Dean Cain Week: Firetrap

Get ready to burn!  Today's film is a tale about a thief, some businessmen and a big-ass fire.  It's a tale as old as time.  Actually, this low-budget affair is much akin to films like The Towering Inferno and Earthquake.  Of course, those films were made in time where Disaster Films were the norm and those films feature major stars.  This one features Lori Petty and Dean Cain.  Well, it does feature Tank Girl and Superman, possibly the only Superman crossover that doesn't exist.  Wait, maybe it does exist.  Nope.  Anyhow, this film is very much in the vain of those '70s Disaster Films, even going so far as to have every character have their own random drama.  One guy wants to form his own company, one woman has a secret relationship, etc.  Does it make the movie good?  Well, to find out, you'll have to read on...

Cain's character is a Thief who gets an assignment to take a Micro Chip.  He has his own sappy back-story involving a wife and kid that he left when he went to Prison.  Back-flip!

While a bunch of people fighting over who is trying to steal some Microchip, Cain sneaks into the building.  He accidentally pierces a gas tank, which interacts with a fire set by someone.  The best part: he never learns this information.

What was the point then?

The fire spreads, just as quickly as the bickering does.  It doesn't help that the Boss' wife and Divorce Lawyer are there too.  With such a big cast, it's only fitting that the lesser-knowns/unknowns get picked off by random fireballs.

The more well-known actors survive for a while, but don't get off easy.  Lori Petty, for example, has her character get a broken leg and mostly just whines/gets carried for the final thirty minutes of the film.

Not surprisingly, the most suspicious-looking guy is the bad guy.  To be fair, the film does throw in a second villain- who is the second-most suspicious-looking guy- to mix things up.

It all boils down- no pun intended- to a confrontation on the burning Roof.  A couple people die, while Cain manages to judo-toss the bad guy off of the Roof.

Since he didn't steal the Chip- but did allow the owner to keep it from the CIA-, Cain is still a 'good guy.'  He also was given a $1,000,000 necklace, so it wasn't a complete loss.  The End.

Burn burn burn!  This movie is not that bad, nor is it that great.  For one thing, the pacing is a bit odd.  They don't take long to get in the building...but that might be a bad thing.  They don't build up the characters in the building all that much before the fire breaks out.  Kind of hurts the drama when you start burning random people to death, you know.  I should also point out the overuse of CG explosions, which are not that pretty.  This is 2001, so it looks okay for them.  No matter year it is though, CG explosions never quite look right.  I do like the real use of fire at times, although they could disguise the blatant use of flame-retardant fluid doused all over the actors.  Not that I want films to burn actors alive...but just make it less obvious.  I should also mention that this film has a very-confusing moral code.  Cain is a bad guy for stealing stuff, but a good guy because he's doing it to pay for stuff for his family.  He's also good for helping people...although he did inadvertently let the gas loose, which made everything worse.  The Boss is a good guy for trying to preserve his company, but a bad guy for keeping the technology from the CIA after they're supposed to get it. Even that's not clear, however, since apparently the CIA hired Cain...and then arrested the guy who gave him the job.  Confused?  This movie tries to be a lot of things, but only serves to be one thing: alright.  It does get points for the schmaltzy scene NOT in a Hallmark film though...

Next up, Dean Cain jumps to the future...of 13 years from now.  Can a game of Rollerball-lite create world peace?  Stay tuned...

P.S. If anyone wonders why I'm only doing four reviews this week, it's because I also did this one for my friend's Birthday: Postal.  Give him some Traffic, folks!