Volcano
by Mick Jackson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anne Heche, Don Cheadle, Gaby Hoffmann, Jacqueline Kim, Tommy Lee JonesDirector: Mick Jackson
Brand: JONES,TOMMY LEE
Producer: Andrew Z. Davis
Producer: Lauren Shuler Donner
Producer: Martha R. Cotton
Producer: Michael Fottrell
Producer: Neal H. Moritz
Writer: Billy Ray
Writer: Jerome Armstrong
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-03-09
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Volcano
Movie Review: Lava lurks in La La Land
Summary: 4 Stars
Pity us poor Los Angelinos! Already suffering thru hellish traffic, mudslides, forest fires, earthquakes, looting, veggie burgers, actors, the L.A. Clippers. And, now, friggin' lava spewing out of the La Brea Tar Pits!! Thank the Googly Moogly that there's a geologist scientist on the alert (Anne Heche) and that the ever resourceful Tommy Lee Jones is around to ramrod L.A.'s Office of Emergency Management. Even if he's stuck babysitting his sullen teenaged daughter.
VOLCANO is a cheesy but fun disaster movie, elevated by its lighthearted, self-deprecating touches and its actors' performances. It's a flimsy premise - subterranean tremors cause lava to erupt to the surface and threatens to lay waste to that mecca of glitz and self-absorption - and it's far-fetched enough that it's hard to take things too seriously, even if several characters do die horribly (and, in some cases, heroically). As per usual to disaster flicks, the cast's various personal human drama plays out in the catastrophic backdrop.
Anne Heche and Don Cheadle are fine, but it's Tommy Lee Jones who centers the film, what with him again lending that aura of weathered, no-nonsense practicality. There's no one quite so reliable as Jones in embodying calm and resilience in the maelstrom. When Anne Heche grimly declares: "We are dealing with very determined stuff here." she was referring to the lava. But that statement applies to Jones's character as well. And, here, he's even a good dad.
The CG and props and miniature models give the film a good look, although, not having seen much lava in person, I can't attest to how convincing it appears on screen (but I bought into it). There's an undercurrent of tongue-in-cheek in the devastation brought down on L.A.'s landmarks (oh, the poor Wilshire Blvd. district). And, bless the hardworking firefighters, but, in retrospect, it's pretty ridiculous watching their efforts to cool down the lava with water hoses.
I said this film was cheesy, so try not to roll your eyes at the preachy moments, which may have been well-intentioned but end up sorta insulting and heavy-handed ("Look at the faces. They all look the same."). Enjoy this for what it is, which is an entertaining, lightweight disaster flick with all its predictable tropes, but with the added hook of portions of Los Angeles getting squashed. Relish Tommy Lee Jones's reliable performance and his chemistry with Don Cheadle, and even Anne Heche's moxie. As the film ends, with the camera panning to a startling shot of the spanking new Mount Wilshire (status: ACTIVE), the end credits proceed to roll out to, what else, Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." That's pretty perfect.
Summary of Volcano
Something unspeakably chilling is heating up The City of Angels. Beneath the famed La Brea Tar Pits, a raging volcano pushes to the surface, raining a storm of deadly fire bombs and an endless tide of white-hot lava upon the stunned city. Experience the pulse-pounding thrills as the dream capital of the world erupts into the stuff nightmares are made of.Get mindless for awhile with this 1997 disaster flick, starring the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles as a funky place for lava to spew, plus Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche as the brave souls who know how to shut off the spout. Director Mick Jackson (The Bodyguard) wastes no time getting to the good stuff--it's happening even before opening credits are over--and neither should anyone in the mood for technical efficiency without the burden of art. --Tom Keogh
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