The Towering Inferno (1 Viewer)

[Pete Battista]

I am watching this one for the very first time. I been hearing for years how good this one is... glad to be finally able to watch it. I am watching the Blu-ray release. This one has a lot of big names in it!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I don't think "Towering Inferno" is a great movie objectively, but I have IMMENSE sentimental attachment to it. It's the first movie I genuinely loved - saw it theatrically as a 7-year-old in 1974 and just adored it.

http://www.dvdmg.com/toweringinfernobr.shtml

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Oh, and this hangs on my living room wall!

 

[Matt Hough]

I have a sentimental attachment to it as well. It was the first movie that I ever reviewed professionally.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I saw it for the first time last year and loved it. I watched a lot of the major disaster movies and that one just hit all the right notes for me. That part where they were sending people to the next building in a chair...you couldn't pay me enough.

 

[cinemiracle]

I am watching this one for the very first time. I been hearing for years how good this one is... glad to be finally able to watch it. I am watching the Blu-ray release. This one has a lot of big names in it!

The recent Chinese re-make in 3-D was far superior. It was called OUT OF INFERNO. I did however enjoy THE TOWERING INFERNO when I saw it many times on a giant curved 75 ft screen in 70mm.

 

[TonyD]

I saw it at the movies when I was 10 years old along with Earthquake the same year and have been hooked on Disaster movies ever since.

Don't think I ever realized they both came out the same year.

 

[EricSchulz]

I think The Towering Inferno is the "best" out of the Big Three, although I still love The Poseidon Adventure for its cheesiness (and Shelly Winters and "The Morning After"). I think I'd like Earthquake better seeing it in a theater with Sensurround. Speaking of which, has anyone here seen Rollercoaster? I seem to think that was in Sensurround also.

 

[TonyD]

I saw Poseidon Adventure at the movies too. Might be the first or second movie my parents took me to see, I was 8.

Earthquake in Sensurround was amazing.
Saw Rollercoaster to in Sensurround. Not a good movie though.

 

[Robert Crawford]

My first viewing of The Towering Inferno was Christmas Day, 1974. After Christmas dinner, I along with some siblings and cousins piled into two cars to see this film and it was my first viewing of any film in a movie theater on Christmas Day. That night will always be a pleasant memory of mine from my youth . A very entertaining movie seeing the two rivals McQueen and Newman sharing the big screen.

 

[Pete Battista]

Well.. this one sure brought up a little bit of a discussion. I definitely enjoyed the film... but I was somehow expecting more from it. I think after hearing about it for years... and seeing all the big names that is in it... my expectations got a little too high. I found it to be a little slow in some parts and it really has a '70s feel to it. Not that it is a bad thing.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Well.. this one sure brought up a little bit of a discussion. I definitely enjoyed the film... but I was somehow expecting more from it. I think after hearing about it for years... and seeing all the big names that is in it... my expectations got a little too high. I found it to be a little slow in some parts and it really has a '70s feel to it. Not that it is a bad thing.

Your reaction isn't surprising as I've read similar responses from so many HTF members over the years about too many classic films to name. Hell, I read similar comments from people seeing current films for the first time like La La Land just to name one example.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I have a sentimental attachment to it as well. It was the first movie that I ever reviewed professionally.

Cool! I think my first DVD review was "Armageddon".

Alas, my original early 1999 review no longer exists. It was such a brief - and IMO crappy - review that I later went back and redid it.

Too bad - I wish I still had access to the original crummy review!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I saw it at the movies when I was 10 years old along with Earthquake the same year and have been hooked on Disaster movies ever since.

Don't think I ever realized they both came out the same year.

You probably realized it in 1974...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I think The Towering Inferno is the "best" out of the Big Three, although I still love The Poseidon Adventure for its cheesiness (and Shelly Winters and "The Morning After"). I think I'd like Earthquake better seeing it in a theater with Sensurround. Speaking of which, has anyone here seen Rollercoaster? I seem to think that was in Sensurround also.

It was.

I saw "Rollercoaster" as a kid and again as an adult. It's not especially good.

I remember I was disappointed when it originally came out because nothing "exciting" happened at the scenes shot at VA's Kings Dominion. KD was a new park at the time and I was jazzed to see big action at my semi-local park, but nothing blowed up there!

"Rollercoaster" is more a thriller than a true disaster movie, which is the other reason it didn't work for me as a kid...

 

[Tino]

Also seeing it in a theater on a huge screen I'm sure made it a more enjoyable experience.

Seeing it at home could never replicate that experience.

 

[TonyD]

You probably realized it in 1974...

Maybe but I wasn't paying attention to the way time worked when I was 10.

 

[Tino]

Well.. this one sure brought up a little bit of a discussion. I definitely enjoyed the film... but I was somehow expecting more from it. I think after hearing about it for years... and seeing all the big names that is in it... my expectations got a little too high. I found it to be a little slow in some parts and it really has a '70s feel to it. Not that it is a bad thing.

What kind of display did you watch this on?

 

[atfree]

Oh, and this hangs on my living room wall!

Now THAT is a movie poster!

 

[Jimbo64]

Loved all the disaster movies from the 70's, my parents would take us all to see them