Volcano (1997)

Tommy Lee Jones is in charge of disaster management in Los Angeles and Anne Heche is a Geologist and they are thrown together when under Los Angeles an undiscovered Volcano comes through in the middle of rush hour. They then have to join forces to see if using all of the resources at their finger tips they can save the city and the people they love. This is very much a big budget disaster film that would have normally been shown on SyFy but director Mick Jackson had some big name actors to work with and a half decent budget.

I enjoy this film, however it a disaster film, it has many points that are cheesy and predictable, from the racist policeman and the black man that bang heads, to Tommy Lee’s Daughter played by Gaby Hoffmann who you know is going to end up in trouble as that is where her character is always going to end up. The bomb experts at the end that make the ultimate sacrifice and then there are the comments about everybody looking the same. Clunky metaphors thrown in to a film that are not needed, it tries to be gritty but ultimately fails.

Now with all the complaining and whinging out of the way I think that there is still an element of enjoyment about this film, the characters are not overly developed and those you expect to survive do and there are enough deaths and injuries and people doing the right thing to make it an enjoyable enough disaster movie, I do understand what it is about and just enjoy it, overall a 7 out of 10 worth watching for me.