Release Date: April 25, 1997
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Gaby Hoffman, Don Cheadle, Jacqui Kim, Keith David
Directed by: Mike Jackson
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (intense depiction of urban disaster and related injuries)
Is it possible to mention Volcano without saying Dante's Peak in the same sentence? That's probably what was on the mind of most moviegoers, including myself, as we lined up to see this one. I must say that I enjoyed both of the movies very much, however, this movie caught my attention more with the head-on approach to the entire natural-disaster scenario.
Volcano gave folks what they paid to see: man against nature. Whereas Dante's Peak postponed the cork-popping until midway through the movie, we get right to the point in Volcano. After a series of mild rumblings and ominous accidents on a Metrorail construction site, the volcano finally blows, right out from under the La Brea Tar Pits. A deadly flow of lava follows soon thereafter, snaking its way down Wilshire Street to the west side of LA and millions of people.
Both Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche did average jobs in this film. Jones is an emergency managemant man who spearheads the attempt to save the West Side, all the while dealing with his whining 13-year-old daughter and bitchy ex-wife. Heche is a geologist who's interested in studying the volcanic action, and ends up falling in love with Jones. Both display a never-say-die attitude throughout the movie, something that I not only really liked, but wasn't present in Dante's Peak.
The movie had a nice pace to it. You never get caught up in anything substantial, and after the volcano blows there's always some lava to be seen. The special effects really wowed me, especially with the shooting lava rocks, the falling ash, and entire lava flow itself. About the only thing I can complain about were the half-finished subplots, such as Jones' daughter or a racial scuffle between a black citizen and a white cop. Other than that, the movie satisfied me and deserves all of its acclaims.
all contents © 1997 Craig Roush