Search - Volcano on DVD

A good action/thriller flick.

Charles Kota | Plant City, Fl. USA | 02/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is good. It has good special effects. I think it is better than dante's peak. This movie also isn't very long like some disaster movies are. I like disaster movies and this one is one that wins place in my heart. Buy it!"

Interesting Concept

Lonnie E. Holder | Columbus, Indiana, United States | 02/07/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There are a lot of reasons why this fundamental concept of this movie is implausible, and a number of dumb things happen in the movie, and yet the concept itself is interesting and was handled reasonably well.

Similar to the "other" volcano movie, "Dante's Peak," there are several indications that something geologic is happening. Death by hot gas blast is usually a pretty solid indication of that sort of thing (which happens before the volcano does its thing). After a number of interesting things happen a volcano bursts to the ground. The scenes of the volcano going "boom" are among the best scenes in the movie.

The real story takes off after the volcano finally erupts. We see absurd silliness as people continue to drive by the erupting volcano. I am unsure of why people would rather take the short cut and risk death by lava versus going the long way around, but maybe it is just me. We also see emergency services leader Mike Roark's (Tommy Lee Jones) daughter Kelly (Gaby Hoffmann) hang around her dad's SUV so long that he has to stop rescuing a fireman to rescue her, which subsequently allows the fireman to die. There is a lesson in this tragedy: when you see an erupting volcano, run.

Mike Roark attempts to work with the fire department to stop the lava flow, eventually succeeding. However, lava is an irresistible force and if it is not flowing above ground, then it finds somewhere else to flow. Soon Mike and seismologist Dr. Amy Barnes (Ann Heche) next try to predict the behavior of the rapidly flowing lava, setting up the climax of the movie, which involves imminent destruction of a hospital, and possibly Mike's daughter Kelly.

The action in this movie is generally good. I thought the lava effects were generally well done. A few things about the behavior of the lava that were a little weak, but I am able to forgive a few things for the sake of a good story. There were a few places where it was clear that the lava was animated in some fashion, but there were other places that were either live shots of a real volcano, or very well done shots of fake lava. I thought both times the lava emerged from the ground were well done. I also thought the lava flowing into the sea was good.

The action in this movie was not as well supported by the story and by the characters. Many of the people in this movie acted dumb. It was the action of the characters that got them into trouble. In more than one situation I found it difficult to believe that real life characters would do some of the things that people in this movie did. I could continue this discussion for a long time because of my frustration with people's actions. On top of the multiple dumb actions was weak acting. Anne Heche generally did well. Tommy Lee Jones had his good moments and his poor moments. Other characters varied from good (Jacqueline Kim as Dr. Jaye Calder) to corny (John Corbett as Norman Calder). This movie also took short cuts with a number of characters by relying on stereotypes.

I admit that even with all its weaknesses I have seen this movie all the way through at least three times. The reason is that there are cities in the United States that do run the risk of a volcano popping up nearby. I do not believe the La Brea Tar Pits are one of the riskier locations, but other cities bear some risk. I am fascinated by the response of emergency services as shown in the movie and wonder whether a real city would be able to respond as quickly initially and whether a real city would do any better than the movie version of Los Angeles supposedly did. The United States has been very lucky to experience fewer significant disasters than many other countries, and the loss of life in the disasters we have had have resulted fewer deaths than in most other countries. Watch this movie for yourself and consider how well your town would plan for such a huge disaster. What you think about how your town would respond will allow you to overcome the weaknesses of the characters and the acting.
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