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Author Topic: Ladder 49 Don Anderson Master Film Handler Posts: 312 From: West Bend, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-01-2004 02:52 AM                     Ugh. What a terrible waste of film. It was like watching "Towering Inferno" all over again. Enough with the jerky camera effect. How do Firefighter spend their free time???? Drinking, Drinking and more Drinking! Who's minding the station?? Dunno, and certainly don't care. Trimming 45 minutes off the runtime will not save this piece of crap.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-01-2004 03:07 AM                     No, sorry, trimming 45 minutes off of this wouldn't have saved anything. This movie flat out sucks. This movie starts out right at the end of the movie in the big fire scene, and then wastes an hour and a half of your time in a tv soap opera quality drama, then finally gets back to that one good scene with by this point, highly predictable results and a script fine tuned and rewritten over and over to attempt to produce the most amount of emotion from the audience. Blah! I have really had it with these filmmakers telling the story in flashbacks and out of order. Tarantino can make it work, although I don't think it makes his films any better. A movie like Memento is the only time that kind of editing works. This one is lame, boring (yes it is LITERALLY boring) and pathetic. BTW, the sound mix on this film is lousy. The surrounds are way too loud at times, background noise is frequently overbearing and much louder than the front channels, plus the actual sound effects are overdone in several scenes to the point of distraction. Whoever did the sound on this, you suck. I could've crapped a better movie.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-01-2004 04:05 AM                     ...I hope you don't start filming your toilet bowl, Brad. The over-the-top drinking seemed a bit out of place and it's very obvious the film-makers were drunk since they didn't pay close attention to the detail of the shots. There's a lot of stupid mishaps that could have been avoided. The jumps in the timeline don't work very well in this film. A couple in the beginning and a happy ending would have made for a slightly more enjoyable experience, but 6 reels of fun isn't going to do it for me. However...In this movies defence, it could be construed as suspenseful and having a good twist at the end. In towns where the folks are easily amuse I suspect high grosses. Bracing for impact tomorrow night...  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-01-2004 12:25 PM                     Screw you all...I liked it! The shaky-cam scenes were a bit distracting. John Travolta was probably the weakest character in the film. I agree with Brad on the over-bearing surrounds and other foley work. However there was some good stuff in the soundtrack too. The music was decent. Having had to sit through the film nearly 3-times for screenings (it was filmed in Baltimore and was screened at the Senator theatre) I can say if it was boring it would have been hard to sit through it that many times...but I didn't mind it at all. So far, I haven't seen a bad print of Ladder-49 either...I've screened two EK prints (naturally they were good) and one show print that looked nearly identical to the EK print...very sharp and steady. As to the drinking and other stantionhouse stuff...perhaps one should get the opinion of a Fireman. As to the movie itself...it rates a 3 out of 5 stars for me. Steve  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-01-2004 09:49 PM                     SPOILERS!!! Maybe Buena Vista is hoping that everyone will seek to repay their debt of gratitude to firefighters by showing up at the box office for LADDER 49. Or maybe it is hoped that our post-9/11 love-affair with firefighters will make this movie critic-proof. ...or not. The flashbacks are a dead giveaway that this script was in trouble. Flashbacks can work but, in general, they are a no-no in screenwriting. A film about a trapped firefighter would be more interesting to me if there could be a greater emphasis on the rescue attempt. The flashbacks communicated to me that no such thing was in the works. When the wife got pregnant, I just knew he was a gonner. There is one interesting scene in the movie and it is the opening scene. Everything after that, beginning with the first flashback, is all downhill. And it honestly seems as though they gave up writing or editing the movie somewhere in Reel-5. And what has happened to Joaquin Phoenix? He used to be really good-looking. Final note: THAT AWFUL SONG over the closing montage had better NOT show up at Oscar time or I will completely lose faith in the Academy.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-02-2004 12:37 AM                        I kind of liked it. Yes, That Song was way over the top and some of the characters were pretty shallow, but there were some great scenes in there, too. I'd give it 3/5. Since he didn't like Sky Captain or this, Manny obviously has no taste.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-02-2004 01:17 AM                     Both Sky Captain and Ladder 49 sucked. (Fortunately neither were quite as bad as Anchorman!) Gee Manny, I guess we're the only two on here WITH good taste.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-02-2004 08:18 AM                     Hmmmm...The EK prints I saw had no ID frames left on the leader and the show print was run changeover on 20-min reel...perhaps it was the omission of the critical frames that runied it for Manny....Then again, Brad I'm sure saw a non-abridged version too but what does he know? Steve  |  IP: Logged Don Anderson Master Film Handler Posts: 312 From: West Bend, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-02-2004 10:24 AM                     The same type of individual that enjoyed CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN is loving this garbage. Some of the sound effects of crunching metal sound like they were pulled from the TITANIC film.I don't know about you, but we have had a ton of old retired Firefighters coming to see the film. Do you know how many stories I've had to listen to since Friday????  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-02-2004 01:28 PM                     Very funny, Steve!  |  IP: Logged Dean Kollet Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 591 From: Florida State University Registered: Jul 2003 posted 10-03-2004 02:09 AM                     doesn't this movie remind anyone of um... BACKDRAFT?  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-03-2004 03:32 AM                     We've actually had complaints about the sound mix on this movie. *Spoilers* IMHO the flashbacks should have been eliminated and the whole story should progress from beginning to end, he comes to the firehouse, the training, the fun times, the wife, the kids, and then the burnout and finally the big fire sequence from the beginning of the film. In flashback form it's just annoying becuase it jumps back and forth. Our prints looked great as well. Very bright, clean, and only one lab splice had to be removed.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 10-03-2004 06:11 AM                        quote: Dean Kollet doesn't this movie remind anyone of um... BACKDRAFT? No, not at all. Backdraft is more like a criminal story while this movie focuses on the human side, the people behind the hose, so to speak. Except for the fire fighter background, they are very different movies.  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 10-03-2004 10:04 AM                     Ok, I finally learned alot about the people on these forums. Ya'll are real loners. This movie told about the comradery, bravery and love that a family has. In this case the family being a firehouse. This is similar to Cheaper in the fact that the love is there. Ya'll need some love man... 4/5 REALLY good story, great effects. the end song is really touching...  |  IP: Logged R. Andrew Diercks Expert Film Handler Posts: 232 From: Marion, Iowa (In the middle of everywhere) Registered: May 2003 posted 10-03-2004 11:16 AM                     I rather enjoyed it as well. The fire fighters that viewed it with me also enjoyed it. It isn't an award winner, but it entertained me and I didn't feel I wasted 2 hours of my life. That's really the purpose of movies. I often wonder why some of the members even watch movies, you hate them all! The comradery was great to watch, even if all they did was drink. It still shows that they were more than just co-workers.  |  IP: Logged

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