Man on Fire (2004)

Most people think so. 82% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics scored it lower at 43%, but audiences disagreed.

Jaded ex-CIA operative John Creasy reluctantly accepts a job as the bodyguard for a 10-year-old girl in Mexico City. They clash at first, but eventually bond, and when she's kidnapped he's consumed by fury and will stop at nothing to save her life. Wikipedia ↗

Man on Fire is a 2004 American action thriller directed by Tony Scott. Denzel Washington stars as John Creasy, a burned-out former CIA operative and alcoholic who takes a job as a bodyguard for Pita Ramos, a nine-year-old girl played by Dakota Fanning, in Mexico City where kidnapping is epidemic. Initially cold and withdrawn, Creasy gradually warms to Pita's persistent, cheerful attempts to befriend him, and their developing bond — she teaches him to smile again, he coaches her competitive swimming — becomes the film's emotional core.

When Pita is kidnapped, Creasy unleashes the full extent of his lethal capabilities in a methodical, relentless campaign of vengeance through Mexico City's criminal underworld. Denzel Washington's transformation from dead-eyed, suicidal protector to unstoppable force of retribution was one of his most physically intense performances. Tony Scott's hyperkinetic direction — oversaturated color, jump cuts, subtitles that exploded across the screen — was divisive but perfectly matched Creasy's fractured psychological state.

Man on Fire earned $130 million worldwide on a $70 million budget.