Apocalypse Pompeii (2014)

The hero of the story, played by Adrian Paul, steals a helicopter to try and rescue his wife and daughter from an eruption of the famous volcano Vesuvius. They were visiting Pompeii and happen to be volcano experts, so they always know what's coming next: the heatwave, the toxic gas... But they have to hide in the cellar of a museum to wait for a team of mercenaries, who were coincidentally on stand-by when dad needed them. The helicopter crashes, and then they have to look for another way out...The movie was mainly shot in Bulgaria, with a few location shots from Naples added. Many scenes of the movie take place in cellars where people find shelter, and that is quite clever because it gives the audience some time to get to know the characters, and the makers of the movie didn't have to rely too much on special effects which could only be poor in a low budget flick, anyway. Still the movie left me slightly disappointed due to the very simple story. The location of Pompeii begs for historical references, and also one or two surprising turns would have been nice.

The only good thing about this movie is it's better than a infomercial for toilet cleaner . I had DVR'ed the movie and found that with the sound turned off it wasn't half bad , with sound it's less than half bad . I was checking on IMDb for where this was filmed but couldn't find it .It looks like California . If it was really Pompeii then travel must have been 80 % of the budget . Leaving 15% for food and 5% for screenplay and scripting . I do give the actors credit for trying though . And the choice of actors for the Mother and daughter was good . They were good for the eyes , both are attractive but all the actors were stiff and not convincing as being people trapped during an eruption .

Apocalypse Pompeii is a production of The Asylum—a film production company known for making so-called 'mockbusters'. These mockbusters are films that are released to coincide with the release of big studio epics in order to capitalize on the hubbub surrounding the big-budget movies. They feature titles that are VERY similar to the bigger films—and the movie poster for Apocalypse Pompeii looks an awful lot like that of the upcoming Pompeii! A few other examples of their films are Atlantic Rim, Death Racers, American Battleship, Snakes on a Train…and many others. They also are the same folks who have given us the Sharknado franchise. Because of this, it's obvious the film will have a low budget and very modest pretensions—and most likely will be a film you'll see coming direct to DVD. Despite all this, it is surprising to see that the film actually was shot, in part, in Pompeii as well as…Bulgaria?! Also, the plot is radically different from Pompeii—with the big budget film being set in ancient times and the mockbuster being set in the present. The film begins with a prologue showing some Hispanic family fleeing in terror from a volcano eruption. Oddly, however, this has almost nothing to do with the film—a film set on the other side of the globe in Italy! After the credits roll, you see a family in Naples. The father has a business meeting and he's brought his wife and teenage daughter with him. While he's at his big meeting, the rest of the family goes to an outing to nearby Pompeii—site of a huge mega-explosion that killed thousands in 79 A.D.. Not surprisingly, soon after the pair arrives at Pompeii, the mountain explodes—and folks run for cover. Fortunately for those who teamed up with the wife and daughter is the fact that the teen knows MORE about volcanoes and how to survive them than a team of volcanologist!! This all-knowing girl, again and again, knows EXACTLY what to do and helps this group survive long enough for the father to become a Rambo-like action hero! The dad (of course) is some sort of ex-military genius and he instantly assembles a team to help him steal a helicopter from a military base (!!) and head to Pompeii to look for his family. If it sounds like the plot is stupid and filled with significant plot problems, then you are pretty much right on the mark!So is the film 100% bad? No. As I mentioned above, it does have some actual footage of Pompeii. It also keeps your interest, as the pace and music work fairly well and SOME of the acting is competent. Unfortunately, the plot is stupid and the characters are shallow—often coming off as caricatures. I wouldn't rush out to buy a copy or rent the film. Instead, I'd wait until it most likely shows up on the SyFy Channel and watch it if you have absolutely nothing else to do (and that includes washing your hair, checking your air conditioner filters and breathing).

Oh My God I have seen some bad films in my 65 years of life, but this has to be the worst I have ever encountered. The acting was so wooden and the dialogue is brain damaging indeed. It is like been written by a ten year old kid and then directed by his ten year old friend. Why oh why spend money on making such crap I will never know. It feels like the two ten year olds woke up one morning and said let's make a disaster movie. No joke folks. The directors name is now embedded in my mind and I will for a while avoid anything directed by him. I feel like grabbing the writers, directors and producer by the neck and shaking them. Please please please do not bother with this crap. I actually forced myself to watch the first 25 minutes thinking that it cannot get any worse and it has to improve. Guess what? It got steadily worse until my brain screamed at me to stop watching.