Starring Howie Long, Scott Glenn, William Forsythe, and Suzy Amis. Directed by Dean Semler Rated R, with profanity, and violence. Running time 89 minutes We give this film a rating of 5 out of 10

(Jan. 9, 1998) -- For a fill-in-the-blanks action adventure, "Firestorm" has some pretty cool moments.

Most of them are purely visual -- no surprise, perhaps, because the first-time director is cinematographer Dean Semler, who won an Oscar for shooting "Dances with Wolves."

In "Firestorm," he and cinematographer Stephen F. Windon capture spectacular footage of forest fires, often blended with excellent special effects that seem real enough to suck the oxygen right out of the theater.

The story, on the other hand, is pure formula.

Football-star-turned-sportscaster Howie Long is the hero, Jesse, who leads an intrepid group of elite smokejumpers -- wilderness firefighters who parachute into spots ground crews can't reach.

Shortly after his crusty former boss Wynt (Scott Glenn) warns that things are looking mighty dry up in a particular spot in the forest, a fire breaks out exactly where he predicted.

It turns out to be arson, set to cover up a prison break by inmates on a work detail sent out to help the firefighters.

William Forsythe, always an outstanding bad guy, plays the head villain, a mass murderer called Shaye.

Suzy Amis plays an ex-Marine-turned-ornithologist who is taken hostage by the bad guys as they try to outrun first the fire, then Jesse.

Long seems comfortable as an action hero -- and why not, given the fact he looks exactly like G.I. Joe. And he seems to have a good time gritting his jaw and mouthing the dull wisecracks and strangled declarations that pass for dialogue in movies like this.

Given the lowly state to which action movies have sunk in recent years, "Firestorm" actually comes across as a tolerable time-waster.