Volcano (1997)

Volcano (1997)Factual errorsWhen Roark asks Amy to find Kelly, he gives her Kelly's picture but not her name. How would she know who she was looking for?In the humvee when Roark found out wherethe lava was going to erupt he said, "my god, thats where Kelly is." And as Amy is in the humvee with him she heard that name and would know his daughters name.

American cinema loves to destroy things, the bigger the better. In this case, the thing to be destroyed is Los Angeles, with a huge volcano rising right in the middle of the city. Its a very traditional disaster film, true to its genre, in which the improvised hero saves the day with total heroism, in a situation off total despair. The only two real characters here are the Volcano and the City because no character is truly developed, not even the hero. They are faces, people who do things. Sometimes they're there just to scream hysterically, be scared, to die, to show cowardice or to create situations in which the hero will shine. Because of this, the work of the actors is just OK, including Tommy Lee Jones. It would be impossible for any actor to shine with such empty characters. The strongest part of the film are the action scenes, stuffed with special effects. Some are so far-fetched that we're forced to think that guy should be on the luckiest day of his life to survive in that unbelievable way. But anyone who is expecting a CGI show will be disappointed: they're not always good and seem a bit dated in the eyes of the current audience. But it's a 1997 movie... everything has its time and, of course, with today's technological breakthroughs, our eyes will not see this movie the same way we watched it twenty years ago. Even so, there are some scenes and sequences where the film is powerful and emanates a pleasant tension that makes us uncomfortable. Not everything is bad, predictable or cliché.

A volcano erupts in LA.When Time Ran Out (1980), Dante's Peak (1997), Volcano (1997)...three disaster movies about a volcano and all are good. Obviously, When Time Ran Out came out in a different time with a different style of special effects, but I sort of bunch the three films together as they are all good fun with good people in them. Also, all three have a pleasing musical score playing over them which is vital in a disaster flick.Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding in Volcano, I have seen several of TLJ's movies but I always seem to remember him in this one more than the others.

The 1990s were full of movies that left their mark in one form or another on the film industry.1997 was a good year for movies, however Volcano isn't one of those films I would consider one of those films.Volcano is often consider either the poor man's Dante's Peek or whatever the case may be because Volcano was release a few months after Dante's PeekThe film also stars Tommy Lee Jones,Anne Heche,Gaby Hoffmann Don Cheadle,Jacqueline Kim,Keith David,John Corbett,Michael Rispoli John Carroll LynchWhen I watch Volcano recently because I haven't seen it for many years since I saw it on VHS from the video store but nevertheless it's one of those films that hasn't aged very well. Now I love movies from the 1990s but this film just doesn't hold that strong of a candle as others from the decade.What hurts the film is the writing just feels out of wax, while the plot is interesting enough it just the writing inside the film itself just don't hold up very well and most of the characters are just there to make you lose your mind. The acting in the film just has that B movie feel. The only really notable performances were Tommy's, Anne's and Don's. Their performances made up for the film's lack of talent. The music score works for the film and some of it is pretty good but the rest not so much. It's hard to give a good opinion on the effects of the film because Volcano has wins and loses on the department.The production setting gives you the feeling that they at least try to make it look real.Overall Volcano is a mix movie while it did offer some things to make it watchable and I'm not saying it's a really bad movie but it is not one of those movies you should just go out and get. It's just one of those films that you either love or hate or in between. It is just Volcano hasn't aged very wellI give Volcano an 5 out of 10