Man on Fire

Man on Fire is a film from 2004 starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. It takes place in Latin America and revolves around the frequent kidnappings that have happened there. The movie starts off by stating that every 60 minutes, someone gets kidnapped, and out of that number, 70 percent of the victims do not survive. 

The main character, Walter Creasy (Denzel Washington) is a retired special operations assassin who worked for the government to counter terrorism. He lives in Mexico City and spends his days consumed by his alcoholism. Because of the frequent kidnappings that happen, many wealthy families in Mexico City are forced to hire bodyguards for their children. 

Creasy is appointed by his friend to be a bodyguard for a little girl from a wealthy family by the name of Pita (Dakota Fanning). She is a sweet girl who means well and tries tirelessly to become friends with her new protector. Locked in his own world of flashbacks and alcohol, Creasy refuses. Soon, however, Pita’s charm cuts through Creasy’s loneliness, and he becomes her biggest ally. In turn, she gives Creasy a reason to live again. Things take a turn for the worst, when Pita gets kidnapped on the way back from her piano lesson, stripping Creasy of his newfound hope. After it becomes apparent that the local police are connected to the kidnappings, Creasy reverts to his old ways. He sets out to kill each and every one of the people involved. Ultimately, Creasy makes the decision to surrender himself in exchange for Pita being returned, and after a heart-wrenching goodbye to Pita, the kidnappers take him away to be killed.

Movie Quotes and other things

I was in my friends room last night and he was trying to find a place to hang his new poster. His friend got it for him because he figured that he could name what quote every movie was from. He was right. An entire list of the supposed "100 Best Film Quotes of all Time" (according to who? I have no idea, but they were pretty quality quotes) and my friend went through and name every movie besides for 2. That's ninety-eight quotes and none of the quotes were from this decade. Now that's impressive (in my opinion).

That got me thinking. I personally think we have had a bunch of great movies within the decade with some great quotes. Why are they never listed on those posters? Then I started to think about the movies that I quote and hear quoted daily.

There is one that stands out in my mind.

Mean Girls.

Mean Girls premiered in 2004 and is directed by Mark Waters. Waters was a producer of (500) Days of Summer (great movie in my opinion) and he also directed movies such as Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), Just like Heaven (2004), and of course Freaky Friday (2003) which also stars Lindsay Lohan (pre initial fall from grace). The screenplay was written by the hilarious and multitalented Tina Fey.

I'm not here to argue that Mean Girls is the best movie in the world (I'm not here to argue at all), but think about it- How many of you reading this have seen the movie Mean Girls? I'm assuming about 90% of you have.

Do you recognize "On Wednesdays we wear pink." "Four for you Glen Coco! You go Glen Coco!" "Get in loser. We're going shopping." "That's so fetch!" "The limit does not exist." "She doesn't even go here"? I hope you at least recognize one of those lines and I don't look crazy. But I know that even if you don't admit it- part of you knows you know at least one of those quotes. Mean Girls has been a very influential movie of our generation (positive or negative- your call).

Now that I've talked about Mean Girls, I have a few questions for anyone who has continued to read this post. What are some of your favorite movie quotes? What movies have been influential on our generation?