Catch a Fire (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• danny d

  
  great film. derek luke and tim robbins put out two great performances and at times in the flick youre not sure which side to root for even though you know apartied is wrong. they really did this well and you can see the struggle of the opressed.

• Wahida K

  
  Liloh: <i>And I realized nothing has changed. And I dont think South Africa will be ever Free from Whites and their terror against em.</I> This Movie was more than just a Movie. A great Friends recommendation and long review on her experience and the review on the movie… More
  Liloh: <i>And I realized nothing has changed. And I dont think South Africa will be ever Free from Whites and their terror against em.</I> This Movie was more than just a Movie. A great Friends recommendation and long review on her experience and the review on the movie made me watch this Movie twice. Thank you Lilo

• Dan S

  
  A well-documented thriller that features a powerhouse performance from Derek Luke as a man descending into hatred and rebellion after government wrecks his ideal life apart. Robbins gives a very restrained performance in this one, a little too restrained for my taste, however, this… More
  A well-documented thriller that features a powerhouse performance from Derek Luke as a man descending into hatred and rebellion after government wrecks his ideal life apart. Robbins gives a very restrained performance in this one, a little too restrained for my taste, however, this movie is all about Luke. It's a familiar setting, with a few turns in the plot that I didn't completely buy into, however, the positives outweigh the negatives here. The ending packs a swift emotional blow, especially seeing Luke being able to interact with the real Patrick Chamusso at the end of the film.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"The spark that ignites us, unites us."</i> Patrick Chamusso is an honest oil refinery foreman. When he is interrogated about a terrorist attack at the refinery on his shift, he produces false alibi, which worsen his condition. His jail time experience… More
  <i>"The spark that ignites us, unites us."</i> Patrick Chamusso is an honest oil refinery foreman. When he is interrogated about a terrorist attack at the refinery on his shift, he produces false alibi, which worsen his condition. His jail time experience pushes him across the line, and he joins the African National Congress. <b><u>Review</u></b> The film is a well set drama about people struggling for their freedom in their own country, South Africa, based on a true story. As "Hotel Rwanda" and "Shooting Dogs" before, this one is a great peace of entertaining, while it won't leave you indifferent to what actually happened. It's emotional power is impressive, especially for every africanophile. Still, it remains a movie, relating some facts, but not the whole truth. The movie does certainly not use up all of its great potential. At the end, it turns to be a bit too hasty, and important events which would have enriched the story are left behind.

• Lenny M

  
  Descent film, not impacting enough to remember.

• Dean M

  
  A bit familiar to <i>Cry Freedom</i>, but it has full journey story of sabotage, corruption and murder. Derek Luke makes a good performance as a real-life former freedom fighter Patrick Chammuso.

• Michael S

  
  Very good political thriller.

• Rico Z

  
  This movie was definitely a good political thriller. Tim Robbins gives one of the best performances of his career as the hard and harsh leader of a covert pack of terrorist investigators working for the CIA in Africa. When an attack is performed at a local village's power plant,… More
  This movie was definitely a good political thriller. Tim Robbins gives one of the best performances of his career as the hard and harsh leader of a covert pack of terrorist investigators working for the CIA in Africa. When an attack is performed at a local village's power plant, the buzz of rebel terrorist automatically makes every black man and woman a suspect in the "white-controlled" plant surroundings. Derek Luke is prime suspect number one due to his foreman position; but he, of course, has nothing to do with it. The audience knows it, but the powerfully corrupt CIA operatives go to extreme lengths to prove him wrong. In the process, innocents suffer, reputations and lives are shattered and lost and the promise of a better future remains the motivation for overcoming hatred and being able to forgive. The story is a typical cat-and-mouse-prove-my-innocence-at-all-costs kind of stroyline, but it works because it's based on a true story. The events that transpired during Apartheid in Africa during these turbulent years is genuinely and nakedly represented on film. The outpouring of resentment from the native Africans against the intruding white Africaners permeates every scene of the film. Definitely catch this fire-- at least on DVD.

