Have you ever seen previews for a movie that deep down you really WANT to like… but already know this is gonna be a stinker? Well Ladder 49 (aka Backdraft 2) is one such film for me. Ever since Gladiator I’ve been a HUGE fan of Joaquin Phoenix (I still grumble at the fact he didn’t win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in that). Even though EVERYTHING John Travolta has done in the last 5 years has been a bust I still cheer for him. And how can you not appreciate a film that glorifies firefighters… perhaps the most brave people on the planet?
The film however has a couple of strikes against it. First of all it just looks too much like a Backdraft rip off (Amazing bloody film by the way). Secondly, and I’d hate to say this… but Travolta’s name is now a liability to the credibility of a movie. I know that sounds harsh… but it’s true. You do enough lemons in a row and eventually movie going audiences start to associate your name with bad films… I don’t like it, but that’s just the way it is
The critics are now giving their two cents worth, predictably, and unfortunately, they’re looking mostly negative:
“I hate this film.”
— Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL“As for the soulless fire sequences, they’re so big and suspenseful you half expect to see Celine Dion standing on top of a building wailing “My Heart Will Go On.””
— Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE“Filmmaking of least resistance, in which true heroism is exploited for emotional spare change.”
— David Foucher, EDGE BOSTON“Smothered by the heart-on-sleeve melodramatics of the storytelling, which seems intent on leaving no cliche unused and pounding each of them home.”
— Frank Swietek, ONE GUY’S OPINION
Too bad. I think I’ll see it anyway just to say I did, but my expectations are somewhere under my shoe now. For more Ladder 49 reviews head over to Rotten Tomatoes.
