TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Executscan Expected more

Filipe Neto 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.

Christopher Shobris Hollywood really knows who to exploit every nook and cranny of something don't they? After the success of Twister, Hollywood saw the profitability of this idea of natural disasters and exploited everything about until it was gone. While Volcano is a disaster film, it seems to keep itself from being a total disaster. The one upside to this is Tommy Lee Jones, the man can make any badly written character and make him durable. But where there is a good, there is a bad as well. What the heck was up with his daughter? Talk about an annoyingly badly written character. She was as pointless and good-for-nothing as you can get. She was whiny, needy, selfish, bratty, she held a teddy bear even though she's apparently 13 years old. Kid! Grow up! Or get a better writer! Because she alone made this barely unwatchable especially when she's in the film. I'm sure Gaby Hoffmann is a good actress but after seeing this there is no way she would be in any else. Next, the special effects are just what you would expect from a disaster film, not total garbage, but eh. Mick Jackson the director wasn't the right choice for this, if they got Jan de Bont maybe we'd have something. But then again, the premise is hard to pull off. It's easier to believe tornadoes tearing through houses and fields. In the end, this film is not worth your time and money. The big positive is Tommy Lee Jones, while the big negative is Gaby Hoffmann's character, and the CGI. Now to grade. Story: C- Characters: D Special Effects: C+ Music: B- Acting: C Directing: C Overall: C-

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com Disaster movies go way back in cinema. Just like how gore hound fans love to see their deadly horror films, there's also a large crowd of viewers who live to watch disaster features. For unexplained reasons, studios and screenwriters alike have a fond interest of showing to their audiences how mother nature could flip the birdie at us. Unfortunately like a lot of other movies, there isn't much of anything clever about these types of films. The problem is because the movie focuses more on the natural disaster itself more than the characters; especially during the late 1990s when special effects started being abused instead of being utilized. This film has that but does have a few points that make it worth the time to see (once).When worker Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) of the Office of Emergency Management is notified of a couple burn victims in man-made underground pipes, he decides to find out what caused such a freak accident. Believing it could have been a pipe burst, Roark discovers something much more dangerous than he thought. Consulting to Dr. Amy Barnes (Anne Heche), they hypothesize that the cause is actually an active volcano. As a story, this is about as far as it gets when it comes to anything that moves its characters. Initially the story starts out with what seems to be a political/social take on (possibly) what has happening in California at the time,...but it never really gets addressed. As for characters, the only actors who save themselves (performance wise) are Tommy Lee Jones, Don Cheadle and Keith David. Everyone else quite honestly wasn't necessary with all the numerous story threads. Their roles are there for cliché development and that's it.There's a subplot about a nurse played by Jacqueline Kim that doesn't go much of anywhere and Roark's daughter played by Gaby Hoffmann wasn't that important either. Even as significant as Anne Heche's role was, she still has a cliché character. Also what's with her and liking much older men? She has a crush on Jones in this movie and falls for Harrison Ford in Six Days Seven Nights (1998). It's interesting to see who wrote the script for this movie. Credit is given to Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray. Armstrong only has this movie to his credit. However, Ray has apparently improved because he now has critically acclaimed films like The Hunger Games (2012) and Captain Phillips (2013) on his resume. But for this work, it can be seen that he hadn't perfected his skill just yet. The only pluses that can be given in the writing are the several tense scenes which involve the flowing lava peril or when the people of the city are working together. Both scenarios are polar opposites in tone but they also work effectively in bringing out the right emotion while watching the film run its course. It's funny how that works.Mick Jackson directs the film and although it gets the job done in areas mentioned prior, the direction is just standard. This was also his last feature film to direct for the big screen. Since then, he has moved on to directing TV show episodes and TV movies. The cinematography provided by Theo van de Sande looks decent. Considering Sande had more than 20 years of experience before this, rightfully so his work should look good. Sande does not have wide scoping shots but they at least conceal the illusion that this movie was not filmed in a large city. The special effects to the lava also looked decent although a couple times some shots were recycled. Finally the musical score composed by Alan Silvestri work well. Again, when it came to the emotional scenes it did work in its favor. Considering that this is not a franchise, listeners should be able to understand why there was no memorable main theme. That's acceptable for this kind of movie. It's a very basic thriller when it comes to characters and their development. Plus the fact that it's a disaster movie doesn't exactly have anything to highlight other than the disaster. Thankfully, some of its main leads, peril scenes and effective music manages to make it entertaining enough to use some of the viewers time.

Ruairidh MacVeigh As someone who's watched both the simultaneous Volcano disaster movies of 1997, I can say without a doubt that this movie fails to hold a candle to Dante's Peak, simply because whilst the situation in that movie was realistic, though predictable, and the action you could be gripped by with some enjoyable characters to back it up, this film has pretty much the opposite, but still laboured with the predictability aspect.So what's the red lettuce? Tommy Lee Jones plays Mike Roark the head of the Los Angeles Office of Emergency Management, and after an earthquake rocks the city, he's sent to investigate an apparent gas explosion at the MacArthur Park which has killed several workers. This is followed by strange activity at the La Brea Tar Pits, where some of the sculptures in the pits start to melt. Early the next morning, another violent earthquake rocks the city again and very soon a large lava spewing volcano emerges from the Tar Pits, spreading out into the city. With the assistance of a geologist played by Anne Heche, Roark must try to bring down the destructive force of nature before it wipes out the entire city on its way to the Pacific!Now, aside from the many glaring plot points and the fact that as a Geography student I could write a paper on how inaccurate this movie is, what specifically is wrong with this movie? (Although I will say, if you drop 1,000 gallons of water on top of a Volcano like they do towards the end, that won't stop it erupting!)Well, whilst it maintains the predictable 'the volcano's gonna erupt at some point' streak that Dante's Peak did, it's just generally a bore. The build up to the eruption isn't half as subtle or suspenseful as that in Dante's Peak, and even when the eruption happens it's not particularly exciting. The fact that the lava is moving slowly down the street really takes you out of the excitement, sort of like "Oh my goodness, it'll hit us eventually! Better stick the kettle on then..." Dante's Peak had the advantage of faster moving lava, an acid lake, a wall of debris laden water and a Pyroclastic Flow to keep both us and our heroes on the move.Next are the characters, who are all unbelievably stupid. Whilst Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche I'll excuse for the fact that they actually get stuff done to try and stop this thing, the other character's roles extend to just standing there with their mouths wide open in shock as this big red mass of heat approaches them. The daughter is especially stupid, spending the first half of the movie being a rebellious, angst teen, and the second half just standing gawking at the obvious danger rather than running away or ducking for cover like any other human being would. This is just one of many scenes that you find yourself scratching your head in confusion at, because you really can't let them slide, they're just too stupid for words.So, to sum up, this movie is exactly the same as Dante's Peak, only much less enjoyable. The most jarring problem is the characters, who are all very stupid and act less like human beings and more like lost sheep! The story's recycled, the CGI is recycled, the pace is slower and less exciting, there's enough plot holes to sink the Isle of Wight, it's just a big boring mess!Word of advice, avoid, like these characters should have been doing with the lava!