Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Brilliant and touching

A Masterpiece!

A lot of fun.

Firefighting brothers Stephen McCaffrey (Kurt Russell) and Brian McCaffrey (William Baldwin) and the rest of their Chicago fire department find themselves in a battle of wits with an arsonist who is manufacturing explosions which create a 'Backdraft' which kills anyone in its path. Fire investigator Donald Rimgate (Robert DeNiro) is the man responsible for tracking the arsonist down.On paper this should have worked; it has talented actors like Kurt Russell, Robert DeNiro and Donald Sutherland on board and an interesting premise which to me seemed to suggest a mix of social commentary, action and cat and mouse antics. To say that this film did not live up to my expectations would be a massive understatement because it didn't even come close....For a start, Ron Howard suffocates the film with all kinds of different themes; strained relations between brothers, strained relations between spouses/girlfriends, firefighting, investigating. Usually I like films with a wide variety of themes as invariably they have depth, complexity and give the mind something to chew on, but here Howard introduces these themes but doesn't expand upon any of them. The two firefighting brothers don't get on- why exactly? The younger brother disappeared for a number of years - where did he go and why did he disappear? The lack of clarity makes it very hard to care about or form any understanding of the brothers (them both being so unlikeable doesn't help either neither did their continuous squabbling). The melodrama between the brothers and their partners was also tiresome and uninteresting and took up far too much of the running time.Even if we focus our attention on the action then Howard failed to really engage me in what should have been an open goal; the action scenes are good at first, but they become repetitive and I was never enthralled or interested at any point during the film. The investigative side of the film (which should have been the real focus) is very choppy and Howard failed to make it interesting or engage me in that aspect of the story.The acting is a bit of a mixed bag; Kurt Russell has his usual cocksure swagger about him, but he does at least make the film fun. William Baldwin is bland and De Niro is fairly low-key (aside from one scene where he gets to flex his acting chops). Donald Sutherland is convincing as a crazy guy, but he felt more like an afterthought than anything else.However you look at Backdraft it is a poor film which has too much going on for its own good. I appreciate what firefighters do and think they are very brave so I do feel a bit bad bashing this film, but I was never given a reason to care at any point in this film and if I'm totally honest I found it pretty boring.

(Originally reviewed: 20/01/2017) Backdraft is no more than a run of the mill action picture with nothing deep, factual or well established with the exception of a few good sequences. William Baldwin play's the lead character and he is wooden, unimaginative and dull, Russell plays his older brother and is more convincing and more engaging than him without a doubt. Then there's Rebecca De Mornay (Russel's wife), Robert De Niro (fire investigator), Donald Sutherland (crazed Arsonist) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Baldwin's love interest) who all give respectable performances, most notably Robert De Niro who I feel should have had a lot more screen time.During the first half of the picture the firefighters act as if there job is a laughing matter, where you see them trying to beat each other to the person in distress, or other scenes where there in bars clowning around, I will concede the bar fight was entertaining. The best moments in this picture are when two characters are communicating in a serious fashion for a change this includes Mornay and Russel's fairly engaging scenes and De Niro and Sutherland's interesting scene during a parole hearing. I could even praise Jennifer Jason Leigh if her co- actor (Baldwin) did not look so bland while delivering his lines.Howard's direction is decent but the action looks fake and I cannot care for a film that has numerous silly backstory's and a twist that will make anyone lose brain cells. I also didn't care for a lot of the dialogue and the slow pace, however they were not the fatal problem; Howard's picture suffers from a lack of realism, Baldwin's emotionless performance and too many silly plot contrivances.

As a child, Brian McCafferty watched his fire-fighter father die.He joins his brother, Steven in the force by becoming a fire-fighter. There is a history of conflict between the two that is heated up by working together.A series of suspicious fires are set, each made to kill a specific person. After becoming unnerved during a fire, Brian pulls strings to get into an investigative office.But he is now not putting out the arsonist's fires, but trying to track him down.....It's the cinematic equivalent of Baywatch, fire fighting is sexy and cool, but makes the person a little edgier, because it's dangerous.And at the end of the day, every goes to a bar, and gets drunk and acts really happy. Because they are. They have beautiful homes, beautiful families and life is just peachy.Or so Ron Howard would have you believe.It's the type of film where the lead character has a boat, and you will find him there drinking beer.It's the kind of film that guest stars Robert De Niro, because he's prolific, but on the wain slightly.Add a silly sub plot involving arson, and you get a decidedly average movie.At least the flames look good, and Russell is on fire (ha ha), as usual.

