Volcano (1997)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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.

Tommy and Anne face off against some hot magma ("What's Magma?") in the first of two 1997 volcano movies. This one features a lead character who should be fired and never hired for his job, a slew of disaster movie clichés (Dog never dies, anyone?) and Stan, the Man- Chucking Man in possibly the stupidest movie we've ever seen on this show.Let's start off by declaring how incredibly dumb this movie is. Every single bit of "science" is telegraphed to the audience because "Hey! They're stupid!" such as the definition of tectonic activity, gravity and magma. The volcano has a mind of its own and has Tommy Lee Jones sense meaning if Tommy is coming its sneaky and hides from him. The government officials of LA have no clue how things should work and it seems Tommy's Roark is the mayor as everyone calls him or reports to him daily even before the eruption. The Chief of Police even calls to obligatorily yell at someone, even if its completely unrelated to Emergency Management of which Roark is the director of. I can in no way define how stupid this movie is because in order to define something you must possess some semblance of intelligence. That would be a slap in the face of this movies lack thereof.Then there's the effects. Too many people over use the "effects that don't stand up to time" but this thing never had a chance to stand up at all. I specifically talk about "the building" (and why there is a character to just set up that a building exists is beyond me). At one point, the cast stands in front of a large photo of the building as if they are there. Usually when someone looks at something fake they are looking at a painting that's supposed to be real but this time it's a photo....that's out of focus. Seriously."Hey I went a took a picture of that building you wanted for a backdrop", says the studio photog. "I used my camera phone and also my finger is over the lens a little. Do you want me to do it again?""Nope" says the director as he pencils in more exposition about what a volcano is to the masses of morons who never passed the 3rd grade who are watching this.Then there is Stan. Oh Stan. The brilliance of Stan knows no bounds, just as much as his jumping ability. Stan the Man-Chucking-Man, is the star of the show and is enough to bring anyone to tears during his big heroic moment. No, not because of his heroism and tragic death, but because from start to finish the scene is HILARIOUS! Tears of laughter are to be expected as Stan the construction foreman throws a 200 pound man over his head the distance of any Olympian's shot put throw, all while melting in liquid hot magma. Zounds!In whole, this movie is tops. It's so bad and so stupid that it manages to make Roland Emmerich looks like Da Vinci. Highly riffable and best served with 2 or 3 friends out to spot the moments of stupidity. Make a drinking came out of when the movie is telling you that you are a dumb-ass and prepare to vomit all night long.Listen to the podcast at: http://www.stinkermadness.com/episodes/movie- reviews/entry/films/volcano

Disaster movies have been popular ever since Clark Gable survived the 1906 earthquake in "San Francisco." Decades later, producer Irwin Allen raised the disaster-movie stakes with all-star casts that battled capsized ocean liners and burning high-rises. Unfortunately, Irwin Allen had no hand in "Volcano," and the stars featured are limited to Tommy Lee Jones and Don Cheadle, unless viewers consider Anne Heche a star. Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray's nonsensical screenplay focuses on the destruction wrought in Los Angeles by the eruption of a newly formed volcano that rises from the La Brea Tar Pits.Director Mick Jackson keeps the action swirling to distract viewers from the implausible events taking place on screen. "Volcano" is one of those films in which characters have arguments or emotional interchanges while molten lava fast approaches, but apparently does not emit any heat, because the mindless chat continues. Of course, kids and dogs are spared, shattered glass falling from skyscrapers lands harmlessly on the lead actors, hair-breadth escapes abound, fire fighters have time to stand and cheer while buildings burn around them, and the initially antagonistic Jones and Heche form a mutual admiration society at fadeout. Jones and Cheadle must have appeared for the money, and both emerge relatively unscathed. Heche and Gaby Hoffman as Jones's daughter are best left unmentioned; the rest of the cast is best left in the embers.The essential key to a successful disaster movie is the quality of the special effects, and those in "Volcano" fail to get a passing grade. Fire, lava, explosions, falling glass may sound exciting, but, by the final credits, the film has become a reddish blur, and viewers have long lost interest in who survived and who did not; we never got to know any of them anyway. "Volcano" makes the earlier Los Angeles disaster flick, "Earthquake," seem like "Citizen Kane;" at least that 1974 entry had Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and George Kennedy leading the cast. "Volcano's" best moment is a fleeting glimpse of Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.

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.