“Backdraft II” (*** out of four) was a gripping sequel to the 1991 hit about an arson investigator (Joe Anderson) from the Chicago Fire Department who begins investigating a series of increasingly destructive fires but soon begins to uncover that the works are from an international arms dealer who is using fires as a distraction and may be targeting members of his department. Gets bogged down in a few unrelated and murky story tangents but is kept on track by Anderson’s intense (and believable) performance and the conveying danger of fires and the bravery and camaraderie of those who fight them. William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland reprise their roles from the original.