When a sadistic criminal (William Forsythe) breaks out of jail during a forest fire, it falls to a veteran smoke jumper (Howie Long) to stop him.
I had seen this movie as a kid, and was curious to check back in with it.
This movie is not great, but in its lunkheaded way it is a solid action programmer.
It makes a lot out of its $19 million budget, and runs less than 90 minutes.
William Forsythe is a great bad guy, and Long is not bad in the lead - he is clearly charismatic, but in the way that an athlete is. But he does not have the kind of screen presence that draws you in.
Still, the movie does not make the mistake of burdening him with anything too emotionally nuanced.
He spends most of the movie running or improvising fire-based solutions like MacGyver.
While there is some action, most of the movie’s mileage comes from trying to avoid the fire.
In this respect, Firestorm is reminiscent of a Desmond Bagley novel, in how it combines an action thriller plot with some kind of natural hazard.
Not great, but it gets the job done.
I had high hopes at the time that Howie Long would do more action movies because I was a huge fan, but your take on him is correct, and I agree about the movie as well.
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