For me, the disaster movie genre reached its peak with 1974's THE TOWERING INFERNO. After The Poseidon Adventure in '72, producer Irwin Allen brought together two studios and a galaxy of stars to make one great movie. It's sad that this was the last good movie he made, as he followed it with horrible garbage like 'The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out". But let's give the man his credit, he knocked this one out of the park. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen are great as the architect behind the world's tallest skyscraper and the Fire Chief arriving to battle the fire that breaks out during the grand opening celebration in San Francisco.
The special effects hold up remarkably well nearly 40 years later and Oscar winning photography and John Williams music score are are first rate. The screenplay is pretty bad, but who cares, the action sequences are good enough and plentiful enough to make you overlook the inane chatter. William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner and Robert Vaughn are all fun additions to the cast. At nearly three hours in length, the film never drags and remains a favorite to watch again and again, reminding me of seeing it with my Dad at the biggest auditorium at the Chris Town theatres on a cold Christmas week night in 1974. A great memory and a damn good disaster movie! A big tall, burning action flick to kickoff the new year with an A, it remains a guilty pleasure I love revisiting again and again.
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