Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Sober-Friend This 1991 film is almost unwatchable. It's not very exciting. the story is Two firefighters of Engine 17 of the Chicago Fire Department are brothers. Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey, the elder, is experienced, while Brian has labored under his brother's shadow all his life. Brian returns to firefighting after a number of other careers falter, though Stephen has doubts that Brian is fit to be a firefighter.This could of been a very exciting film. Instead we get a family soap set against "A Firehouse Setting"! Billy Baldwin was terrible. His acting is laughable! The action however is not enough to compensate for cliche dialog.

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 20/01/2017) Backdraft is no more than a run of the mill action picture with nothing deep, factual or well established with the exception of a few good sequences. William Baldwin play's the lead character and he is wooden, unimaginative and dull, Russell plays his older brother and is more convincing and more engaging than him without a doubt. Then there's Rebecca De Mornay (Russel's wife), Robert De Niro (fire investigator), Donald Sutherland (crazed Arsonist) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Baldwin's love interest) who all give respectable performances, most notably Robert De Niro who I feel should have had a lot more screen time.During the first half of the picture the firefighters act as if there job is a laughing matter, where you see them trying to beat each other to the person in distress, or other scenes where there in bars clowning around, I will concede the bar fight was entertaining. The best moments in this picture are when two characters are communicating in a serious fashion for a change this includes Mornay and Russel's fairly engaging scenes and De Niro and Sutherland's interesting scene during a parole hearing. I could even praise Jennifer Jason Leigh if her co- actor (Baldwin) did not look so bland while delivering his lines.Howard's direction is decent but the action looks fake and I cannot care for a film that has numerous silly backstory's and a twist that will make anyone lose brain cells. I also didn't care for a lot of the dialogue and the slow pace, however they were not the fatal problem; Howard's picture suffers from a lack of realism, Baldwin's emotionless performance and too many silly plot contrivances.

generationofswine It is nice to see an action movie that is about civil service and not about the police isn't it? Kind of refreshing. Cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, firemen.I might be bias, my brother-in-law is a firefighter...but I never really liked him, and I loved this movie long before I met him.There are a lot of people here criticizing it because "the fire is the real star." All I have to say is that they are right, just like the action is the real star in a lot of movies. I mean, wasn't the car the real star in "Bullet?" The car is sort of the star in "Supernatural" too, isn't it...and besides, how many movies have you seen that star fire and well, it's so cool in a pyromania action adventure sort of way.They also say it is full of clichés and, well, they are right on that count too. BUT, well, a lot of other action movies are wall-to-wall clichés and have cops and guns and are loved. This is the same thing only with fire, and should be loved for the same reasons.At least clichés with fire is far more original than clichés with guns in the action movie trope.The acting isn't as melodramatic as people say. There are one or two scenes where, yeah, everyone has to admit that they are over-the-top, but on the whole we still see a lot of naturalistic acting.What you have here is just a fun movie...but it is a fun movie written by Gregory Widen and he really is a great screen writer with some truly original and fun ideas. You see his name attached as a writer and you know you're in for a fun time. It's just a shame the people that wrote the sequels to his films ruined his career.

ryancorrell How did this movie receive Academy nominations? The acting is awful and the storyline is just terrible. I remember starting to watch this when it came out on VHS and couldn't finish it. I gave it another shot 23 years later and hated it more the second time. I like William Baldwin and Kurt Russell, but this movie is just terrible. Predictable. Living in Chicago, I'm quite aware of the history of corrupt politics in the city. This movie is only embarrassment towards the real firefighters of Chicago. Pick another city have correct politics. Again, too predictable. The only positive thing I can say is that some of the special effects were decent.