Micitype Pretty Good

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

nuoipter termer Volcano is a wonderful movie. An Earthquake opens a crack in the Earth's crust under the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and magma comes up through the crack creating a volcano. The lava erupts at one of the tar pits and flows down the street. It destroys things as it flows and is able to be stopped by dumping water on it. The special effects are very good and the action is very good. Another eruption happens and a building is taken down to divert the lava to the ocean which is successful. There's a scene that doesn't seem to make sense. When scientists are in a sewer, a crack opens up and gas comes out of it, and later, gas is sucked back into it. Why was the gas sucked back in? But the movie is great.

buckikris A Beautiful day in L.A., it's business as usual; we are introduced to Mike and Kelly Roark. Mike ( Tommy Lee Jones)is head of the O.E.M.- Office of Emergency Management. Kelly( Gaby Hoffman) is his 13 yr.old daughter; and Mike is very overprotective of her. When a 4.9 earthquake happens just outside of Palmdale, Mike calls a babysitter( his neighbor) to watch her. He has to go into work and doesn't want to leave her alone. He feels she is too young, doesn't know what to do, and has a tendency to panic in an emergency. Meanwhile the quake has messed up the underground rail system in L.A.. Stan( John Carroll Lynch) is head of the M.T.A.. While working they are standing around taking bets on the epicenter, whoever wins gets the cash pile. Mike also works with Emmitt Reese(Don Chelde), who is an eager beaver who wants Mike's job badly; and Gator( Michael Rispoli) who thinks Reese wants his job. When an explosion happens while 7 DWP(Dept. Water and Power) workers are down underground, all but one is killed. Theories start to arise that maybe a new fault system has developed. Mike goes to the scene of the explosion and the first thing that comes to his mind is a massive steam explosion. When the only surviving victim arrives at the hospital, it's ruled out steam didn't burn the victim. It was something containing sulfur and other gases that have. When Gator and Mike decide to investigate below the storm drain, they are baffled. Roark decides it's time to talk to other O.E.M. members and city officials to get a scientist involved. As Mike and Gator leave activity begins to arise in La Brea Tar Pits.The next day at the O.E.M. office Stan brings in Dr. Amy Barnes( AnneHeche) from the California Geological Institute(C.G.I.). She and Mike go to MacArthur Park to the tar pits. Dr. Barnes and her colleague, Rachel(Laurie Lathem) have been taking temperature readings of the lake. They both discover temperature has increased 6 degrees in 12 hours. She explains to Mike the only thing that can contribute that is a major geological event. She begins to explain to him it could be a fissure that has opened, creating lava. Mike brushes it off, a Volcano in L.A. no way. Barnes and Rachel decide they have to investigate more below, like early in the morning when their is little security. The next morning they start their investigation; meanwhile tremors keep happening. Barnes and Rachel find samples of sulfur, Magnesium, as well as other gases. Rachel goes further down, and finds a opening so she begins to take samples. It's about 6 a.m., and a stronger earthquake comes again. When this happens Rachel and Barnes are still down in the tunnel; and the ground opens up. The ground opens wider swallowing Rachel, Barnes tries to save her; but it's too late. Once Rachel is taken a lava flow is seen. Mike is called in, and takes his daughter with him. At this point L.A. is completely dark, and in a sea of ash. Mike is trying to comfort his daughter while all this is going on. The city is on fire, and Roark is administering first aid to the victims caught in it's wrath. While Roark is bandaging people up, he is on the phone to police Lt. Fox(Kieth David). Mike turns around and notices that his daughter is out of the car in trouble. He runs to his daughter rescuing her, he then notices that Amy Barnes has shown up. All of a sudden it is the calm before the storm; it gets really quiet. Then lava bombs and lava spew out of the tar pits taking with it everything. Barnes and Roark help get this man out of the way by using a F.D. ladder truck. It is complete chaos, Mike Roark, Amy Barnes, and O.E.M. decide to send all casualties to Cedars Sinai Hospital. It is the only hospital not in the path of this flow. Roark talks to all emergency officials, and decides to come up with a plan to stop it. The plan is with K-Rails( Concrete Highway) dividers. They will place them in a horseshoe patter to stop the flow, with the help of tons of pool water to cool the lava. The plan works, but Dr. Barnes discovers that the flow is going to turn. The worst is yet to come and Roark thinks it's over.Barnes discovers a new threat while investigating below the subway system. She call Roark, tell him about it. A bigger Explosion is about to blow on Wilshire and West. Barnes and Roark discover a massive lava flow underneath that is headed toward Ceaders Sinai. To stop this disaster Barnes, Roark and O.E.M. devise a new plan. They call in a demolition team to construct a dam, by blowing a building. When they blow the building a trench is formed just in time; leading the lava out to the Pacific. This film is non-stop action from beginning to end. The cast is excellent, especially Anne Heche and Tommy Lee Jones. The special effects are superb and no one needed to call George Lucas in on it. I would recommend this thriller to anyone, it's a non-stop thrill ride from 1997.

dglink 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.

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.