Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I'm not surprised that this film lost a lot of money at the box office. It's a terribly uncomfortable film to watch because it's not fiction and it is a great tragedy.As unpleasant as it is to watch this film because of the tragedies involved, it is, nevertheless, wonderful to watch 2 superb performances. After his remarkable performance in "Antwone Fisher", I lost track of Derek Luke; just didn't appear in movies that appealed to me. Now, 9 years after this film was made, I am watching it on cable, and Derek Luke's performance here is nothing short of amazing. It's a stunning performance. Only slightly less impressive is the performance of Tim Robbins. I don't always care much for the films Robbins chooses, but every once in a while he connects with the right film and truly impresses me...as he does here. And, it's not a role that makes him the good guy, rather quite the opposite, so it took courage to accept it.As much as any film I've seen about South Africa's apartheid, this film gives one a good impression of what that era was like for Black people there. However, we all know that it was worse than this film presents.This is top notch, if unpleasant. Highly recommended.

A totally transparent, asinine analogy is forced down our throats here between South Africa's racist apartheid regime and Bush's government.A totally transparent - and even more despicable - analogy is being made between the "noble" ANC terrorists and Islamic terrorists. Basically, terrorism is justified here by the liberal propaganda machine - yet again. Worse yet, the terrorists (the poor dears) are allegedly FORCED into it, i.e. they didn't have a choice in the matter. This of course fits in neatly with Marx's idiotic notion that man is inherently good/perfect hence does evil only when coerced into it (by evil capitalist forces, preferably).So killing civilians randomly in the streets is okay, says Tim, Tinseltown's self-absorbed, hilariously deluded, barely literate "intellectual".The film provides absolutely zero criticism of the fact that the ANC is, was and always will be a Marxist, un-democratic movement (they've been in power for over 20 years now!). Also avoided is the obvious hot issue of the day: the constant slide into economic disaster the country has been going through ever since Mandela's "freedom-fighters" won control over the country. And I mean all of the control. It's a dictatorship.But did anyone truly expect an intelligent, unbiased, realistic portrayal of the freeing of S.A.'s black people from a movie which Tim Robbins agreed to star in? Tim is a talentless nepotist (the son of a famous country singer) whose only path towards Tinseltown glory was by putting on the U2 Bono Cap Of Self-Righteousness and a phony Michael Stipe World Humanitarian Scarf.

In one of the many movies that were set in Africa this past year, Catch a Fire seemed the most derivative and least eventful. Based on a true story, Luke stars as Patrick Chamusso, a revolutionary in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa. Tim Robbins, in a convincing performance, stars as government agent Nick Vos, who seeks to interrogate Chamusso for a suspected terrorist crime. The movie focuses mainly on the transformation of Chamusso as a peaceful citizen to a government-despising terrorist, which would have been interesting if the movie hadn't left out so much. By the time the film starts to get to the heart of the story, it ends.The movie and DVD's official Website promotes the film as "an action-packed journey of sabotage, corruption, alienation and murder," but the film offers very little in the way of action -- or plot development, for that matter. Catch a Fire feels like two hours of exposition to a larger plot that is unfortunately left out.

Catch a Fire has many ingredients for a good, maybe excellent movie. The actors are fine, the story is interesting, the themes are human and important, the cinematography is beautiful. There is a convincing villain with a devilish charm. The daughter of this villain is rebelling, so there are conflicts in abundance. Still Catch a Fire does not work, one might even call it a failure. How comes? The problem, I think, is that hardly any theme is completely developed. Many themes easily can be missed, so briefly mentioned as they are. Take adultery and jealousy. These are essential for the story. Still we are to believe, that Patrick and Precious immediately forgive each other, when Patrick is freed. But no, in the epilogue we learn they are divorced some time later. Or the revenge theme, see the final scene with Nic Vos. Or the friendship theme - halfway the movie Patrick's best friend just disappears. Or Nic Vos' rebelling daughter. With some effort I could go on and on. Catch a fire wants way too much - or is too short, depending on what view you take. It wants to present musical, drama, action, suspense, politics. In the end it is nothing. Though I did not really get the chance to become involved, I was not bored or annoyed either. For its good intentions I rate it 6/10. But I might be a bit prejudiced pro this movie, because of Tim Robbins and because of the subject. I have made a tiny contribution to ANC's work myself 30 years ago.