drinking problem.
Four years later, his old friend Paul Rayburn (Bobby Cannavale) arrives to rescue him from himself, carting him down to Rio, where Rayburn is working for a security company on a construction site — there is a presidential election coming, and protests are feared.Not to go into events that surprised the heck out of me, but a supposed act of terrorism propels Creasy, along with Rayburn’s 16-year-old daughter, Poe (Billie Boullet), into a mobile game of Who Can You Trust, as Creasy seeks answers and revenge.
(His touch is not light.) Television The actor takes on a series adaptation for Netflix of the A.J.Quinnell novels after scoring a hit with Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ on Disney+.Much of the series takes place in a Rio favela, the type of hill-climbing shanty town art film lovers will know from “Black Orpheus” and “City of Men” (also a 2002 Brazilian TV series), where Creasy and Poe wind up by the grace of Valeria Melo (Alice Braga), a driver Creasy hires who offers them shelter from those who seek to kill them.“When you drive a car you don’t just meet lots of different people,” she says, “you learn to really see them.”“What else do...