The first thing I thought about after watching Ladder 49 was how much I ended up caring for the characters. I hardly cry in movies (with the exception of a few), but this had me bawling in the end. Another reason I was crying because it was all so real, and you know that here are people that this could very well happen to.

The acting wasn’t that great. Joaquin delivers a good performance that I have come to expect from him over the years. One surprise was John Travolta, given the script (see below) he didn’t perform well and I was never into it fully. Also, an even bigger surprise was from a supporting role from Morris Chestnut, I thought he did a very well job, probably the best of his career, especially in the "burned scene."

This movie isn’t all good, for starters the script isn’t good, it was
very cheesy. It had it’s moments where it was touching, but a lot of the actions seemed to keep repeating themselves (I know it is about firefighters, but I think 4 fires are enough in an hour, no more please.) Also, the script could have explained things better (Joaquin’s son just basically appears.)

Another thing that I really liked was the pyrotechnics and the makeup. The fires looked great, I could almost feel the heat. The makeup had me appalled at how good they did, the burns were all to real.

Rating: 6/10