Backdraft 2 Blu Ray Review (Universal)

Backdraft 2 is 2019 direct to video drama film directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego (The Hollow Point, Open Grave, Apollo 18, & Nómadas).It’s follow up to 1991’s Backdraft. It was written by Gregory Widen (Backdraft, Highlander, & The Prophecy). It was produced by Giles Daoust (The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot, Starry Eyes, The Ranger, & Fear, Inc.) & Raffaella De Laurentiis (Backdraft, Dune, Conan franchise, Kull the Conqueror, & Dragonheart franchise). Fire investigator Sean McCaffrey (played by: Joe Anderson from The Crazies, Horns, Hannibal TV Series, & The Ballad of Lefty Brown), son of the late Steven “Bull” McCaffrey, is now working at the same Chicago firehouse along with his uncle Brian (played by: William Baldwin from Backdraft, The Purge TV Series, Internal Affairs, & Flatliners). When Sean is assigned to investigate a deadly fire, he & his new partner Maggie (played by: Alisha Bailey from Lake Placid: Legacy & I Give it a Year) soon realize that they are dealing with something much more than a routine fire. The clues they discover lead them down a treacherous path of arson, murder, & international terrorism. Sean must use his intuition, along with the help of infamous jailed arsonist Ronald Bartel (Donald Sutherland from Backdraft, M.A.S.H, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, & Ordinary People), in a race to find out who is behind the fire and stop them from accomplishing their devious plans.

Backdraft 2 came out of no where! Universal released the surprise trailer just right before it’s release. It’s pretty wild to make a sequel 28 years later for no real reason. The best thing about this follow up was the fact that it brought back two of the re-memorable characters from the original. William Baldwin & Donald Sutherland both reprise some of their best roles in this. Honestly, it’s their best performances in a long time especially Sutherland. Ronald Bartel is a creepy villain & his presence is unforgettable. Both of them have smaller roles in Backdraft 2. I wish they could have brought in more of the original cast for this but Joe Anderson is highly under-rated & it’s great to see him get a lead role here. I can definitely see him as the legit son of “Bull” McCaffrey. Those 3 really elevated everything with their performances. The rest of the cast was solid but nothing special, this film had a lower budget & it shows at times. It seemed like they took a firefighter related project & turned it into a sequel to the 1991 classic rather coming up with it from scratch for this feature. It had some decent action & the fires looked great so it was better than expected but it doesn’t come close to the first production. This is on Netflix right now if you want to check it out before adding it to your collection. RECOMMENDED!!!!

Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Universal! This 1080p (2.00:1) transfer looks better than expected for being a direct to video low budget follow up. The cinematography will make any pyromaniac happy with all the beautiful shots of fire & chaos from the feature. It 2 different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio & 5.1 French: DTS 5.1 on the release. The dialogue is very clean, all the action plus fire has a nice boost to it, & the music sounds awesome here. It has English SDH & French subtitles. Both picture & sound are very impressive. This blu ray disc has no extras on it. It also has a slipcover, a digital code, & a DVD copy of the release. It’s available on DVD plus with the original Backdraft as a double feature. Like I said before, it’s on Netflix right now if you are curious. CHECK IT OUT!!!!