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88Because 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.
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75There'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.
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75Celebrates heroes without turning them into saints.
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75Aside 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.
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75In its best moments, the film works as both an exciting and formula-breaking action-adventure and as an enjoyably sappy tearjerker.
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70Offers audiences a real rarity in theaters these days: a good, honest cry.
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63Predictable, square, and honorable all at once.
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63One 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.
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60The 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.
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60Might have been an oversized Hollywood dazzler. Phoenix keeps it firmly and modestly on a human scale.
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60This resolutely old-fashioned movie is less a drama of the streets than a kind of recruiting film.
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60It plays, rather, like an old-fashioned, by-the-numbers drama that solidly connects with most of its well-worn cliches.
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60A 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.
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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.
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50Fails as drama but succeeds as a "When bad things happen to good firemen" procedural. It's sensitivity training for civilians.
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50Plays like a war movie made in a time of war: too careful, too programmatic.
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50There 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.
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50Swings wildly between heartstring-tugging melodrama, testosterone-fueled action and buddy comedy.
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50As a heartwarming tribute to the courage of firefighters, Ladder 49 delivers.
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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.
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50Phoenix, 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?
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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.
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As a loving tribute to the courage and sacrifice of firefighters, it's first-class. As a movie, it's a TV show.
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40Dull.
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40In 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.
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40This 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.
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30The 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.
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30The firefighting equivalent of an Army recruitment commercial.
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25For 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.
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25Tedious and obnoxiously manipulative.
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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.
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20What 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.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 33 out of 40
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Mixed: 6 out of 40
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Negative: 1 out of 40
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10
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PatC.6
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DaveF6