★ 6 / 10
There are certain similarities with “Jaws” (1975) here
CinemaSerf
There are certain similarities with “Jaws” (1975) here, don’t you think? A small town, tourist-centric, is hearing some rumblings from mother nature that…
There are certain similarities with “Jaws” (1975) here, don’t you think? A small town, tourist-centric, is hearing some rumblings from mother nature that geologist “Harry” (Pierce Brosnan) doesn’t much like the sound of. When he calls the townsfolk together, though, they are way more concerned about the economic impact on their businesses if any bad news leaks out. The mayor (Linda Hamilton) is in no rush to terminate her time in office, and when his boss “Paul” (Charles Hallahan) turns up and tries to dial things down, it would seem that all is under control - or under the rug, anyway. Well, that’s until they try the tap water and then realise that this mountainside community is about to see red - quite literally! Can he manage to rescue everyone (including the mayor, her kids and the obligatory stray pet) and get the residents to safety? Now jeopardy isn’t high on the list of priorities for Roger Donaldson here so the plot is all fairly predictable, but there are some decent visual effects as the things nears it’s conclusion and there’s just an hint of science to illustrate that volcanoes tend to do what they want, when they want - regardless of whatever gadgets human beings stick in the ground to monitor them. It’s called the pyroclast protocol - just ask the Pompeiians. Brosnan is hardly an all-action hero, but he does enough here with the always wooden Hamilton and there are just enough tea-time, family, scares to keep the thing entertaining enough for just short of the two hours it takes for me to roast a chicken (in an oven). Watchable? Yes. Forgettable? That, too.
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★ 7 / 10
Oh no! It's Mount St. Helens all over again!
Coventry
Back in 1997, when I was still a carefree and stressless teenager, there suddenly came two volcano movies in one year. I enjoyed them both at the time, but all…
Back in 1997, when I was still a carefree and stressless teenager, there suddenly came two volcano movies in one year. I enjoyed them both at the time, but all the critics and movie-going audiences unanimously claimed this "Dante's Peak" was much better than "Volcano". They were right.
Now that I re-watched them both again, shortly after one another, "Dante's Peak" is definitely the superior achievement, mainly thanks to the better and far more plausible script, but also the special effects are more splendid. What I also didn't realize in 1997, because I was too young and because I am European, is that "Dante's Peak" bears a lot resemblance with the factual events of the Mount St. Helens eruption as they occurred between end of March and mid-May 1980.
Not only does director Roger Donaldson make use of the actual Mount St. Helens craters as filming locations, but there are also many parallels with the series of events as they took place in 1980. Similar to St. Helens, Dante's Peak is the name of a quiet and peaceful little town in Washington state, located at the bottom of a beautiful volcano that has been dormant for nearly 150 years, and believed to remain like that. One geologist/volcanologist also predicts the eruption and forewarns the local authorities, but hardly anybody takes him seriously. And, last but not least, here as well the human death toll unnecessarily increases because stubborn elderly people refuse to leave their mountaintop homes when the volcano erupts. By the way, if you enjoyed "Dante's Peak", I warmly recommend seeking out the obscure 1981 disaster-movie "St. Helens" directed by Ernest Pintoff.
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Dante's Peak (1997) 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray