Backfire!

I happened to see this movie on cable TV. I was surprised I had never heard of it, and it turned out to be quite funny. It's a parody of "Backdraft" in the tradition of "Airplane" and similar spoofs, and though it doesn't quite reach the levels of excellence of "Airplane," it does have several genuinely laugh-inducing moments. So see it if you get the chance.

There is one reason I watched "Backfire!"...to see Robert Mitchum in one of his last movies. Unfortunately, late in his career, Mitchum seemed willing to appear in almost anything...including a turkey like this one. Sadly, the film also marked Telly Savalas' last film and was one of Shelley Winters' last appearances as well.

The story is similar to films like "Epic Movie" and "Disaster Movie"...it has one rapid-fire joke after another. And, like these films, they jokes fall completely flat. The reason is a bit different, however. In the case of the other two films, you have famous (or infamous) actors in the picture and a plethora of mostly crude and stupid jokes. Here with "Backfire!", the writing is a bit better...but the actors seem as if they've never made a film before and their delivery (particularly the lead) is awful...as if they didn't realize they were supposed to be in a comedy! Amateurish is the best way to sum up the acting.

The story, if you care, is set in an odd world where police and fire fighters are all women...and the men are treated by these women in a very sexist manner. Inexplicably, Jeremy (Josh Mosby) still wants to become a 'firewoman'...despite the sexism AND his mother's death on the job as a fire fighter. The story is about his working through his various issues (much like the hero of "Airplane!") in order to become a hero.

Very few laughs and very poor acting make this a tough film to enjoy. I can easily understand its overall score of 3.2...and, actually, this seems a tad high considering how incredibly dull this picture is. Don't say I didn't warn you!

By the way, a couple things to look for: the microphone which is clearly visible at the 37 minute mark as well as the very inappropriate World Trade Center comment...though I cannot blame the film as it came out before the infamous bombing which destroyed them.

Compared to backdraft and ladder 49 this is by far the most realistic firefighting movie

The jokes in this movie generally fall into one of the four following categories: obvious ("Your back!" - "Yes, I'm back" - "No, your BACK"), crude (a coroner biting off a piece of a corpse), repetitive (every time an expression is used, it is then demonstrated literally: for example, a man says "Don't put words into my mouth", then pulls out a piece of paper with "words" written on it), and derivative ("I have to take this to the city hall" - "What is it?" - "It's a big building where the mayor has his office, but that's not important right now"). Of course when you have so many gags one will work every once in a while, and I did laugh a couple of times. There is also some mild eye-candy from Kathy Ireland, but the appearance of three screen legends - Mitchum, Savalas and Winters - doesn't add anything to the film, in fact it detracts from it as all three seem to be in poor health (and this was indeed Savalas' last film role). (*1/2)

"Backfire!" is currently holding a 2.8 user average on IMDb. I understand that many of the site's lowest rated films are bad comedies ("Epic Movie", just to name one rightful claim). But this is not quite that sort of a thing. The relatively low-budget film was the feature film debut of director A. Dean Bell. It is the kind of film that will divide audiences based on their taste in matters relating to humor, but it knows what kind of a comedy it wants to be. Therefore I don't see the low user average as deserved, since this film does what it wants to do just fine, it just happens to be for a niche audience. Let me show you what I mean.

The film, a parody of Ron Howard's "Backdraft" (1991, remember that?), takes place in a universe where all firefighters are female. Jeremy Jackson (Josh Mosby) wants to be the world's first male firewoman. He has his reasons. All his life he has been blamed for the death of his firefighter mother, not least by his firefighter sister (Mary McCormack). Jeremy tries to overcome all the prejudice, and goes on to discover a dangerous conspiracy...

Now let's talk about the humor. It's not as low-brow as you would expect. Instead it's puns and dad jokes, jokes so bad you laugh because of the badness. The main way of constructing comedy comes in the way of wordplay, or actually in the film's way of taking wordplay literally. Here's two examples of jokes: 1) Jeremy tells the story of his dead mother, and rubs salt to his wounds. LITERALLY. 2) Someone says: "I won't stand for this". AND SITS DOWN. If you're the kind of person who finds dumb word/proverb/saying/language -related humor funny, then this film has a lot of it. I'm usually more of a "Frasier" kind of guy when it comes to my comedic preference, but this film had me laughing all the way through. I was simultaneously embarrassed and endeared by the film. Somehow they have also managed to lure in several older stars, like Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Telley Savalas. The old-timers seemed to have a good time, especially Mitchum.

This may be a dumb comedy, but it's one with a good heart and nice atmosphere. You might not like the majority of the word puns, put you got to give the film this. It sticks with the bit. It is a dedicated production, that doesn't feel studio-mandated, but instead a silly passion project. I recommend it.