Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Ladder 49
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 49 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Lewis Colick
Directed by: Jay Russell
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 1, 2004
DVD: March 8, 2005
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense fire and rescue situations, and for language
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, Jacinda Barrett, Morris Chestnut, Kevin Daniels, Robert Patrick, Kevin Chapman, and Balthazar Getty
When a firefighter (Phoenix) is trapped in the worst blaze of his career, his life and the things he holds important -- family, dignity, courage -- come into focus. As his fellow firemen of Ladder 49 do all they can to rescue him, Jack's life hangs in the balance. (Touchstone Pictures/Beacon Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: My Dog Skip The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Tuck Everlasting
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Because it is attentive to these human elements, Ladder 49 draws from the action scenes instead of depending on them. Phoenix, Travolta, Barrett and the others are given characters with dimension, so that what happens depends on their decisions, not on the plot.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There's a lot of flashy acting going, notably by Travolta, who has not been more engaging on-screen in a decade, and by newcomer Barrett, a willowy Aussie who, as a woman living with the specter of death, gives the film's most complete performance.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Celebrates heroes without turning them into saints.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Aside from the awesome flames and pyrotechnic scenes of crisis, danger, and part-of-the-job bravery, the movie is a quiet salute; it does its job.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
In its best moments, the film works as both an exciting and formula-breaking action-adventure and as an enjoyably sappy tearjerker.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Offers audiences a real rarity in theaters these days: a good, honest cry.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
One could argue that such an approach isn't all bad - after all, it allows us to know and like the characters - but there are times when Ladder 49 gets a little too cute.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A little humanity can go a long way to make up for a movie's shortcomings, and there's more than a little in Ladder 49, a surprisingly stirring celebration of heroic firefighters.
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film is less of a drama than a tribute -- an ode, even -- to the spirit and tenacity of firefighters. Its makers hardly bother to explore the lives or motives behind their actions.
Read Full Review >Variety Brian Lowry
It plays, rather, like an old-fashioned, by-the-numbers drama that solidly connects with most of its well-worn cliches.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
This resolutely old-fashioned movie is less a drama of the streets than a kind of recruiting film.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Might have been an oversized Hollywood dazzler. Phoenix keeps it firmly and modestly on a human scale.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Moves you with a couple of its grittier dramatic choices, but overall the film feels cheap, tugging a little too hard on the almost instinctual pride you feel when seeing a hero in fireman's outfit.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg
Not as snort-worthy as "Backdraft," Ladder 49 is a serviceable testament to the firemen who would bravely risk their lives to protect the safety of others.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
As a heartwarming tribute to the courage of firefighters, Ladder 49 delivers.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Plays like a war movie made in a time of war: too careful, too programmatic.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
Instead of cashing in on barely healed wounds, Ladder 49 could have taken a different cue from pornography and gone the way of "Boogie Nights," a fascinating, difficult and honest glimpse into another storied profession.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Phoenix, who initially seemed the kind of actor who was too cool, too angry, to appear in studio pap such as this, is a magnetic presence, despite the numbing pathos surrounding him, but isn't that what we used to say about Travolta?
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Fails as drama but succeeds as a "When bad things happen to good firemen" procedural. It's sensitivity training for civilians.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
Swings wildly between heartstring-tugging melodrama, testosterone-fueled action and buddy comedy.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
There has been a need for a big-screen feature about firefighter heroics since Sept. 11, but as drama, Ladder 49 falls short of even the second rung.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
As a loving tribute to the courage and sacrifice of firefighters, it's first-class. As a movie, it's a TV show.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
In a shrill attempt to overcompensate for the film's shortcomings, William Ross' hyperbolic score does the audience's work for it, cheering heroism, guffawing during lighthearted moments, and getting all misty-eyed during the tender and tragic scenes.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
This drama about Baltimore firefighters makes a serious effort to honor the sacrifices of professional rescue workers, but blasts of hokum keep threatening to collapse the building.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
The men in this movie are little more than beer ad cliches going through Ford tough motions as though trapped in a bad country music video. There's not a realistic moment or character or performance in the picture.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The firefighting equivalent of an Army recruitment commercial.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
For all its noble intentions, the movie is really a work of crass exploitation -- an obvious and manipulative grab to cash in on the post-9/11 hero worship of the firefighting profession.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren
I like firemen just as much as the next red-blooded gal (they're big, strong, real-life heroes, what's not to like?) but something about Ladder 49, for all its slow-motion shots of burly guys in T-shirts sliding down poles and running into burning buildings with gushing hoses, made me seriously want to gag.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
What makes this nonsense more galling than usual is that while Ladder 49 might have started out as a heartfelt attempt to honor those in the line of literal fire, it weighs in as an attempt to exploit their post-Sept. 11 symbolism.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a6:
Shamelessly hokey Hollywood Formula 49 piece. An homage to firefighters without the annoyance of allowing the viewer to experience an original thought. The content rings true, but the presentation does not. Despite an obtuse presentation its point is made. The fact that the movie is about those who charge into what others are fleeing is not negated by the techniques and motives of the filmmaker.
Dave F gave it a6:
Predictable and shallow as it goes through the motions of the Hollywood tearjerker. That said, it's still a lot of fun to watch--and might even knock some sense into the college kid who likes to pull his dorm's fire alarm.
Michael O. gave it an8:
Probably the most realistic film about how firefighter's live. Granted, there may be a lot of downtime, but this flick shows us who the real heroes in the world are. A moving tribute with plent of action, but have your hanky ready.
Pamela M. gave it a10:
Excellent Film.
bj miller gave it a7:
Entertaining, and at times sad. Fun to watch the rapport and camaraderie the men develop as they work together.
Leonard gave it a4:
From start to finish the quality of the theater and the comfort of the seats seemed to dominate my movie experiance. Being a firefighter I can only hope that our youth was equally impressed with only the seats and the theater.
Steve K. gave it a10:
This is an excellent movie. Many of the critical reviews of this movie are extremely cynical. If you are a cynic, then steer clear of this movie. People who think it is a firefighter's recruitment video are missing the point. This movie is about bravery and about sacrifice, universal themes that show that sometimes one's job is more than just a paycheck but can really truly be about giving life for others, even at the cost of your own. Watch this movie! It's incredible.
