Trial by Fire (2008)

This is one of those B movies that you find yourself stuck into on a Sunday afternoon when you're hungover. It actually wasn't that horrible; lots of hunky firemen, moderately bad special effects, just the right amount of cheese and Brooke Burns (who I may have just developed a girl crush on.) She looks amazing here and isn't afraid to get dirty, obviously doing most of the training scenes herself -I do remember from her Baywatch days that she was a triathlete in real life, not that I watched Baywatch or anything.Brooke plays Kristin, a woman who joins the fire department to follow in her father's footsteps. When her Captain perishes in a fire Kristen is unfairly forced to take the blame and in the aftermath of that tragedy makes it her mission to become the first female ever to be accepted into the elite ranks of the Missoula Smokejumpers.We follow her through the grueling, four week training program, struggles with the other members of the team and watch her steely determination as she learns to jump out of planes, into the flames and save the day. 07.11

Entertaining movie but one of the most predictable movies I've seen lately. The writers tried to throw in every known plot twist: Her sister just happening to be camping in the fire area, the little girl going to the bathroom, but her parents looking for her everywhere but the bathroom, the bathroom door being stuck, her just happening to be on a date with one of the instructor when the whole thing goes down, the whole situation of a rookie being taken on a fire jump, etc. Maybe I watch too much TV, but when I can predict the whole movie after watching 5 minutes of it, does not show much originality on the part of the writers.

While the film trivializes jumping out of planes to combat fires, it's an interesting one with a heartwarming story to support it.Blamed for her father's death by fire, as he is about to retire, Kristin, his daughter and fire-lady decides to go for fire jumping. The film adequately shows the rigors involved what the applicants have to go through when applying for such a position.The problem is that the film becomes Hollywood-oriented when an emergency arises, and Kristin is immediately put to the test. This is Hollywood, what do you expect?Basically, the film is a good one as it shows the sibling rivalry between daughters of the deceased fire fighter and the fact that the daughter applied her knowledge learned during the "brief" learning period as well as what her father taught her. Naturally, there is sexism involved as the firemen in both jumpers and regular fire fighters resented a woman among them.

This made-for-TV exercise is typical of those that attempt to showcase the drama associated with being a firefighter, and more particularly, a female firefighter.Brooke Burns plays Kristen Scott, a firefighter who works with her father in the local firehouse. Her father dies while helping Kristen rescue a child from a burning house. Her co-workers blame her for her father's death, and refuse to accept her back in the firehouse.Kristen decides to try out for the Smoke Jumpers, a more demanding firefighting role. There are several subplots involving family members and other, mostly male, firefighters that serve to establish Kristen as a driven, competitive fighter who is determined to make it on her own as a smoke jumper.The rest of the film showcases Kristen helping one person after the other escape a fire, including her sister and her family. She becomes not only a smoke jumper, but a true heroine.This film is simply the video equivalent of a fairy tale. After the first 15 minutes, we know what's going to happen-Kristen triumphs against all odds and becomes the heroine of the day.At the risk of sounding chauvinist, I found Kristen's character to be abrasive, unnecessarily aggressive, smug, sarcastic, and cold, even toward her own family. Her character is necessarily competitive, being a female living in an overwhelmingly male world. However, she insisted upon making comments intended to ridicule and insult male colleagues and others.In my way of thinking, a person, male or female, has a much better chance of being accepted by actually being friendly and kind, rather than hostile or sarcastic.Hence,I found this movie full of stereotypes such as hostile males against a brash female and consequently disappointing. A good family type story could have been made better by having Kristen pursue success by winning people to her side in a cooperative, rather than a confrontational manner.