Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Only a fool fights in a burning house

What if you're a fireman and you just exposed a massive conspiracy by your Captain and the Chief to smear the name of the Mayor by setting fire to halfway houses and homeless shelters in minority districts so that the erstwhile President of the City Council can win the mayoral election on a rent control and urban renewal ticket. Of course, you've just exposed them after returning to the Fire Department from your lucrative safety consulting practice, which you left for your best friend and comedic foil (Steve Zahn) to run in your absence, he has contacts in some government agency and can work computers really well. He'll be killed in a gas explosion on his sailboat after emailing you the the purchase records for the malfunctioning CFL bulbs that started the fires. You've returned to the city because your older brother died in one of these fires, setting up your quest to 1) find out what happened and 2) come to an understanding with your father (Albert Finney) who is an ex-firefighter and Union rep who was invalided out of the department due to lung problems who never understood your decision to leave the department to "chase the almighty buck". Your ex-wife, (that semi-hot chick who always plays the ex-wife)who you still have feelings for now works as special assistant to the President of City Council and wants you to stop making waves and admit you're wrong, something you were never able to do when you were married and caused the split to begin with and that hurt your child (cameo by current cute commercial kid) who you never see. Eventually, she falls for you again and helps you by digging up the property records that show that a holding company owned, in part, by the President of City Council, your Captain, your father (who confesses in a note to you and commits suicide by sleeping without his oxygen), and your brother, who was killed because he threatened to spill the beans after he was told to burn down an orphanage full of "undocumented immigrant children" who the President of City Council says "no one would miss." You spill the beans to you're wife's current love interest, a hard-nosed investigative reporter (Jimmy Smits), who hates your guts, but has a grudging respect for you (plus your ex-wife just admitted to him that she's still in love with you,) and on the next fire call your Chief comes at you with an axe. You're going to have to fight then. Admit it. But let's face it, Worf was a pussy.