Ladder 49 Critic Reviews

Offers audiences a real rarity in theaters these days: a good, honest cry.Read the full review

It plays, rather, like an old-fashioned, by-the-numbers drama that solidly connects with most of its well-worn cliches.Read the full review

As a loving tribute to the courage and sacrifice of firefighters, it's first-class. As a movie, it's a TV show.Read the full review

The firefighting equivalent of an Army recruitment commercial.Read the full review

One could argue that such an approach isn't all bad - after all, it allows us to know and like the characters - but there are times when Ladder 49 gets a little too cute.Read the full review

A little humanity can go a long way to make up for a movie's shortcomings, and there's more than a little in Ladder 49, a surprisingly stirring celebration of heroic firefighters.Read the full review

The film is less of a drama than a tribute -- an ode, even -- to the spirit and tenacity of firefighters. Its makers hardly bother to explore the lives or motives behind their actions.Read the full review

Aside from the awesome flames and pyrotechnic scenes of crisis, danger, and part-of-the-job bravery, the movie is a quiet salute; it does its job.Read the full review

What makes this nonsense more galling than usual is that while Ladder 49 might have started out as a heartfelt attempt to honor those in the line of literal fire, it weighs in as an attempt to exploit their post-Sept. 11 symbolism.Read the full review