The Good

Fireproof is the kind of movie that shows the little guys can compete in Hollywood.

The Bad

Some aspects of the story felt a little flat.Caleb Holt (Kirk Cameron) is a man who prides himself on his work as a fire captain. He loves his men and he will do everything he can to contain a blaze and save lives. Sadly, this means that he also neglects his personal life and with it his wife. Their marriage is on the rocks and it doesn't seem like even the harshest fire can thaw this downhill problem. So what is Caleb to do? Rather than find human counseling, Caleb seeks the ultimate counselor and decides to let faith control his life. When this happen, Caleb suddenly finds that things get a lot better.

Features

Commentary Tracks

Director Alex Kendrick and his brother Stephen sit back and discuss what it was like making this movie. They talk about the characters, writing the script, why they wanted to tell this story and what they hoped to accomplish. Then, when there's time, they seem to launch into the logistics of making this film, mainly, pulling off the effects that are so central to the story being told. This commentary wasn't amazing but it got the job done.

Featurettes

Deleted Scenes

The deleted scenes that are employed in this release didn't really expand on the story too much. In fact, at 118 minutes, Fireproof e it might have been a bit too long. There wasn't any one scene that I feel stuck out more than the others, but fans of this movie are going to want to check out this section if they think they may have missed something in the story. I do give Sony credit for presenting these features in as strong a way as possible on this Blu-ray D.

Music Video

Filming a Movie in 30 Days

Prospective filmmakers or just interested movie watchers are going to want to watch this video blog that takes users through this movie's production. There was something cool about this. I can't put my finger on it but it seems like the creators of this movie (and the DVD) were going out of their way to make this release more interesting. We see how the script got worked out, how some of the more labor intensive scenes were shot, and what it was like to bring this story of faith to the masses. All in all this section of the DVD is a nice adjunct to the commentary track.

Firegoofs/Jokes and Pranks

Video

1080p High Definition / 1.85:1 - Special Features are in Standard & High Definition. This movie looked pretty sharp on Blu-ray. Sony, by and large, does a very good job with the format they pioneered and while I wasn't blown away by the images that Alex Kendrick and his Director of Photography Bob Scott put together, I think that this movie really was allowed to use as much disc space as was needed in order to get the strong picture quality that was on view. Movies about fire fighters are ripe for cinema and Fireproof acquits itself quite nicely.

Audio

English, Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 - Spanish 5.1. Subtitled in English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The audio from Fireproof was good. With a movie set around Firefighting, it is to be expected that things are going to get loud. That is certainly the case here and I felt, at times, like I was being engulfed in the flames I was witnessing on screen. Since this movie was made on a budget, I wasn't always so aware of the audio, but during the crucial scenes where a load of effects were employed, I was.

Package

Two images of a fire fighter hard at work are shown on the front of this black and orange Blu-ray cover. The back serves up 5 images from this movie, a description of what Fireproof is about, a Special Features listing, a credits list and technical specs.

Final Word

It is very easy to be cynical and skeptical of a movie like Fireproof. After all this is a Christian movie and faith based films generally don't seem to have a place on fan sites. However, we at MovieWeb are equal opportunity DVD and Blu-ray disc watchers so why in the world would we not go into the review of this release with an open mind?

Okay, while I think the acting and the writing of this movie could have been a bit better, all in all I enjoyed this film. I feel that it has good message and it shows what can happen when you believe in something greater than yourself. Sure, there are moments where things feel a little preachy, however that never overrides the gut wrenching story that the film's creators are trying to tell.

Fireproof will leave you feeling the heat.