Backdraft: Critic Reviews

78%

MovieWeb: 2 reviews

72%

RottenTomatoes: 39 reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

67

Backdraft has some of the raw filmmaking excitement that has been missing from Howard's recent work.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Janet Maslin New York Times (Top Critic)

60

The spectacular fire sequences, which must have been hellish to film, are powerfully enveloping on screen, thanks especially to the eerie effect of the title.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

Director Howard is so mesmerized by the flames, he squirts formulaic lighter fluid over everything.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Rita Kempley Washington Post (Top Critic)

Backdraft is sure to do for fire what The Poseidon Adventure did for water.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

75

[The scenes involving fire] are so good they make me recommend the movie anyway, despite its brain-damaged screenplay.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader (Top Critic)

Visually speaking, the film does pretty well with fire-as-spectacle, less well with everything else (Howard tends to trot out fuzzy-toned Spielbergian backlighting on any pretext).
Full Review » 4 years ago
Variety Staff Variety (Top Critic)

Visually, pic often is exhilarating, but it's shapeless and dragged down by corny, melodramatic characters and situations.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Heather Boerner Common Sense Media

60

Ron Howard popcorn-muncher is sappy, not smokin'.
Full Review » 2 years ago
David Cornelius DVDTalk.com

80

Backdraft may not be a very good movie, but it sure is great entertainment.
Full Review » 3 years ago
TV Guide's Movie Guide

75

It's spectacular, yes, but that's not all. Not only do the firefighting scenes evoke a feeling of gritty authenticity, but the fire itself really does seem to be alive.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Kathleen Maher Austin Chronicle

40

The film exploits Chicago's terrain of ethnic neighborhoods, political turf, and glorious modern architecture, but it has trouble when it comes in close to the personal level.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Lori Hoffman Atlantic City Weekly

80

Full Review » 5 years ago
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com

50

An extremely old-fashioned tale about heroic firefighters (rival siblings...) with some good special effects, this is a typical Ron Howard picture in its middlebrow sensibility and sentimentality.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Bullz-Eye.com

60

Full Review » 6 years ago
Christopher Null Filmcritic.com

60

simultaneously overblown and threadbare
Full Review » 6 years ago
Time Out

The fire sequences are stunning, and the build-up to them, complete with blaring sirens and bellowed conversations, has an aggressive immediacy.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Jon Niccum Lawrence Journal-World

40

Full Review » 6 years ago
Nicolas Lacroix EnPrimeur.ca

60

Full Review » 7 years ago
Steve Crum Kansas City Kansan

80

Exciting firefighter adventures with all-star cast.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Nell Minow Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

80

Full Review » 8 years ago
Linda Cook Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

80

Full Review » 8 years ago
Carol Cling Las Vegas Review-Journal

60

Full Review » 8 years ago
Daniel M. Kimmel Worcester Telegram & Gazette

60

Full Review » 8 years ago
Jake Euker F5 (Wichita, KS)

20

Full Review » 8 years ago
Widgett Walls Needcoffee.com

80

Mocked by some, for reasons I can't fathom, I find it to be Howard's strongest film. Excellent cast.
Full Review » 9 years ago