Ladder 49 (* * *)

I saw Ladder 49 over the weekend so I wanted to post my review. I know it's an older movie and many people have probably already seen it. Either way, here is what I thought.

I give Ladder 49 3 stars because I thought the story was good. The story really made me appreciate what firefighters really do and I did gain respect for the courage that they have. I think that was the obvious message of the film. However the film really lacked in making me care about the characters. I realize that there was a lot of time spent on character development, but I still didn't care. I am not sure where the blame for that lies because I liked the story and the concept, the acting was good and the movie was paced well. I just didn't make a connection and they were definitely spending time trying to give me that connection, maybe they tried too hard. I really liked the way the show was set up where there was a main storyline, that of Joaquin Phoenix's character (Jack Morrison) being trapped in a burning building, and then a series of flashbacks leading the viewer through time to the current point. I found it interesting and exciting waiting for what was to come next. However I felt that the ending was a let down, (Spoilers Ahead). When they went in the burning building to save Jack Morrison I just didn't feel like they had exhausted their resources enough to just let him lay there and die. Maybe it was due to the flashbacks that I enjoyed, they might have been too far distant to the crisis of the main story therefore not enough time was spent on the main story. Whatever the reason, I was disappointed with the ending.

The Bottom Line...Ladder 49 is a good movie and definitely has a great message. In fact, the best part about the movie was the message about courageous firefighters that it left behind. So for that I say, Thank You, to all the firefighters out there saving our lives and risking their own. However, Ladder 49 really lacked the dramatic powerful ending that obviously the film makers were attempting to create. This was probably due to over building the characters and not really creating a connection. I know many of you are John Travolta fans, so if you like him, go check it out although you might be a little disappointed with the amount of screen time he gets.