I was going in, thinking it would be a awesome film, but I got burn. It's no way realistic. I know it's Hollywood so there going to take some liberties, but this movie has a ridiculous portrayal of firefighters. These firefighters are so terribly trained that they don't even know how to don their gear correctly. When Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey (Kurt Russell) goes into the 2 story building, to rescue the child from a fire, he has his coat wide open and no SCBA equipment. The smoke would have killed him in a matter of seconds as his lungs would be seared by the heat. If anybody was to run into a fire filled room with their coat undone they'd be cooked like a goose! Most of the characters would have died within the first 30 seconds of the film from having seared lungs, smoke inhalation, or extreme burns. I like how the fire can explode right in their face, and they don't end up getting first or second degree burns. The amount of smoke that was in the fires if real life would have been blinding, not clear. By the way, what type of firefighters smoke cigarettes while cleaning up a burned out building after breathing in tons of smoke? I would be afraid to light up in a building that might have gases in it because it might start a fire, again.As for the title of the film, 'Backdraft'. It's very incredibly rare behavior of fire. Even if you were the evil genius arsonist setting these backdraft, you would need to spend days creating just the right environment where a back-draft can occur. It's a easy task. Honestly the idea that an arsonist is creating backdrafts to kill certain individuals is preposterous to begin with. I'm not a firefighter and I know that it would be nearly impossible to do that, and it would certainly be impossible to do it to the extent that the arsonist does here. The movie plot is suppose to just that. Firefighters trying to catch the arsonist, but screenwriter Gregory Widen shovels one subplot on top of another, and it becomes too much. There is the sub-plot about two brothers, Stephen McCaffrey and Brian McCaffrey (William Baldwin) having a love and hate relationship, with Brian living under the shadow of his heroic brother, and father. The movie is very clichés with the firefighter heroics such in the case it becomes unrealistic. The first shot of Kurt Russell's Stephen is him walking out a burning building in a manly pose. This is follow up with a heroic slow moment of him rescuing a kid. It's so cheesy. Even the opening scene is over the top, with the firefighters taking a child with them to fight fires. Who is going to babysit the kid while you are fighting fires? Is taking a child to a fire zone kinda dangerous? Director Ron Howard seeks to wring tears from the audience by having a fireman's helmet incredibly bounce out of a second story window in front of the kid and everybody slow motion moves around is just poetic stupid. The worst is the silly montage of Brian training under his brother with dripping his head in water as if a male model. Another subplot of the film is Stephen trying to get back with his estranged wife, Helen McCaffrey (Rebecca De Mornay) which doesn't play no factor into the main plot. No, honestly, it's doesn't play into anything. It's just waste screen time, that could have better been focus on finding the arsonists. The best scenes in the film are that of Brian teaming up with Donald "Shadow" Rimgale (Robert de Niro) a dedicated arson investigator looking for the backdraft killer. They even get help from Arsonist 'Silent of the Lambs' what a be Hannibal Lector, Ronald Bartel (Donald Sutherland). Donald Sutherland is pretty creepy in his role. "A fire eats and breathes and hates." He quotes. Sorry, but fires don't hate; only people hate, Ronald. Firs is not a living entity, film. Robert de Niro is great in his role, and get closer to closer to finding the murderer. Too bad, Brian is rarely any help. Brian barely does anything in the film for the main character, but gets in the way of better supporting characters. Rather than finding the killer, he is having sex with Jennifer Vaitkus (Jennifer Jason Leigh) Brian's ex-girlfriend and works for the city alderman who trying to cut back the fireman department budget. Her loyalties are torn between her job and Brian. I think making love on top of a speeding fire truck will get you fired in real life.William Baldwin is no Alec. His performance was horrible. The way he played puppy dog in an attempt to convey depression and self-pity, it was eye-rolling bad. Baldwin's role was originally written for Tom Cruise, who would have given the movie some much-needed star power. He is disappointing. The film tries way too hard to be cool instead of realistic, which is a shame considering that a film about firefighters and arson could have been wholly intriguing while remaining believable, had it been attempted properly. Instead, this film feels so fake with the over the top action sequences. The factory argument in particular is awful. Rather than putting out the fire, they waste their time arguing while the building is burning around him. Don't get me wrong, the action scenes are impressive, and the special effects are still rather extraordinary, but it's scenes like that, that makes me cringe. Han Zimmer's score is amazing in my opinion. The best thing to come out of this movie is Backdraft fire special effects show at Unversial Studios Hollywood, and that's not saying much. It closed down in 2010 after 19 years worth of shows. Overall: watch it if bored, but don't think too much into it. It's just a pointless popcorn flick