An average movie

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. I have noticed that, even though there are countless movies about cops, there are somehow not so many movies about firefighters and this movie must be by far the most famous one about this subject. It is easy to understand why as the firefighting scenes were just so damned impressive, even more than 20 years later. Indeed, you really get the feeling that you are out there with those guys and they managed to give the fire some kind of mesmerising quality. Unfortunately, to be honest, pretty much everything else wasn't really good, I'm afraid. I mean, they had a really solid cast and they did what they could but instead of focusing only on the MacCaffrey brothers which seemed to be like a no-brainer to me, they kept adding layers upon layers of boring sub-plots. Indeed, you had some romantic angles for the two brothers, some investigation, even some interrogation scene with some kind Hannibal Lecter figure,.... And Brian managed to join the firefighters not once but twice during the whole thing. Basically, it felt as if they didn't really trust this material, that they felt that it wasn't dramatic enough somehow which was too bad. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.