Scorched (2009)

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I can't understand all the negative reviews that this movie received. I thought it was a well acted and fast paced film that explored several important themes such as, climate change, drought, natural disasters and political corruption. The Cassie Has Dreams segments were eerie and very atmospheric, in fact I thought the whole thing was one of the better offerings that we have had. It is nice to see that important issues are finally being addressed in films like this. It is a nice change of pace and proves that we can do an intelligent disaster movie, if there is such a thing. I have lived through both bush fires and flood and I have seen the devastation of both and I would like to see more films like this, especially since climate change is a very real problem that we are all facing.

I don't normally comment on movies but in this case I had to after reading a lot of negative comments about this one. First off I've seen people saying it's full of plot holes, if you think that you simply didn't understand what the movie was all about. It's about the emotional effects that these kind of fires have on the crews fighting them, it's not about how much you care about the people in the movie, it's about how much they care about each other and how they have to put their own feelings aside to get the job done.I am a firefighter and I must say there was 2 things about this movie that just would not happen. First the trucks running out of water that close to the fire, the safety system in place would not allow that to happen. Second thing was the burn over of the 4WD, no firefighter would ever try to out run a fire like they did, the result of trying to out run a wildfire is always death. No Australian firefighter would allow themselves to be in a wildfire situation and not have at least a 1/4 tank of water for safety. Modern fire trucks designed for wildfires (tankers) are equipped low water alert systems. They also have crew safety system that engulf the entire truck in water in case of a burn over, as well as fire blankets for every member on the truck and fire curtains in the cabin of the truck, this just wouldn't happen the way it did in the movie anymore and if it did someone made one hell of a mistake. The last few months have proved that the safety protocols that have been put in place over the last 10 years work.

I don't really think that this was intended as a political statement, it was never going to be more than a 'disaster movie' for TV. In that respect it succeeds. Ch 9 did a good job on the action scenes (mostly if not all Canberra Feb 2003 - certainly the burning embers blowing across the road and past the windscreen of the truck were Cbr) and the dramatisation and depiction of fire-ground action was true to life - and life's a bitch under those conditions. Can't comment about the Emergency Response Room scenes but looked pretty representative of an AIIMS set-up. It was a good drama, well written and well acted. Without spoiling the story the political aspects portrayed certainly echo a lot of 'nasties' which surface in most states - and ably portray the 'say one thing and mean another' pollie-speak which seems to be so common. As a rural firefighter I can't say I 'enjoyed' the movie - too close to my everyday realities - but I did think it was a worthwhile watch.

Scorched premiered on the 31st of August 2008 on channel nine. I saw the advertisement for it on the television and was immediately drawn to it because of the list of well known Australian actors forming the cast. (Cameron Daddo, Georgie Parker, Libby Tanner, Rachel Carpani and Vince Colosimo) The tele – feature is set in Australia's largest city, Sydney, in 2012. The city is in drought and hasn't had rain for 240 days. There are only two weeks of water left. It is Christmas time and the city is circled by massive, out of control bush fires. Scorched follows the stories of different families as they fight for their lives and their houses in a bush fire emergency dubbed 'Armageddon'. We watch as fire fighters desperately fight to control the fires, until suddenly, there is no more water left to fight with. In a twisted web, uncovered by a CPN (fictional news network) journalist, the city's water has been lost in a deal made by the premier of NSW. I believe this is one of the greatest films Australia has produced. It excellently portrays the struggles of the people trying to save their properties and lives. It shows the bravery, dedication and fighting spirit of our fire fighters in a superb manner. Having experienced Sydney's summer bushfires, I feel this is an outstanding portrayal of the real disaster of bush fires. The theme of the film is also centred around water management and lack of fresh water in Australia, and is a way of showing potential problems of the future. All in all the film was exceptional. The acting was brilliant, along with direction, writing and producing. This film is one of my favourites of all time, and is a real example of the excellent productions coming out of Australia today. There will be a DVD of the film released in November. The film is also a multi platform drama. There is an online drama that leads up to the film, and websites that relate to the events portrayed in Scorched. These links are available on the channel nine website.