Atrapados por el fuego

I often watch movies which are poorly rated and severely criticized, and feel many viewers were missing some significant points; satire, fantasy, surrealism, etc., which reviewers mistake as serious elements of the film. Inferno was roundly criticized for a large number of faults, with which I find myself in complete agreement. And I could add a number of others. I'm interested in forest fires, which is why I went ahead and rented it. In another incarnation I was foreman of a U.S. Forest Service tank truck and fire crew. In fact I grew up in the USFS and around fires. From the technical aspect of the film it is utter, complete and unmitigated B.S. I think Janet Gunn reached her professional peak as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and is sliding down from there. I hope the rest of the cast and crew have other day jobs. This one really, really stinks, and is totally without redeeming merit.

While viewing a multi-pack of action DVD's I stumbled across what appears to be a little known film that I certainly had not heard of before. The only actor immediately recognizable is Dean Stockwell who has only a small and rather featureless part as Mayor Bill Klinger. Despite this I found the scenery and acting well above average for what was ostensibly a low budget production. Panoramic views of the sweeping forestry were well executed and while the special effects were not up to blockbuster standard they were adequate and in no way detracted from the experience. The plot revolves around new Rural Fire Chief Darcy Hamilton played by the incredibly sexy Janet Gunn. The move brings tension between Darcy, her daughter, the mayor and the local firefighters. All the while a random arsonist is making life difficult. The story itself is sound with some believable action heating things up. Overall I found the movie absorbing with above average acting and reasonably strong plot lines.

This movie was NOT as the description described "The Earth's air is polluted by solar activity, causing much of the planet to burst into flames. Dallas Cowboy cheerleader Janet Gunn stars as heroine Darcy Hamilton. Also starring Jeff Fahey and Dean Stockwell," The actors and actresses were as described(they did leave out boring) It was about an arsonist fire chief setting a fire trying to be a hero and they blew up a dam to keep the city from burning and of course blowing that up didn't endanger the city at all. Do the people who write the descriptions even watch these movies? IMDb needs a rating that allows one to post a minus rating

I have seen so many movies about fires but by far this is the worst one. I like the female firefighter idea but her character was not fully developed. The visual effects are OK for a low budget movie. The acting. Well this is a different story. First of all the kids are really stupid in this film. Kylie deserves what she gets. Her boyfriend is silly and more importantly Mary, the little girl, she looks like she is having fun at the park while the fire is on. The mayor character played by Stockwell is underdeveloped supporting character. It is too bad that they could not use him. Soulless characters, dull story, OK visual effects and bad acting. I think this is a deadly combination. Rent another movie or watch something else on TV.

I saw this movie on LMN and it was titled "California Firestorm". They usually run high quality movies that deal with prominent social issues, many of which are true stories. Unfortunately this time they really chose badly. Two of the lead characters were a mother and daughter. Normally when you watch a movie there are actors that play the part of a person and do so very well to the point that you cannot tell that they are actors because they play the part so well. That is not the case with this movie. It is so obvious that these are actors trying to play two real-life people and they do it very badly. It is like watching a high school play and the actors sound like they are over-dramatizing the lines. The mother plays a chief of a fire jumping crew in California during a fire. Much of her dialog is so unnatural sounding that I wanted to switch channels after the first ten minutes, but there was nothing else on so rather than turn off the TV I kept watching hoping that it would get better, but it never did. For example, while they are playing a scene where they are in the forest fighting the fire there is CONSTANT dialog between the actors much of which is everyone telling everybody else what a good job they are doing. The way it was done sounded very unnatural and "staged", like they were saying it for the benefit of the camera. Even the scenes portraying the typical conflicts between a mother and teenage daughter are over-acted and when the confrontation is over it seems like there is something missing, like they cut out a part of the scene that should have been left in. LMN is probably the channel that I watch the most so I was really disappointed that they ever ran this movie. Do yourself a favor and if it is ever run again watch something else, ANYTHING else. It was so bad that I went right to IMDb and posted this review, something that I very rarely do.