Backdraft

Rating:
Summary: this movie is HOT!!!
Review: great movie with Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Robert DeNiro to name a few, though Leigh seems like she doesnt belong. great fire sequences and why the **ck did Russell have to die huh, I mean they couldve killed off Leigh(sorry but its true) and when Baldwin gets blown threw the window and hits the water below is simply a great action scene. Ron Howard directs another masterpiece. and when in a fire, dont open the door fast, or boommm!!!

Rating:
Summary: This movie is fiery excellent.
Review: This is my second favorite movie behind T2 Judgement Day from 1991.

The movie is the story of a firefighting department with two firefighting brothers who have throughout their lives been at odds with each otehr. However, their distant relations have been put to the test when a string of fires caused by arson attacks pop up all over the ghettos of Chicago.

Even worse is that the department is being deprived of funds by a sleazy bureucratic alderman and it's an unplesant and dangerous twist of turns as they find out whose responsible for the string of arson induced fires.

William Baldwin and Kurt Russell are absolutley fabulous playing the often clashing McCaffrey bothers as they fight numerous fires and face off against a 'beast' that burns along the walls and ceilings of the rooms.

The fiery special effects are just magnificent and makes this movie even better.

This is a truly magnificant movie. The DVD offers nothing new other than excellent improvement in quality over the VHS. By far one of the best movies of 1991.

Rating:
Summary: This Movie is a Capital Crime
Review: The big-budget movie Backdraft has a talented cast and director, yet it represents a prodigious waste. The movie is a failure because it has a no-talent actor, William Baldwin, in one of the leads; its otherwise gifted director, Ron Howard, had a bad day; and its screenwriter, hack Gregory Widen, never had a good one.

The story is about Chicago firemen, particularly two brothers whose father died in the line of duty, when they were youngsters. But it gets mystical: "A fire eats ... and breathes ... and hates." Sorry, but fires don't hate; only people hate.

Ron Howard must take his share of the blame for this five-alarm bomb. It was up to him to have the screenplay rewritten, or rather, re-written some more, or better yet, burned. He should never have cast Baldwin in any role, and he utterly wasted the talents of Jennifer Jason Leigh, in an idiotic part. And Howard made the picture clumsy and cloying. In the opening scene, Howard seeks to wring tears from the audience by having a fireman's helmet incredibly bounce out of a second story window, landing right at a little boy's feet. And when Howard lets a monster-fire take over in the movie's climactic scene, the pyrotechnics' emotional effect is zero. A good director deftly manipulates viewers' feelings, but in this movie, Howard has all the subtlety of a fire hose hitting you in the face.

The reliable Kurt Russell does not disappoint. Scott Glenn is good up to a point; that point is when his role, as written, becomes ludicrous. In spite of having little to work with, Rebecca deMornay does good work as Russell's long-suffering wife. And as the slimy alderman, the late J.T. Walsh is appropriately pompous and phony. Robert DeNiro is also good, although he shows the first signs of certain tics that have since become characteristic of his "mailing-it-in" performances. The most enjoyable performance is that of Donald Sutherland, who hams it up as an imprisoned arsonist who helps investigators (a storyline stolen from the novels on which The Silence of the Lambs was based).

But the screenplay is some kind of awful. Gregory Widen shovels one subplot on top of another, and they're all so much manure: The wife of the fireman who understands him, yet who seeks to pull out of the marriage, and pull their son away from his father; the youngish man and woman who have been on a romantic collision course for years, yet who inexplicably part ways without even consummating their passion; and the biggest dungheap of all, the story of a string of fatal arsons, which I won't give away.

Widen allegedly worked for three years as a fireman. I can only surmise that he did it, with an eye toward cashing in on the experience. So much for the authority of experience. And Widen's Backdraft screenplay was the highpoint of his Hollywood career!

And lest I forget, Hans Zimmer's musical score is pompous, insistent and obnoxious, though not quite the monstrosity that his later score for Crimson Tide would be. I guess he was just warming up.

Rating:
Summary: Great Special Effects
Review: The story alone is very good (the culprit is not quite who you would expect), but the effects are great. This does for fire what "The Abyss" does for water. The "monster" has a life of its own and can be captivating. The personal level interaction is very good and sibling rivalries are presented well. Touches many emotional aspects while still entertaining technically. This should be in your top 100 "must see" movies.

Rating:
Summary: Firehouse Fairy Tale...
Review: Ron Howard's Backdraft, is a film that centers on the lives of two brothers. Their father, a Chicago firefighter, was killed on the job when they were young boys. As adults, the McCaffreys, are both members of fire department. The elder brother Stephen (Kurt Russell), nicknamed "Bull", is a veteran firefighter, who prefers taking on a fire head on. His younger brother Brian (William Baldwin), is a recent graduate into the department, and though he seeks to serve out of his brother's shadow, he finds himself assigned to Bull's stationhouse. While Bull is something of a legend within the department, all is not perfect in his life, as estranged from his wife (Rebecca DeMornay), he lives on his father's old dry docked boat.

The family drama is set against a subplot, involving a series of suspicious fires that are being investigated by the fire department's arson specialist, Lt. Rimgale (Robert De Niro). A local Alderman (J.T. Walsh) responsible for budget cutbacks to the department, is pressing Rimgale for answers. After another clash with his big brother, Brian transfers to Rimgale's arson investigation unit.

