Dante's Peak [HD DVD]
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Movie Reviews of Dante's Peak [HD DVD]
Movie Review: good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
the movie arrived in a very timely matter and i was very pleased with itMovie Review: Enjoy the fireworks
Summary: 4 Stars
The 'old-fashioned' disaster movie scenario enjoyed a brief resurgence in the latter half of the 90s. After the success of Twister and ID4, films like Hard Rain, Titanic, Armageddon and Deep Impact followed in its wake. Like the two competing asteroid movies, Dante's Peak was in competition with the imaginatively named Volcano as THE Lava flow of 1997. Which one is better? Well, comparing the two is like comparing an atomic blast to a popping pimple.
Pierce Brosnan is Harry Dalton, a Vulcanologist (or James Bond in disguise if you want) who predicts a major eruption in the quaint Pacific-Northwestern town of Dante's Peak. No one wants to listen to him since the town has just been named the 2nd most desirable place to live in America and is in the early stages of a thriving economy. It's the politics from Jaws all over again. Despite being shouted down by his superiors, Harry sticks around to keep his eye on the imposing mountain and woo Mayor Wando (Linda Hamilton), who is the only one who believes the 4000-year dormant volcano might blow its top.
If you've seen one disaster movie, you've seen 'em all in terms of character importance. Yes, it's bloody obvious who is going to die, some of these people might as well have a death clock counting down stuck on their foreheads. And the panicking idiot mobs don't deserve anything less firey. When will nameless extras learn that following the crowd isn't the best way? I guess this is the weakest part of Dante's Peak, it never really distances itself from that single, eternal cliché of disaster films.
But the film is really nothing but a showcase for special effects and it does them surprisingly well. Made before the extreme popularity of CGI, Dante's Peak has a lot of real-life destruction, in-camera effects and stunt-work. Yes, there is a fair bit of CGI and for a 10-year-old film they still hold up really well. All Volano (Zzzz...) had to offer was a very, very slight lava flow and an unintentionally hilarious scene with a melting man but with Dante's Peak we get earthquakes, boiled skinny dippers, lakes of acid, ash blizzards that create a unique atmosphere, thunder and lightning, red hot boulders raining down from the sky, mudslides, lava (of course), a massive pyroclastic cloud and lots of deep, deep bass sound effects.
It's not a life-changing film by any means, but as disaster movies go it's one of the best, has an occasionally spooky score and entertains really well despite Brosnan taking it all so seriously. I would have given it a higher rating if they killed the dog (more original) and deleted the annoying Grant Heslov's utterly pointless character.
The HD-DVD presents the film is gorgeous 1080p 2.35:1 with a brilliant Dolby Digital+ sound design. The best of the extras from the SD-DVD are ported over, but why the horrible new cover.
A definite must-have for HD-DVD fans.
Movie Review: Day becomes night
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a little wary of watching two Pierce Brosnan films in less than 24 hours (previous to this it was The Matador), but as I couldn't decide on anything else (or everything else was too long). So this was popped into the DVD player, and settled back expecting another standard nature going nuts movie. (There's too many of those.)
About halfway through, I suddenly remembered, that Edinburgh Castle (near to where I live) was built on a seemingly dormant (extinct?) volcano. Also, the volcano in Pompeii was supposed to be dormant, as was the volcano in this. Scary stuff. I don't think I'll be visiting Edinburgh Castle anytime soon.
Dante's Peak starts with a bang, and keeps up the standard right through the movie. There's little time to catch your breath, as shocker after shocker hits you smack bang in the face. It's very much a rollercoaster ride. The special effects are excellent, and the characters have good stories - even if the 'relationship' between Rachel (Linda Hamilton) & Harry (Pierce) does seem a little bit contrived and happens a bit too fast.
Some of the special effect shots are excellent, but the one that sticks out in my mind was the ones showing the reflection of the volcano errupting in a car window, with Rachel looking back. Wow. It was a subtle but brilliant shot.
There's not a lot to say about Dante's Peak, without ruining exactly what happens during the movie. It is up there in my opinion, with the great action disaster movies of the nineties, and is absolutely perfect in high definition. Can't fault it not even slightly. Pierce, although not one of my favourite actors, does the action hero role reasonably well, and Linda, with a very bad haircut, doesn't just do the usual damsel in distress role. You go girl! Pick this movie up!
Movie Review: Formula disaster movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a good disaster movie with all the elements of a disaster movie. There are all the stereotype disaster characters form the "I'll ride it out" to the "You are scaring my customers".
Naturedly the person that knows what will happen (Pierce Brosnan) has no credibility with the authorities. Then the disaster happens and he must save the beautiful (Linda Hamilton) and family. At first indifferent soon to become enamored.
I do not want to go too much into detail as you will lose the shock value. I can tell you it involves a volcano and a budding love story.
Volcano
Movie Review: A great advance in the sound of hd-dvd format
Summary: 4 Stars
I've always thought that we would have "the best of both worlds" joining the picture quality of hd-dvd with the sound from blu-ray format. That's the reason I support and buy the two formats. Anyway, in this occasion I think the sound of the stuff is really great. You can feel every stone falling over your head and your roof. The story itself makes me not to rate 5 stars.