Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Fire on the Amazon Blu-ray Movie Review

Fire away.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 14, 2011

It's not an enchilada.

Roger Corman is the man behind the curtain for some of the most memorable and entertaining low-budget fare of the past few decades. His movies might be trash, but pictures like Death Race 2000, Forbidden World, and Starcrash are at least unpretentious trash. These and other Corman-produced films know their place, stick to formula, and have fun jabbing at modern society, grossing out audiences, or impersonating better films. All hail from the Producer's golden era New World Pictures heyday from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, but something happened on the way to the 1990s: Fire on the Amazon. The Corman-produced flub of a movie, directed by Anaconda's Luis Llosa, is a terribly inept picture that tries to command some great meaning but only serves to infuriate the wrath of the more critical of viewers or, at its best, frustrate even the most forgiving of audiences. What's wrong with Fire on the Amazon? It might be easier to try and count what's right about it. Aside from having its heart in the right place and a few choice shots of a naked Sandra Bullock, there's really nothing of interest to see here.

Rough crowd.

Along the Amazon, the precious resource known as the rainforest is quickly dwindling under the might of bulldozers and the influence of money. A local man, Santos (Eduardo Cesti), has formed a coalition known as The Rubber Tappers to form human shields in the rainforest as a means of passively resisting the destruction of the land. However, Santos is murdered and a nation mourns his passing. Photojournalist R.J. (Craig Sheffer, A River Runs Through It) is sent to cover the story, but he's quickly arrested after an altercation with police. While in jail, he comes to believe that the man accused of murdering Santos may be innocent. R.J. is freed by a young woman named Alyssa Rothman (Sandra Bullock, Speed), a fellow American who works for the Rainforest Preservation Society, an outside group supporting Santos, his Rubber Tappers, and the rainforest. Upon R.J.'s release, Rothman and R.J. travel down the Amazon where danger awaits them at every turn as they search for the truth behind Santos' death and fight for the native peoples and their land that are being destroyed on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, the only "fire" here is in the title. Fire on the Amazon is a frigid, careless movie that does more to drive away its audience than it does to embrace, energize, and influence it. There's something to be said for a movie that tries to give a platform to a social and political issue, but if that platform is going to be a motion picture, the filmmakers must at least try and make a movie that people are actually going to want to watch. Well-meaning messages or current political and social hot-button issues turned into movies aren't going to be worth the celluloid they're printed on if the movie's a dragging, meandering nothing of a 79-minute sloth, and that's exactly why Fire on the Amazon is such an epic disaster. No flow, no tension, no characterization, a confused plot, and dull characters all take away whatever semblance of a meaning is found in the picture. In fact, the most prevalent message comes at the end of the film in the form of a text-based epilogue that talks about the environmental and humanitarian impact of destroying the rainforest. The message in no way resonates with the rest of the film, and most viewers are apt to miss it, so excited will they be that the movie has finally come to an end.

Unfortunately, the misery doesn't stop with the quality of the story and the failure to better incorporate a message. Fire on the Amazon suffers from poor technical know-how; Director Luis Llosa -- who, besides Anaconda, has a couple of other "name" movie to his credit in Sniper and The Specialist -- fails to find any rhythm throughout the movie, not that the script gives him much to work with anyway. Even his action scenes are about as exciting as a five-day weather forecast that calls for clear skies and a high of 78 degrees. His already questionable direction is further hindered by some choppy editing that sucks the life from whatever flow or life energy there may otherwise be running through the picture; the film's abrupt and often jolting cuts will leave the audience feeling like there's missing reels, but in this case, the sometimes incoherent editing isn't by artistic choice. Finally, lead Actors Craig Sheffer and Sandra Bullock deliver lazy, uneven performances; they appear bored or frustrated through most of the movie -- Bullock even seems unhappy during the picture's famed sex scene -- and deliver dialogue with about the same level of enthusiasm viewers are likely to demonstrate after about 45 minutes of Fire on the Amazon.

Fire on the Amazon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Though the movie might be in need of serious help, Anchor Bay's Blu-ray transfer for Fire on the Amazon holds its own. This 1080p, 1.78:1-framed presentation isn't going to wow even the casual Blu-ray viewer, but this is a steady all-around image that enjoys far more plusses than minuses. Things don't get off to a particularly good start as the opening titles wobble around as if they were stuck in a bounce house, but the solid detailing and color that's follows more than makes up for this relatively minor shortcoming. Indeed, the transfer nicely reveals crisp and precise imagery that proves capable of displaying a fine amount of detail on anything from the textures of a fallen leaf to the dirt terrain of the rainforest, from the slimy scales of a snake to the hardened shell of a turtle. The transfer's fair level of detailing also shows up with regularity in skin and clothes textures. Colors are far from dynamic but they're well balanced and pleasant enough. Whether the earth tones as seen around the rainforest and in many of the locales throughout the movie or the brighter shades of foliage green and flashy early 1990s clothes, viewers should be satisfied with the transfer's color palette. Black levels tend towards the sloppy and exhibit a fair bit of crush, but skin tones appear fairly accurate. The image is slathered in a natural grain field that manages to give the presentation a nice, but not breathtaking, film-like texture. All in all, this is a decent enough Blu-ray transfer.

Fire on the Amazon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fire on the Amazon sports a passable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's a clear lack of energy running through the proceedings, no surprise, really, given the haphazard-at-best attention to detail paid to even basic filmmaking techniques; no doubt sound design was low on the list of priorities with this one. Fortunately, dialogue is clear enough and centered up the middle, but there's not much else to inspire confidence. Jungle atmospherics are heard aplenty and emanate from any of the speakers around the listening area, but rarely, if ever, will the listener feel immersed into the rainforest environment. Rain and thunder both spill forth from various speakers, again, though, never truly engaging the aural sense to any real effect. The track finds some power and heft as various pieces of heavy machinery destroy the rainforest, and a few gunshots partway through the film ring out with a fair bit of oomph, but a barrage of gunfire late in the film plays as decidedly puny and indistinct. This is a nuts-and-bolts sort of track; there's just enough here to make for a passing grade, but there's nothing at all remarkable about this serviceable but ultimately forgettable mix.

Fire on the Amazon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only the Fire on the Amazon trailer is included.

Fire on the Amazon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Boring, confused, ineptly assembled, far too self-important. Fire on the Amazon sacrifices everything that's good about Roger Corman movies by trying to pander to viewers through a message that never resonates. Corman's best known for tossing out trashy movies that aim to be nothing more than trashy movies, but Fire on the Amazon is a mess of a picture that not only fails to weave in its intended message, but also fails to weave together a coherent movie. Awful editing, lazy acting, a bland script, and sloppy direction are the hallmark elements of Fire on the Amazon; whatever semblance of a message there may be is lost to the dimwitted movie around it. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release is absent any supplements of note, not that that's much of a surprise given the caliber of the movie. To the studio's credit, the disc features a fair technical presentation accompanying an otherwise terrible movie. Don't watch this movie; go plant a tree instead.