French poster for Ron Howard's Backdraft |
QUICK REVIEW:
A pair of brothers in the Chicago Fire Dept. walk in their father's footsteps, when a series of terrible fires are set off by a crazed arsonist.
Gregory Widen's (Highlander (1986)) script is so idiotically thick with clichés, and Ron Howard's (Frost/Nixon (2008)) direction so disengaged and loose that not even the many fine actors involved can save the messy Backdraft.
William Baldwin's (The Squid and the Whale (2005)) character - one of the two leads - seems even stupider than himself, and the ending of the film is overly long and twaddling in sentimentality.
Backdraft has solid photography, - by Mikael Salomon (Hard Rain (1998), director), - and impressive fire scenes, but it's a bad film.
Related review:
Ron Howard: A Beautiful Mind (2001) - John Nash given the Epic Treatment
Brothers (in the film) Kurt Russell and William Baldwin in their fire uniforms |
Watch the overly long trailer for the overly long Backdraft here
Budget: 75 mil. $
Box office: 152.3 mil. $
= Flop
What are your thought on Backdraft?
Ron Howard has had his highs and lows; and firefighters are rarely the stuff of great movies, - what is his best and worst films in your opinion?
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