The special effects were quite the rage way back in the dark ages of the 1970's, but sadly, they have aged rather badly and look almost laughable when compared to the what we have these days.

The movie boasts a huge star cast, more people to rescue from the leaping flames! Steve McQueen and Paul Newman lead with support from Faye Dunaway and Richard Chamberlain among otheres. The film is way overlong and plays like a very dated TV movie which it actually wasn't. The fire scenes are not that spectacular and the acting is typical of 70's disaster fare: wooden.

Anyway, its nostalgic and a prime example of the cycle of Hollywood disaster films that began in the early 70's with stuff like Juggernaut and The Posiedon Adventure and later included such walloping duds like Swarm and Hurricane, and don't forget the Airport films which can always be guaranteed for humungous amounts of cheese and corn as well as the inevitable dose of George Kennedy, an honorory member of the Airport series.