Customer Reviews

Smoke Jumper

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a wildland firefighter, the daughter of a firefighter, and a woman who met her the man she ended up marrying on the fire-line, I was hoping that I would identify with the main character in this movie. But I was completely and utterly disappointed. This is the worst fire-fighting movie I have ever seen. To be fair, most firefighting movies and books are written by people who have never had to operate a pulaski for a 16-hour shift on the fireline, but this one was worse than most. It was filled with technical inaccuracies, beginning with the crew fighting fire in their t-shirts. We don't do that. We have fire-resistant yellow shirts that we are required by OSHA regulation to wear while on the line...and we always do. It just goes down hill from there.

One of the main conflicts in the movie involved the main character trying to hold her own in a "man's" world. I've been in the fire world for 13 years now, and, if anything, I have experienced the opposite effect. Not only have my co-workers always judged me and the other girls on the crew by our performance regardless of gender, but we have always been encouraged by our co-workers as well as our supervisors to apply for more challenging positions. The only girls who are treated poorly are the ones who come in with a big chip on their shoulder, but then turn out to be shirkers who don't really know how to work.

The reason the film's main character is meeting opposition inside the organization isn't because she's a woman...it's that she is too STUPID to be a firefighter. I wouldn't feel safe with her on the fire-line with me. Evidence of her lack of brains: While training for the (admittedly) rigorous physical requirements of being a smoke-jumper, she goes jogging with a huge bag of dog food thrown over her shoulder. Why is this wrong? A) You get disqualified from the test if you run, and I have seen 120-lb, 5'-3" women easily pass the test with time to spare...WITHOUT running. B) What sort of idiot would throw a bag of dog-food over her shoulder for three miles? Hasn't she ever heard of a backpack? That's what we use during the official pack test...and she would have known that, if she was a real firefigher. The writers should have known that, and would have if they had done the tiniest bit of research. We all go through that exact test every year, and it just isn't that big a deal for anyone in reasonable shape. The smoke-jumpers do have additional more-rigorous physical requirements, but I know a number of women who have passed them, including some of the above-mentioned 120-lb 5'-3" girls. What really challenges most women when it comes to smoke-jumping is the pull-up requirement. Most wildland firefighting requires endurance over sheer strength, but being a smoke-jumper requires you to be strong enough to pull yourself out of a tree if you get hung up in one...hence the pullups. That's what the main character should have been working on, not the reletively easy pack test. If there aren't many women in the ranks of smoke jumpers, it's because most of us simply aren't strong enough to do enough pull-ups to pass the test. The ones who can pass it are totally bad-a**. The chick in the movie...totally wasn't.

Basically, I hate this movie because the main character spends the entire film beating her head against walls that simply don't exist. It ISN'T a man's world out there. It just looks that way because most female firefighters start young, right out of Highschool, then as they get into their mid-twenties, they either quit to pursue a career related to whatever they studied in college, or else they realize they need to make a choice: Get married and have kids, OR be a firefighter. It's almost impossible to be on the fireline, doing fire work, while you're 8-months pregnant. Duh. It goes beyond the pregnancy-phase, too. It's the fact that at any time, with no more than 15-minutes notice, you could end up half way across the country for 3 weeks. It's tough to find a baby-sitter for that. Some times you don't even get to phone home before you go...and you might be out of cell-phone contact the ENTIRE time you're gone. Most women aren't comfortable leaving their kids like that, especially when you consider that a lot of female firefighters are either single, or else married to other firefighters on other crews, who might also be gone. My husband and I didn't see each other for over two months last summer. He went out with his crew, and then a week later, mine got called out to a different fire. By the time I got home, he was gone again...and by the time he got home, I was gone. The reality is that if we had kids, one of us would have to find a different job. I do know successful firefighters who are also successful mothers, but they are extremely rare. Women stop fire-fighting because they want to be with their kids, not because the men run them off. They fight fire, have a great time, and then they tend to go into office jobs from there. I'm 35, and there aren't many women my age still on the fireline full-time. Most of them are college-age. And that's their own choice, not the phantom glass ceiling that the character in the movie was fighting.

SO, aside from the fact that the acting was mediocre and the dialog was so-so, I found the entire premise of the movie faulty. I was disappointed that the movie focused on a conflict that, in my experience, has been extinct for years. It would be nice if someone would give it another try...with a compelling plot and with a real-life technical adviser this time. Women do amazing things on the fireline every summer, and I wish there was a movie that focused on our real triumphs, rather than portraying us fighting battles that were over a generation ago.

