Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

HotToastyRag Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are in a movie together, and it's not a racecar movie? Well, in the 1970s, it was a big fad to make big-budget disaster movies with a large cast. The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and the Airport movies make up a classic niche genre, in which The Towering Inferno garners a top spot.This one deals with a burning building, a skyscraper to be exact. Hence, the "towering" inferno. Countless characters are introduced to the audience, given reasons to become attached, and then placed in dire peril. Who will make it out alive? This film's all-star cast includes Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Susan Blakely, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, and Robert Wagner. Fred Astaire received his only Oscar nomination for this movie, which is the only reason why I watched it. I tend to scare easily, so disaster movies aren't my genre of choice. If you like them, this one is really good. Lots of tension, great special effects (for 1974), heart wrenching drama, and excitement up until the very end!

mrb1980 Irwin Allen's 1970s disaster films followed a familiar and successful formula. First, characters and situations are introduced, with everything fine and everyone happy; second, a really bad disaster happens (ship capsizing, volcano erupting, fire in a high rise, a killer bee swarm); third, a plucky band of survivors tries to escape their predicament but usually lose several of their members to fairly gruesome deaths. "The Towering Inferno" naturally told a story about a fire in the world's tallest building. Have you ever noticed that these things never happen in two-story office buildings?The plot is, well, people stuck in a building as firefighters try to free them. There are lots of ways for people to die, including falling from great heights, being burned to death, being crushed by falling objects, dying in explosions, helicopters crashing, falling out of exterior elevators, and many others. The film has a sappy (but not happy) ending when the fire's finally out.The cast is superb, including Paul Newman as a heroic architect; Steve McQueen as a dedicated and brave fire department battalion chief; Richard Chamberlain as a slimy contractor who cuts corners on the building's electrical and fire systems; William Holden as the building's greedy developer; Susan Blakely as Holden's comely daughter; Faye Dunaway as Newman's girlfriend; Robert Vaughn as a senator; Fred Astaire as a con man; Jennifer Jones as a lonely widow; O.J. Simpson as the building's security officer; Dabney Coleman (unexpectedly) in a straight fire department role; Don Gordon as a fireman; Robert Wagner as the building's PIO, and many other familiar faces. Everyone looks pretty young now, 43 years later.The film is notable for Steve McQueen's fine performance before avoiding acting for several years. He passed away in 1980, only six years after the film was released. Newman and Holden's performances are one-dimensional but okay, and Richard Chamberlain is great as the film's despicable villain. Say what you like, but the movie's entertaining and it made lots of money. It's no great work of cinematic art, but who cares?

Hitchcoc At this point in time Hollywood would come up with an idea and then beat it to death. The Towering Inferno is the story of a fire in a skyscraper and all the implications of it. We have the obligatory ensemble cast. We have good guys and bad guys. If we use "Airport" as a benchmark, there is the person who, despite warnings to the contrary, does things that endanger everyone. There is the old couple who must stay together because they have always loved each other. There is the heroic fellow who was a coward before. There is the guy everyone respected who now is a coward. There is the suspense element with the rescue forces doing their best but realizing they had never anticipated this. The biggest positive is that it keeps one on the edge of his/her seat. It is non-stop action and really long.

mike48128 Sure there is a lot of hammy acting and bad "soap opera-cameos" in this film, not to mention O.J. Simpson, but there is also something quite eerie and predictive about the entire movie. Written from 2 similar books (The Glass tower and The Inferno) Fox and WB joined forces rather than create 2 competing films. The "exploding water-tank" ending is implausible, as nothing could have drowned out all that fire and everybody tied down would have just been washed away. Gravity and physics just doesn't work like that. Dated: Today, the couple trapped on the reception floor would have just called for help on their cell phone, instead of burning to death! McQueen and Newman made a great acting team of heroes and saved an otherwise overweight and overblown production that somewhat-works in spite of itself. What I like and hate about the film overall: The exploding windows and people dropping to their death inside and outside and on fire in the Elevator (very graphic and true) and the overall premise that the building failed due to shoddy construction and major code violations. Yes, wiring in the walls can catch fire and explode. All the fire detection, water sprinklers and stairs were centered in the core to save money. Cheap construction in the stair wells' walls and gas lines, as well? Just like the Twin Towers, maybe the entire building should have pancaked down, but I guess that seemed way too impossible at the time of this movie in 1974. A rousing John Williams musical score with "Best Song" Oscar. The mattes, blue-screens and (large) miniatures are first-rate, so I can't fault most of the action, but such terrible dialog and acting! Buy the Blu-Ray! Much better sound and picture!