Once this occurs, the story expands to become more than just a sibling rivalry, as the focus shifts to the investigation of arson and other matters. De Niro, Baldwin, Walsh and Donald Sutherland, who plays a crazed imprisoned arsonist, then assume more primary roles. The physics of a backdraft are quite fascinating, and the results spectacular and explosive. The film does feature some fine special effects and stunts, related to the fire fighting scenes. The identity of the arsonist, and the reasons for the crimes, may not be very credible, but the film proceeds towards a spectacular and emotional finish. In the end, it all comes back to the two brothers, and the special bond between firefighters.

The film does have its flaws. Baldwin (28) and Russell (40) are a bit of a mismatch as brothers, with more of an age difference as adults, than it appeared when they were children. The incident where Brian mistakenly rescues a mannequin is simply ridiculous. And the attempts to attribute to fire almost metaphysical qualities, may be something only firemen can truly appreciate. While the film's focus does bounce around a bit between drama, adventure and suspense, overall the presentation is still worth seeing. The DVD however offers very little in the way of extras.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Excellent Movie Around!
Review: From the begining you are swept away by this movie. Backdraft is about fire, and how firemen fight it, but within it all, there's a secret brewing and lives are lost. This is a worthy movie and I give it many man kudos. It even had some touching parts in it almost made me cry. We need more movies likes this, it has action, drama, comedy, and horror all in one. You will fully enjoy this dynamic movie. If I could give 10 stars I surely would. So buy this and make it become part of your DVD collection at home and enjoy.

There is nothing significant about this DVD but the movie itself.

Well worth the money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Action-Melodrama!
Review: Viewed in the context of a post 911 world, this terrific film directed by Ron Howard becomes even more meaningful as a detailed portrait of the lives and lifestyles of a group of Chicago firemen trying to come to terms with as series of violet arson/murders plaguing the metropolitan landscape. And, given Kurt Russell's appeal as an action hero, this gorgeously filmed epic take on the look and feel of a travelogue into a fiery Hell! The cast is uniformly superb, ranging from Russell as the older brother whose intimidating presence is so troubling for William Baldwin, who is trying to join what amounts to the family business, and one their hero father died in the line of duty participating in.

Also terrific here is Scott Glenn as one of the senior firemen on Russell's squad, and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Baldwin's long-lost love now working for an ambitious local city council member. Robert DeNiro appears as an eclectic and somewhat iconoclastic specialist trying to piece together the forensic evidence, and Donald Sutherland makes a cameo as a Looney-tunes firebug who absolutely thrills at the sight, smells and sounds of the backdraft. And of course, the quite lovely Rebecca DeMornay does an interesting turn as Russell's estranged wife, trying to come to terms with how to live either with or without him.

The story is quite absorbing, as are the series of vignettes bringing us deep into the world of the individual firemen. As a result, we come to quickly care about what happens to these characters as they suit up and slip down the pole to the waiting fire-truck, en route to yet another inferno. The drama works very well, and the action sequences are both realistic and spectacular, and the way the characters are developed and presented adds immeasurably to the story line. This is one sure to stir up your juices and get you going. This one get two thumbs way up! Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Raging Inferno!
Review: Forget the story about the brothers. It's all about the fire, baby! Explosions galore. Raging infernos that spread with just the smallest amount of oxygen. Boom! Watch people open doors and a huge fireball surprises them! William Baldwin runs on a rooftop while the roof collapses, Kurt Russell is the ultimate hero, and the old guy did it. Ron Howard's fireman picture will always be remembered for its special effects, not story. Oh yeah, it's also a good 'ride' at Universal Studios.

Rating:
Summary: Special Effects Make It Mildy Entertaining
Review: My father was a fire fighter, so when I was growing up I spent a great deal of time hanging around the fire station. And virtually any one who knows anything at all about fire fighting will tell you this is one of the most completely unrealistic films you could ever hope to see. Fire fighters rush into buring yet strangely smokeless rooms with their coats flapping open and without the proper safety equipment, and in spite of the title's implication the phenomena they are talking about is called "flashover," not "backdraft." In fact, there are so many inaccuracies in this film that a grad student could probably catalogue them as a doctorial thesis.

All this having been said, BACKDRAFT is the well-crafted but essentially superficial film typical of director Ron Howard: everything is very, very slick and looks good on the screen, particularly the male leads. The story itself concerns two brothers (Kurt Russell and William Baldwin) who somehow find themselves employed by the same unit and who must bury their differences to combat a wiley arsonist with the aid of their able Lieutenant (Robert De Niro) and a flakey advisor who knows about pyromanics since he himself used to be one (Donald Sutherland.) The cast is good, the script is mechanical, and the plot is improbable--but all of this is actually beside the point, because everything about the film exists only as an excuse for lots of special effects.

And it is here that the film finally gets good marks. The pyrotechnics are great, and the film actually manages to create the impression of an out-of-control fire as something akin to a ravening beast--very impressive, and often as not more than a little unnerving. And so for once the fire, not the fire fighters, saves the day by making the film mildly enjoyable. If you can ignore the inaccuracies and take the film as a special effects film akin to the likes of VOLCANO, which had an equally silly premise, you'll probably enjoy it. Just don't expect to come out of it with even a remote idea of how fire fighters actually work. Final thought: rent it first, because one time through will probably be enough.

Rating:
Summary: Best FireFighter movie i've seen....
Review: Its about two brothers who are FireFighters in Chicargo that battle each other and at the same time try to find an Arsonist... Its a very well done movie with great Special Effects. Ron H. Is a great director in my mind and this movie just proves my case.