DVD Movie Rating for: Ladder 49

Rating

Movie Plot of: Ladder 49

_Plot1_

_Plot2_

DVD Production Details of: Ladder 49

_Production_

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Ladder 49

• _Cast_

Photo Gallery of the movie: Ladder 49

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Ladder 49

_Photo_Gallery_

Reviews of the movie: Ladder 49

How can a movie with flames leaping all over the place, people in jeopardy, and firefighters bravely battling against immeasurable odds be such a yawner? I almost feel guilty calling this film a bore - there's a post 9/11 vibe to it that makes disliking it seem a bit unpatriotic, which feels disingenuous to say the least - but that's what it is. "Ladder 49" is a big, bloated, boring, heartless drama that tries too hard to be wrestle some tears from its poor unsuspecting audience.

The film follows the eager young whippersnapper Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) as he's initiated into the world of firefighters. He starts out all gung-ho, finding love in the local grocery store and best friends within the fire station. Then marriage, maturity, and a never-ending string of death-defying rescues changes him.

He has doubts about his line of work in relation to being there for his wife and children. Did I forget to mention all of this is told in flashbacks as Morrison lies in the middle of a burning building, having fallen through the floor while trying to rescue some innocent factory workers? It's told that way, but it didn't have to be. The order in which the story's told matters not one iota to the plot of this cumbersome, lumbering pic. The actors could have recited their lines standing on their heads shaking pom poms and it wouldn't have added more than a glimmer of life to this lamebrain film.

Joaquin Phoenix couldn't be more vacant in this movie if they'd used a wax statue in his place. Phoenix is usually decent but this role eats him alive. He's lost as an actor, wandering from scenes that have him the butt of fire station jokes into scenes where he's the romantic lead and onto scenes where his character faces life or death situations. As he pinballs between drama, romance, action, and comedy, he seems to have no focus, no connection to this character.

As for John Travolta, not much is really asked of him and he doesn't seem to offer anything extra to make us follow him into the flames. The other actors fare no better - there's nothing notable about any of the supporting roles. Joaquin Phoenix's love interest, Jacinda Barrett, is supposed to age by 10 or so years throughout the film. I didn't buy it and you probably won't either. But that's the least of her worries. Her character, though a major player in the film, seems to have had her lines written as an afterthought. It's a wonder she didn't get whiplash from how often her character changes personality in mid-stride.

Firefighters in this film party, drink a lot, pick up on women, play jokes on one another pretty much all the time, and, of course, fight fires. There's never a dull moment if you're a firefighter with the crew of Ladder 49. Life is one extraordinary event after another. Is it true to life? I don't know and "Ladder 49" didn't make me want to find out. The brave men and women who fight fires for a living deserve better treatment than this mess of a movie. You've got to support your local firefighters, but that doesn't mean you have to support this film.

When a supposedly controlled fire exploded out of control in an abandoned Baltimore apartment building, a wave of panic rippled through the crew shooting the fire-fighting drama "Ladder 49."

But there was no need to worry. While the rest of the cast had attended classes at a firefighting academy to prepare for their roles, star Joaquin Phoenix had gone one step further: He graduated from the course. He calmly did what he had been trained to do: He put out the fire.

"It was no big deal," he said during an interview about the movie, which opens Friday. He and fellow actor Balthazar Getty "already were holding a hose," he added. "When I noticed the fire spreading, I just tapped him on the arm and pointed to where we had to go."

Phoenix also downplays his studies, even though he was presented with a diploma.

"I took only half the course," he said. "I never did any of the book [learning] part, things like memorizing what temperature various materials burn at and how a fire spreads in an A-frame building, for instance. If I were to take a test for promotion, I'd fail."

Nonetheless, he learned enough that real firefighters were willing to have him serve as a member of their crew. He didn't just ride along to see what it felt like to speed through city streets with the siren blaring. He went into burning buildings and helped extinguish the fires.

The invitation to join a crew was flattering and frightening. It meant that the members of the firehouse had quit looking at him as an actor and accepted him as one of their own. But it also meant they would entrust their lives to him, something that hit home when he found himself part of a three-man team battling a blaze on an upper story of an apartment building.

This was not a situation where a mistake could be remedied simply by yelling "Cut!" and doing another take.

"It was terrifying," he said. "But a firefighter told me later, 'When you quit being scared, that's when you should retire.' "

'Reality' was the watchword

John Travolta plays the fire chief. Because his character manages the firefighting effort from the perimeter of the action, Travolta didn't spend nearly as much time training at the firefighting academy as Phoenix did. But he still had a lot of prep work to do.

"I spent a whole month with a real chief," Lt. Mark Yant of the Baltimore Fire Department, John Travolta said. "He was a very cool, level-headed guy who has to make some tough decisions about sending men into dangerous situations. The thing that struck me the most was the way the men loved him even though he was an authority figure. I wanted to capture that state of mind."

Emulating an attitude can be a lot harder than copying physical mechanics, especially when you need to have your mentors put things in words that they likely don't think about. You can't just ask, "Why do you do that?" because it's often not a conscious act. But Travolta wasn't intimidated by that challenge.

"I think the key is asking the right questions," he said. "I ask questions like: 'What is it like when ...' and 'What do you do when ...' -- and I asked Lt. Yant [who was on the set as an adviser] a lot of procedural questions. If I had to give an order, I'd show him the line and say, 'Is that real?' And if he said no, I'd say, 'Tell me what you do say.' "

"Reality" was the movie's watchword. None of the actors questioned the decision of director Jay Russell to stage real fires instead of having technicians add the flames later with computer-generated special effects.

"It wouldn't have been the same," Phoenix said. "For one thing, we could feel the heat from the fires, and some of them got pretty hot."

Supporting actor Robert Patrick said he knew how real things were going to be when "they put fire-retardant foam on the back of my neck and ears."

Russell ("My Dog Spot"), who launched his career making documentaries for cable TV's Discovery Channel, said he wanted to make Hollywood's most realistic movie about firefighting.

"Interest in firefighting certainly has increased since [the terrorist attacks on] 9/11," he said. "I've been asked many times if this movie is a tribute to the firefighters on 9/11. And the answer is yes. But it's also a tribute to the firefighters who fought fires on 9/12 and 9/13 and every day since then."

One lasting impression that came from his research in the firefighting community is that "they don't want to be depicted as superheroes," he said. "But they wouldn't mind getting a little 'thank you.' I hope that our movie can be that thank you."