Review of Ladder 49 (2004) by Luke T — 03 Feb 2011

Ladder 49.

Nice effects, but too melodramatic.

While it had sparks (1) of emotional depth, as a whole I felt it was too vague and gut-wrentching enough to be a pure homage to fire-fighting. "But Joaquin Phoenix..." Shut up! I know, he's amazing. Sorry that got heated (2). Joaquin Phoenix does give an powerful performance, but that's not enough to keep Ladder 49 away from the flames (3).

First off, the music. My only hypothesis is that they got hold of a "Hollywood Music for Beginners" demo tape and the best of CMT. Ladder 49's playlist brings up words you never want to hear when it comes to film score:

-Overbearing.

-Boring.

-Poppy.

-Unemotional.

-Unmemorable.

-Really, extremely, gratuitously, off subject (enough with the country tunes, it's a FIRE flick).

In short, I wasn't a big fan of the music.

The acting was great, and even the by-the-book screenwriting couldn't keep the principle and secondary characters from burning bright (4). The action sequences were nicely done, but it was almost impossible to actually enter the world of a firefighter... a very "third-person" film. In the end Ladder 49 was an explosion (5) of action sequences and uneventful personal story lines that left a little movie-sized hole in my heart.

Why 40%?

Because it was anything but heart-warming (6); its drastic truth to form left the movie in a heap of rubble (7), with no more Joaquin Phoenix to carry us out.

Extra: Did you enjoy any of my fire puns. I got up to seven, so not too shabby. Feel free to throw in a couple of your own, and my apologies if they were annoying.... but hey, they probably couldn't be as annoying as this movie's music was. I'm just saying.