You're going to think that I'm kidding, but this film has everything from a brief usage of, "Okay, who's the wise guy?" to two - yes, "two" - usages of Danny Glover's certainly trademark catchphrase from "Lethal Weapon", which I'm not going to repeat, partially because no one should have to say it again, and in this film, they paused for a second, as though they were dramatically presenting it.
The dialogue in this film is hit-or-miss, but when it does miss, it's way off, plagued by too much machismo, or rather, ma-cheese-mo, if not simple cheesiness that's anything but manly, to the point of being borderline, if not certainly embarassing, nor even mildly original, for that matter. While a story of this type are rarely this sloppily told, on the whole, this is the same thing that you've seen over and over again, and hardly with a new coat of paint, as the film falls into convention, after convention, after convention, and that includes conventional missteps in films of this type. Really, the most surprising survival in this film has to be the fire, itself, because it's hard to believe that the flames would sustain form in an atmosphere this borderline airless, with Jay Russell's storytelling falling short on oomph, while almost entirely falling off the radar, when it comes to comfortable story flow, as the film will drop points of exposition, characterization and general transition with such sloppy sudden abruptness, while focusing way too hard and long on what story segment it does fall upon, that the film is left tonally inconsistent, leaving story substance to land a mighty blow, while other amateur mistakes lay down additional damage. Of course, while it's not as consistent as it could have been, there is some undeniable tension here and there, though not quite enough to fully drown out the cheese and many other flaws that pull you right back into of the fire, so to speak. Phoenix mythology jokes, anyone? Well, eitherway, whether it be because I thought that Phoenix would just be reborn from the ashes in which he died or simply because the film glorifies our leads a little too much, there's some undeniable tone-down in consequencial feel here. I mean, even in "Gladiator", where he was playing a corrupt, evil king that took his throne through the brutal, guiltless killing of his own father, he still came back one of the wimpiest corrupt kings ever portrayed in modern film, and now, he's playing a fireman, a real man's profession, and yet, they somehow managed to make that come off as cheesy, which would explain why there is some certain dilution of consequence in the air here, if the reason isn't the fact that Joaquin Phoenix was never in any real danger, because if he got burned up, then he would just be reborn from the ashes. Man, remember when Joaquin Phoenix was cool? Yeah, me neither, because, as awesome as his acting and name are, he was never really that much of a hardcore man's man. His first day on the hose finds him more afraid of stepping on escaping rats than terrified by the raging flames he has to defeat.Man, with the still inferior, though also very cheesy "It's All About Love", and now this, Joaquin Phoenix seemed to have been falling into the shameful grounds of cheese around the mid-2000s. But the real focus is on the fires, with Jack battling a variety of blazes and facing different dangers each time. In between fires, landmark events happens with an almost careless amount of attention paid by Lewis Colick’s script, including marriage, kids, friends, and all the stuff a good suburban, 2.5 kids, white picket fence American ought to be doing with his life. Ladder 49 has a lot to cover as the film begins following Jack in his first day at the job on through his entire career in what is basically an entire movie composed of flashbacks.
Unconscious and awaiting rescue, things get rolling as Jack relives his life in the middle of a four alarm fire.
Out of control, he plummets through the building into the middle of an inferno. After the rescue, the floor literally falls out from under Jack. Flames leap and flow out of every orifice, the heat seems to churn its way right out of the screen and into the audience. Morrison braves the fire to pull off a stunning and dangerous rescue sequence, while the entire building burns and collapses around him. Ladder 49 introduces us to Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) in the midst of a spectacular 20 story blaze, which both inside and out is one of the most stunning fire scenes I’ve ever seen.
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