Review: Dantes Peak (1997)
After sensing small amounts of seismic activity, the USGS (United States Geological Survey) send vulcanologist expert Harry Dalton (played by Pierce Brosnan) out on what they think is a routine discovery to the small town of Dante's Peak. After finding a pair of skinny dippers dead in a creek next to the mountain, Dalton fears that a volcanic eruption is not far away. Suggesting the town should be put on alert, government experts doubt him but Dante's Peak mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) starts to believe him after more volcanic activity is found and the lives of her children are threatened. Desperately trying to convince everyone of his theory before its too late, disastrous consequences occur as the volcano finally blows its lid after a good hour into the film. Now more of a race against time then anything else, Dalton must get himself and his companions to safety while attempting to pass little "obstacles" like an acid lake and a house surrounded by lava.
Pierse Brosnan's character Harry Dalton is the typical disaster movie hero - he's young, good looking, determined and has an on screen radience that can carry a movie. Yet more importantly, Dalton has a very nifty talent for sensing when a volcano is about to erupt after a close friend and partner of his was killed in the opening scene. Being surrounded by Rachel Wando and her two children gives a nice aspect of romance to the film, yet sometimes can be a little tedious as Pierce Brosnan can be often seen of as more of a fatherly character rather than a hero constantly running from eruptions. But overall, Brosnan's performance is very well suited to the movie and gives Dante's Peak the boost it needs to be a successful action film.
For an area of disaster never really covered before, Dante's Peak does extremely well in providing realistic special effects cleverly produced by computer and digital technology and directed by Australian-born Roger Donaldson, who happens to be a geology major with a passion for vulcanology. However impressive Dante's Peak may be, if you are anxious for lots of java and volcanic activity (and not just flying rocks) I would probably suggest that you wait for Volcano, which is scheduled to be released later this year.
3 STARS
Suspense builds but lava is not fit for the boil
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews