The Towering Inferno (DVD)

It's the launch party for the newly constructed, 138 storey skyscraper in the centre of San Francisco, supposedly the world's tallest skyscraper. With loads of prominent dignitaries and celebrities invited to the gala celebration, it is going to be a night to remember as they party on the 135th floor. After some wring short circuits in one of the systems, architect Doug Roberts believes that the skyscraper has not been built to his stringent specifications and that the project manager has been cutting costs in attempt to bring the development in under budget. As the party gets into full swing, a fire breaks out on the 81st floor, caused by more dodgy wiring, and the fire ...  Read the complete review

Does anyone else remember the time when this movie used to virtually live on our television screens? When you couldn't turn on your television on a bank holiday or saturday afternoon and not find it on seemingly at least 4 times a year? Well I do and I never saw why because to be honest it is such an abysmal movie. The 70s ran through a spate of disaster movies, basically churning out the same movie over and over but changing the location. We had planes, trains, boats, earthquakes, hurricanes...anything you could think of they associated a disaster movie with and everyone flocked to see it...until it got THIS boring and the genre died a death until its 90s ...  Read the complete review

I'm watching this movie as I write. I have seen it about three times before, but I forgot just how intense it is. The Hollywood movie makers do not allow us the happy endings to each individual story that we are used to. OK so the end of the film is a little predictable but the individual distasters are not tamed for the general movie-going public at all. Some of it is really horrific. This film is clever in that it plays on our own fears of losing a loved one and suggests a theme that argues that we would rather die together than survive whilst a loved one dies. Quite avant-garde for its' time, I thought. An all-star cast and some ...  Read the complete review

I wasn't around when this film was released, but i have seen it twice, and was fairly impressed. So what happens then? Well, the tallest skyscraper has been built in San Francisco. The film is set on the night of the opening party. But, in their haste to open the building, not all of the safety checks were done. It transpires that the electrical wiring architect Paul Newman specified wasn't used, as the builders needed to cut costs. Fuses are blowing, and in a storage room on the 81st floor, the wiring catches fire. You can tell things are going to go wrong - the party is on the topmost floor, and there are no fire alarms going off. Soon fire chief ...  Read the complete review