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]"Catch a Fire" takes place in 1980 when Patrick Chamusso(Derek Luke) is a black South African working as a foreman in a Transvaal oil refinery. He is the father of two children, husband to Precious(Bonnie Henna) and the coach of the local boys'… More
  [font=Century Gothic]"Catch a Fire" takes place in 1980 when Patrick Chamusso(Derek Luke) is a black South African working as a foreman in a Transvaal oil refinery. He is the father of two children, husband to Precious(Bonnie Henna) and the coach of the local boys' soccer team. He is away for a playoff game when an explosion rocks the refinery where he works. Patrick is arrested by the police, headed by the white detective Nic Vos(Tim Robbins), who suspects him of the bombing due to a shaky alibi, not helped out by visiting another woman at the time. His interrogation and incarceration changes this formerly apolitical family man forever...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Based on a true story, "Catch a Fire" is a well-paced political thriller that starts slowly and climaxes well. But it fades badly with an epilogue that is simply looking around for billboard space to rent. Still, the acting is first-rate, especially Tim Robbins, giving one of his best performances.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]The movie takes a superficial view at the politics at the time and does not delve into the reasons why there was resistance. For example, little oppression is shown that is not connected to the bombings.(One might conclude that the movie is saying that there would be no police crackdown if everybody just kept their heads down and avoided politics altogether.) It is interesting to note that Chamusso and Vos both act to defend their families, but find totally different ways to do so.[/font]

• Jeff B

  
  In watching the compelling Apartheid-set bio-pic Catch a Fire, one cannot help but think back to Cry Freedom, Richard Attenborough's poignant but overlong portrait of slain non-violent South African activist Steven Biko (Denzel Washington) and his unlikely friendship with a white… More
  In watching the compelling Apartheid-set bio-pic Catch a Fire, one cannot help but think back to Cry Freedom, Richard Attenborough's poignant but overlong portrait of slain non-violent South African activist Steven Biko (Denzel Washington) and his unlikely friendship with a white reporter (Kevin Kline). With Fire, director Phillip Noyce tackles the other side of the coin, chronicling the rise of an anti-apartheid "terrorist" and his antagonistic relationship with a white colonel, all within a breezy running time that keeps the action taut. In this R-rated South African-set thriller, hard-working family man Patrick Chamusso (Luke) truly turns revolutionary after he is wrongly accused and tortured for a crime by Police Security Branch operative Nic Vos (Robbins) in the early '80s. No stranger to political intrigue, Noyce (Patriot Games, Rabbit-Proof Fence) presents a 1980s-set true story made all the more timely by the events of September 11, a point he capitalizes on. After Vos (representing foreign govt.) tortures the innocent Chamusso (representing persecuted natives), the latter's motives for turning radically political become starkly obvious, paralleling a certain Western power's occupation of modern-day Iraq. Catch a Fire also gives a powerful combo in Robbins and Luke, who bring their respective characters' moral ambiguity to light with a gripping intensity--perhaps too well. Noyce shows us family man Chamusso's philandering while concurrently portraying Vos's nearly perfect home life with middling results. As the real-life Chamusso's appearance at the end makes clear, this is HIS story, not that of the top-billed Robbins. Perhaps, Focus Features just wanted to get their money's worth out of the Oscar-winner. Bottom line: Once you catch it, you won't let go.

• Nicolas K

  
  Not as powerful as one would expect.

• Laurence C

  
  Dillydallying between a serious political thriller and pop-corn entertainment, Catch a Fire is unable to truly spark and clamp to the viewer, despite the numerous attempts at poignancy through (overly) emotional sequences. Still, Robbins, Mbuli and especially Luke deliver perfectly… More
  Dillydallying between a serious political thriller and pop-corn entertainment, Catch a Fire is unable to truly spark and clamp to the viewer, despite the numerous attempts at poignancy through (overly) emotional sequences. Still, Robbins, Mbuli and especially Luke deliver perfectly adequate performances.

Read all 12 featured audience ratings