Hollywood was an odd place in late 1990s. I was a cinemagoer back then and we went through a time where every year there were two rival movies on the same subject coming out at the same time. One year we had ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT; in 1997 we had this and DANTE'S PEAK. While I much preferred the Pierce Brosnan movie (and have gone so far as to purchase it on Blu-ray for continued enjoyment), I think VOLCANO is a fun production. It has a good plot that harks back to the old Hollywood disaster hits like EARTHQUAKE and a very fast-paced story that gets straight to the crux of the matter without much hanging around. The worst thing about it is the terrible direction, which is cheesy beyond belief. It starts off restrained and ends with slow-motion running, bad CGI backdrops, and some hugely embarrassing zooming-in on people's faces that has to be seen to believed. You'd think you were watching a spoof.
Tommy Lee Jones acquits himself well as the hero of the hour, enjoying the peak of his popularity in the years following on from THE FUGITIVE. He's well supported by solid character actors including Keith David and John Carroll Lynch who can be relied upon to do their very best. The one missstep is the casting of the terrible Anne Heche as the female lead; she's totally unconvincing as the geologist and another embarrassment at times. The special effects haven't held up as well as those in DANTE'S PEAK, but the lava lake still looks good today and there are some fairly exciting set-pieces along the way. As cheesy as this is, I'd still take it over any of the modern-day B-movie disaster films made by the SyFy Channel and The Asylum.
Tommy Lee Jones acquits himself well as the hero of the hour, enjoying the peak of his popularity in the years following on from THE FUGITIVE. He's well supported by solid character actors including Keith David and John Carroll Lynch who can be relied upon to do their very best. The one missstep is the casting of the terrible Anne Heche as the female lead; she's totally unconvincing as the geologist and another embarrassment at times. The special effects haven't held up as well as those in DANTE'S PEAK, but the lava lake still looks good today and there are some fairly exciting set-pieces along the way. As cheesy as this is, I'd still take it over any of the modern-day B-movie disaster films made by the SyFy Channel and The Asylum.