Revenge Has Its Own Set Of Rules.
Starring: Josh Duhamel, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Julian McMahon, Kevin Dunn
Director: David Barrett
2012 | 97 Minutes | Rated R
“Love will make you do some fucked up things.” – Jeremy Coleman
It’s amazing that these killer casts keep getting put together for DTV releases. This isn’t the first time Bruce Willis has let himself fall to the background of a DTV release but Fire with Fire just has so many great actors involved it is almost hard to believe it didn’t see some sort of theatrical release.
Firefighter Jeremy Coleman (Josh Duhamel) witnesses a murder by David Hagen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his men. Detective Mike Cella (Bruce Willis) puts Jeremy in the witness program where Jeremy meets and falls in love with U.S. Marshal Talia Durham (Rosario Dawson). When Hagen’s men come after both of them, Jeremy goes on the offensive to kill Hagen before Hagen can kill him or anyone else he loves.
Josh Duhamel is pretty decent as an unlikely hero. He doesn’t look like an action star and shouldn’t for this role.
Bruce Willis pours everything he has into his part. He could have easily just phoned in his part for yet another straight to DVD but he puts some real emotion into this one. I have to assume he saw some real potential with Fire with Fire.
Vincent D’Onofrio is awesomely over the top as the bourbon swilling, neo-Nazi leader David Hagen. I never watched his cop show (whichever one he was on) but I have really enjoyed him in the recent movies he has been a part of.
50 Cent and Rampage Jackson’s screen time is pretty minimal as a gun dealer and his muscle. Both are entertaining with what little time they are actually on the screen. Rampage definitely got some good laughs out of me.
Julian McMahon also makes a very short appearance as a sniper trying to take out Jeremy.
The overall story is a little by-the-numbers but it is well done. I don’t really need a ground breaking story to be able to enjoy it.
The action isn’t really non-stop, more start and stop but when it’s on it gets real graphic. Exit and entry wounds are clearly shown as Jeremy shoots many of his victims square in the head. The final scene takes place in a fiery building , fitting for our firefighting hero.
Fire with Fire very easily could have been a theatrical movie. There are some big name actors giving it their all, some good action scenes and top notch production. The only thing really holding it back is that it isn’t overly original. I have seen much worse actually make it to wide release. There is enough here to entertain any action fan.
Action Movie Fanatix 