Firestorm is a rather standard action yarn with the hero (H.Long) one of those fearless firefighters who specialize in parachuting into the danger zones. Why this aspect is emphasized in the ads and intro I'm not sure - at one point Howie does parachute in during a critical point in the story and nearly kills himself in the process. All that shows is he should have walked in like a normal human being.
The fire scenes themselves are pretty impressive, as the pic needs to show a forest on fire. This fire is purposely started to supposedly cover the tracks of an escaped master villain (sadistically played by Forsythe), who has hidden $37 million or so around the area. Now that I think about, no one ever did find that money, did they? The title refers to a particularly nasty type of fire; we get a glimpse of it at the end as it seems to spread over several acres in seconds. It looks impressive, but quite doubtful.
Howie doesn't come off as truly awful in the heroic role, but he is kind of bland. He's got the physical look down easily, but for some reason, he was better suited as the villain's no.2 in "Broken Arrow"(96). This was his last attempt at an action star career. Forsythe tries really hard to be the scummiest villain ever - sort of a combo Lecter and a Malkovich villain - and, in some ways, he succeeds. But, by the end, you wonder, why was he trying so hard? Barry Pepper has an early role as one of Forsythe's assistants.
The fire scenes themselves are pretty impressive, as the pic needs to show a forest on fire. This fire is purposely started to supposedly cover the tracks of an escaped master villain (sadistically played by Forsythe), who has hidden $37 million or so around the area. Now that I think about, no one ever did find that money, did they? The title refers to a particularly nasty type of fire; we get a glimpse of it at the end as it seems to spread over several acres in seconds. It looks impressive, but quite doubtful.
Howie doesn't come off as truly awful in the heroic role, but he is kind of bland. He's got the physical look down easily, but for some reason, he was better suited as the villain's no.2 in "Broken Arrow"(96). This was his last attempt at an action star career. Forsythe tries really hard to be the scummiest villain ever - sort of a combo Lecter and a Malkovich villain - and, in some ways, he succeeds. But, by the end, you wonder, why was he trying so hard? Barry Pepper has an early role as one of Forsythe's assistants.