Good, but the Underdog Wins!

Author: Fiendish_Dramaturgy from .: Fiendish Writings in the Dark :.
22 March 2007

I have to say this is a big blockbustery KABOOM popcorny effects extravaganza, with a solid story, and good performances. This (released in April of 1997) was 20th Century/Fox's answer to Universal's Dante's Peak (released in February of 1997), a superior movie in all ways except one...It doesn't have Tommy Lee Jones.

I have to say that Jones makes Volcano. Without him, this work would be nothing than an overblown, over-written piece of popcorn trash. As it is, this is a delightful "Mother Nature Gone Awry" flick, with totally kick butt effects. I found it riveting, but liked Dante's Peak more.It rates a 7.4/10 from...the Fiend

A pretty simplistic disaster movie with all the usual clichés but
just enough stuff happening to make it passable entertainment

Author: bob the moo (1)
29 October 2004

Despite a history of major geological events in the area, nobody really suspects anything when a handful of pipe engineers die from intense burns while underground. Investigating the accident, OEM chief Mike Roark almost gets killed himself when an underground fissure throws up intense heat and flame.

Expert Dr Amy Barnes believes that magma may be coming up to the surface of the earth and causing the events but, would you believe it, nobody buys it. Nobody that is, until the tar pits overflow and start to pour lava onto the streets, destroying everything in its path. With Roark convinced and Barnes wishing she had been wrong, the race is on to protect the city.

Better known as 'that other volcano movie of 1997', this film gets out the disaster movie handbook and follows it step by step. So we have a manly and practical hero, an expert, children and pets in peril, human conflict, sacrifice, special effects, 'bad' politicians etc etc. So far so formula, and so it all continues. The basic set up does the usual things by setting up the most basic of characters for us to use as a focus before then just letting the lava go and relying on special effects to do the rest.

The need to turn the drama into a specific story around Roark means that it occasionally forces him and his into unlikely dangerous positions that require them to be inches away from the action; this is not convincing and at times just feels like overkill, sucking any real tension out of the film.Without much real excitement the film just piles on the special effects and, unfortunately, these look dated with some poor back projection failing to  really cut the mustard.

Author: bob the moo (fin)
29 October 2004

The film soldiers on, unsure of how it can keep raising the stakes while remaining plausible (it doesn't!) and it will satisfy those just looking for a noisy disaster movie but no more than the clichés that those produce. The script has a few digs at LA (the news reporting, the pet obsession etc) but these don't amount to much but it works much better than the rather sickening attempts at racial commenting in the final few scenes ('everyone looks the same' – ugh!). The cast try hard to convince us that they are real people in real danger but even the talent involved cannot do much more than put on grim faces and soldier on.

Jones is a good lead because he has a solid presence, but even he cannot make it exciting when he is placed within inches of anything falling/burning/exploding. Heche simply fits into the 'I hate it when I'm right' expert without really bringing more than competence to the role, while Hoffmann simply tries to find trouble to get into anytime the film dips. Cheadle is good support but minor subplots featuring the likes of David, Corbett and Rispoli only serve to highlight that the film cannot even manage to do the disaster movie stable of having each character have a background to make us care.

Overall this is an average disaster movie at best and, as such, will only really play well to those that like that sort of thing. The script is weak and cannot wait until the lava flows but even then struggles to make it exciting, throwing specific near misses at us again and again to keep us interesting. The cast have nothing to work with and make little impression but viewers may find this has just enough going for it to make it watchable if totally forgettable.(ben non moi je ne l'ai pas oublié ce film...j'ai bien aîmé DAYLIGHT avec Stallone également Mais je n'ai pas encore vu LE PIC DE DANTE.Par contre j'ai detesté INDEPENDANCE DAY)

Mick Jackson's Antithesis to THREADS(1)

Author: Theo Robertson from Isle Of Bute, Scotland
2 September 2004

I find it's impossible to write a review of a Mick Jackson movie without pointing out that in 1984 he shocked the nation of Britain with his nuclear holocaust docu-drama THREADS . Anyone who saw that on its BBC broadcast will never forget the grim , bleak , depressing and powerful depiction of the end of humanity . Seeing as THREADS was set in the Yorkshire town of Sheffield and filmed on a budget of what appeared to be three dollars fifty cents you'd think he'd use some of his unquestionable talent and VOLCANO's $90 million budget to make a convincing scenario of a city devastated by events beyond its control But Jackson has been there , done that , bought the T-Shirt and written his name in broadcasting history with THREADS and the last thing he wants is to make another grim shocker where millions of city dwellers die . Picking the dumbest script imaginable Jackson has decided he's going to enjoy himself this time and filmed the complete opposite to his nuclear holocaust horror show.

Remember in THREADS a myriad of scientific advisers were used ? It goes without saying that no scientific bodies were consulted in the making of VOLCANO . Mind you this may actually work in the context of the story since the characters are so dumb , there is a logic to having a bunch of underground workers being burned to death and no one saying " Hey these men were killed by lava . If we don't evacuate the city millions of people are going to be burned alive by a volcanic eruption "

Remember in THREADS after the bomb drops its everyman for himself ? That was probably the most terrifying thing about the docu-drama , of having your throat cut for your meager supplies of food . But not here where the guardians of law and order are not only noble enforcers of justice throughout the movie but also make sure no one is discriminated on the grounds of race and culture . You've also got the feeling that if looters existed in this movie they wouldn't be shot but given a place on a counseling program

Author: Theo Robertson from Isle Of Bute, Scotland
2 September 2004 (fin)

There's also a similar aspect to the above . In THREADS people are left in the rubble to die since it's not practical to save them . Here the laws of physics have been changed so that if anyone is trapped under a burning truck a passer by can magically lift up the truck with one hand thereby rescuing the injured party .

There's even a scene of self sacrifice that has to be seen to be believed , not that the scene was in any way believable to start with The English speaking world are obsessed with their pets and Jackson used this to harrowing effect in THREADS . We saw family pets suffocating in firestorms.If you didn't feel sorry for the human beings killed you'd feel sorry for the poor animals . In VOLCANO we're treated to several scenes of pets in peril being rescued . I'm not sure how many people die on screen but I'm certain not one single type of mammal dies on screen apart from homo sapiens I don't believe for one moment that Mick Jackson's contrast between this and THREADS is coincidental - It's done entirely on purpose with the only connection being a scene of irony .

In THREADS this takes the form of characters standing in front of a billboard advertising life insurance while in VOLCANO a character reads a book on writing screenplays . You won't need life insurance when the bomb drops while VOLCANO shows being able to read a book on screenplays doesn't mean you're capable of writing one Unfortunately VOLCANO flopped at the box office and only made half its production costs in American cinemas which effectively ended Mick Jackson's successful Hollywood career which is shameful . I don't know about you but anyone who can direct two pieces of totally contrasting work is a literal genius in my opinion