Jack's first fire leading the charge with the hose is interrupted by a stream of rats fleeing the building's upper floors and the insidious nature of fire is well realized.
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Linda Morrison (Jacinda Barrett, "The Human stain") bonds with the boys at their Irish bar then settles down with cliched wifely worries about the danger of Jack's job. Jack's career highs and lows are interspersed with him shyly meeting his wife, getting married and having kids whom his entire coterie fetes at backyard birthday parties. Writer Lewis Colick ("Domestic Disturbance") uses Jack's suspenseful rescue attempt as a girder from which to string flashbacks of Jack's career from his first day as an Engine 33 rookie back up to his current predicament, but except for some humorous firehouse mischief and a few well done blaze battles these scenes play out like the Kodak moments in the life of a fireman. Severely injured, Jack maintains radio communication with his old friend, Chief Kennedy, who is coordinating his rescue outside. Jack finds the second man and persuades him to lower himself on a rope to a waiting rescue bucket poised outside, but an explosion sends Jack plummeting several floors to an unknown location.
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Director Jay Russell ("Tuck Everlasting") elicits mostly pedestrian performances from his ensemble cast and taints good action scenes with overt dramatic rigging.Īn old industrial building is ablaze and several firefighters are inside, trying to locate two men who are not accounted for. This post-9/11 paean to those who risk their lives is obviously heart felt, but its ponderously by-the-numbers execution results in a film that is emotionally unengaging.