Catch a Fire

'Catch a Fire' fails to ignite...
I had high hopes for this film; I mean I really wanted it to blow my mind. I'm a huge fan of Derek Luke and feel that he is a truly gifted actor, but despite his terrific performance this movie to me really failed to elevate past mundane popcorn fluff. I wasn't struck as I feel I could have or should have been beings the subject matter the movie embraces. I don't know if I'm alone in feeling that the movie came off a bit `made-for-TV' or `straight-to-video'. That was just my opinion I guess.

The acting was top notch, especially on the part of the two male leads. Derek Luke gives so much humanity to Patrick that you're rooting for him 100%, but to me it was Tim Robbins who stole my attention. He did such a brilliant job of making Nic Vos seem almost caring and concerned. He did so well at this that at the end, when the real Patrick Chamusso is talking about Vos being a monster I found myself thinking "was he really that bad?"...yes he was, and Tim Robbins is really that good...

Engaging Story and Interesting Performances
South Africa, 1980.

Patrick (Derek Luke, "Antwone Fisher ", "Glory Road"), a young father with a wife and two children, lives in a small house with his mother. He is very happy and has a good job as a foreman at a local refinery. In his off hours, he coaches a ragtag group of children in football. One day, traveling back from a wedding, they are stopped and questioned regarding an explosion at some railroad tracks. Patrick wants nothing to do with politics, because he knows it will jeopardize his family and his job. Later, Patrick takes his football team to a match and they win, so he stays over with them to compete in the finals. That evening, another explosion occurs at the plant where he works. Nic Voss (Tim Robbins), the head of the anti-terrorist team, brings him in for questioning. The same evening, Patrick visits an old girlfriend and his illegitimate son, and then lies about it, making him a suspect. Unable to get anywhere, Voss and his team take Patrick's wife in...

Best "based on a true story" movie this year
Catch a Fire centers around the true story of Patrick Chamusso, a South African man who works as a plant foreman and quietly keeps to his family and to himself, not getting involved in the protests and demonstrations against apartheid. But when a terrorist attack effects the plant where he works and he and his wife are brought in and tortured to get information, he realizes that there is no way of simply avoiding confrontation and joins a terrorist group.

What's interesting about the film is how it presents two sides of the story, although, admittedly Chamusso is the central character. Tim Robbins plays Nic Vos, an anti-terrorist authority figure. We see Vos with his family and Robbins almost brings a sense of humanity to the character that makes you really see a man trapped in a point-of-view that he can't escape, and committing terrible acts because of this.

Derek Luke does a tremendous job as Chamusso and throughout the film his intensity is contagious, adding...

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