FIRESTORM 1998
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
1 :-( for causing superficial burns
Cast: Howie Long, Scott Glenn, William Forsythe, Suzy Amis, Christianne Hirt Director: Dean Semler Screenplay: Chris Soth
After the likes of VOLCANO, TWISTER and HARD RAIN now comes the likes of FIRESTORM. Thus completing the quartet of Elements i.e. Earth, Air, Water and now Fire. Hollywood does not fail to surprise me time and again with its ability to churn out disaster movies at such an alarming rate. Using the smallness of man and pitting him against the greatness of nature, to create a feeling of overwhelming awe as we get blown away by the special effects.
This time the hero is a fireman (Howie Long). The aim is to make him bigger than life and Howie sure has the size even if he doesn't have the screen presence. He's probably the regular kind of guy that women like to see sweaty with torn clothing, working at a construction site quenching his thirst with a large can of coke, but then again I could be wrong and he may have originated from a Chippendale troupe. Anyway, Howie does well throwing axes, wrestling with men as huge as himself, saving the girl and beating the smart, but ugly bad guy all in a single day. How many firemen can claim they have done that?
I ask myself should I be amazed by the special effects, me being a person who doesn't like playing with fire, who keeps a safe distance from the stove. I guess I should have been, especially towards the end when a sea of fire sweeps over everything, ripping forests and people's heads apart but somehow I wasn't enthralled by the spectacle. Maybe it's because one needs to feel a FIRESTORM in order to fully appreciate it, but getting that close usually means you die, so I'll retract my statement. The movie's saving grace was that it lived up to it's claims, instead of just lighting a couple of trees and calling that a FIRESTORM.
Despite not being an overly innovative movie, it is still pretty innocent, brainless fun for big beefy men - something which fans of big, beefy action would most likely appreciate.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au Movie Archives http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon Hugues Bouclier's Movies in Melbourne http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~bouclier/week/movies.html
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