After proving that she's as strong as any man, scrawny 128 lb., former firefighter Kristin Scott (Burns) gets hired as a smoke jumper. The acting is mediocre at best. The film is mildly entertaining. Scott is at odds with her sister, who holds Scott responsible for their father's death. As soon as the sister announced her plans for going on a camping trip in the woods, I knew exactly what was going to happen. You will too. The plot is predictable. So is the syrupy-sweet ending.

If you're in the mood for a mild movie-of-the-week type flick that takes no thought or concentration, go for it. Otherwise don't bother. It's like eating soup when you really want meat and potatoes.

This movie was so bad that I never finished watching it. If you think "Independence Day" and "Rambo" are great movies, you will probably disagree with me. I would only recommend this movie to a teenager, never to a grown-up.

The plot is both predictable and commonplace from the very beginning. A young woman wants to avenge her father's death by becoming a smoke jumper. Her father died when he rushed into a burning house to rescue a child on the day of his retirement. She made it out alive with the child, but her dad got hit by a burning beam and died.

Daughter Kristin is a 128 lb. wannabe fireman. She is somehow able to pass a physical agility test that would challenge a strong, male athlete. For example, she has to carry 100 lb. for 1 mile in under 11 minutes among other things.

Kristin becomes transformed into a wonder woman! She becomes the Navy Seal of fighter fighters. She is fearless, commanding, faster than a speeding bullet and able to bend steel in her bare hands. That's the ridiculous impress you get while watching this horrendous film.

The script is bad. The acting is bad. The music is annoying. "Smoke Jumper" may not be and Ed Wood film, but it's very close. If you have a room temperature IQ or believe in Amazon women, this is truly a film for you. Some movies pound sand. This movie goes one step further-- it pounds smoke.

The opening starts with a forest fire and reporters. Brooke Burns (no pun intended) plays a fire fighter, whose dad is the captain. As always the reporters covering the job can't walk and chew gum at the same time. One passes out from smoke inhalation while another falls down and breaks his leg. Firemen get separated in the woods and can't contact each other because they don't have radios for Rawlings company #1 in Idaho.

Dad is due to retire. He stayed a firefighter and extra year just for Kristin (Brooke) and goes to work his last day instead of staying home, invoking the wrath of the bad luck fire god. They get a call and him and Kristen enter a burning home to rescue a boy. Kristen saves the boy, but dad, who got hit by a falling beam, is still in the house! She attempts to go back into the home, but is prevented by fellow fire fighters who also don't have a back-up team. Kristen is blamed for her father's death by her fellow fire fighters and even her own sister. Mom, a 21st century version of June Cleaver, is supportive of her. So during her suspension she tries out for the "Smoke Jumpers" the SEALS 6 of fire fighters. She finds out she doesn't meet the weight requirement and must put on weight to join, apparently living in a world with no fast food chains. Kristin completes the smoke jumper boot camp and makes the team.

The smoke jumpers enter the plane walking in slow motion with swagger music that makes them look like astronauts. Her sister and family decide to go camping in the woods, a group of seasoned smoke jumpers burn up in a blaze, Rawlings #1 is called to the scene and rookie smoke jumper Bambi Kristen is on the job.....and you know the rest. The acting was somewhere between an after school special and a bad soap opera. When the main problem becomes firemen having to rescue fireman then someone is not doing their job. It made my stomach hurt.

I would recommend this movie to any woman aspiring to become a fire fighter or a smoker jumper. The acting is just moderate, so it seems lame at first - but if you can put that aside, it's a pretty decent movie.

This movie is not nearly as good as:

Firestorm or Ladder 49 (Full Screen Edition)
.
Over-all this is a corny predictable script with one incredible babe whose smile stretches the horizon, very few real fire scenes, almost no jump scenes at all, and the saluting at the end by the poor old boys with the trucks as the smoke jumpers come out of the fire victorious is enough to make me want to go back to Dudley Do-Right.

When all is said and done, I watched the whole thing, both the babe (Brooke Burns) and her co-star of sorts (Rick Ravenello) are DEFINITELY ready to move up to better screenwriters, better everything. The rest of this cast was fine, but Burns made the movie and Revenello was just right as a supporting actor.

It was a good film. Defintiely shows you what a mans world we really live in:(

Was this movie made for the lifetime channel? Come on Canadian Film Board, i watch trailer park boys...i know you can do better! Definitive worst of the fire fighting genre. Not only do i want to punch all of the characters, but i also want to punch the people who thought that making this movie was a good idea. I LOVE attempts of wildland fire movies, this one was missing many key components: the "shake and bake", the hero announcing his love for the heroin at the end, retardant drops, and must leave out the mooshy girl stuff.

I recieved this video in a timely manner, and in excelent condition. I had been looking for this video but none of the stores carried it, I was supprised when I found it on Amazon but very excited so I ordered it at once. I really enjoyed the video it was a very good movie.