Volcano - Movie Review

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Oh, there's nothing like a natural disaster to bring people together! That's the poorly masked theme ("They all look the same!") behind Volcano, the first really big disaster movie we've seen since, gosh, mid-February. It least this Volcanodoesn't blow -- figuratively speaking -- like Dante's Peak did, and that's mainly because it's so much more fun to watch Los Angeles be decimated by unceasing lava flow instead of a puny Pacific Northwest village.

Co-stars Anne Heche and Tommy Lee Jones prove more than able at evading not only the encroaching magma, but also the horde of bad actors that follow them throughout the movie. And while the film is full of creeping cheese, complete with death-defying leaps to safety, slow motion shots, and kitschy one-liners, I shock myself even by saying that, for the most part, it feels real. They even thought to include Dennis Woodruff's infamous car, the cheesiest of Hollywood landmarks, floating along in a river of fire. Where else would they think of that!? I really do love L.A...

Let it snow... or whatever.

Facts and Figures

Year: 1997

Run time: 104 mins

In Theaters: Friday 25th April 1997

Budget: $90M

Distributed by: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Production compaines: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 2.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 44%
Fresh: 17 Rotten: 22

IMDB: 5.4 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Mick Jackson

Producer: Neal H. Moritz, Andrew Z. Davis

Screenwriter: Jerome Armstrong, Billy Ray

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones as Mike Roark, Anne Heche as Dr. Amy Barnes, Gaby Hoffmann as Kelly Roark, Don Cheadle as Emmit Reese, Joshua Fardon as Medic, Jacqueline Kim as Dr. Jaye Calder, Keith David as Police Lieutenant Ed Fox, John Corbett as Norman Calder, Michael Rispoli as Gator Harris, John Carroll Lynch as Stan Olber, Marcello Thedford as Kevin, Bert Kramer as L.A. Fire Chief, Bo Eason as Bud McVie, James MacDonald as Terry Jasper, Dayton Callie as Roger Lapher, Phil Nee as O.E.M. Staffer #5

Also starring: Jerome Armstrong, Billy Ray