VOLCANO
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
**1/2 (out of 4 = OK) 1997, PG-13, 105 minutes [1 hour, 45 minutes] [thriller] starring: Tommy Lee Jones (Mike Roark), Anne Heche (Dr. Amy Barnes), Gaby Hoffmann (Kelly Roark), Don Cheadle (Emmit Reese), written by Jerome Armstrong, Billy Ray, produced by Andrew Davis, Neal H. Moritz, directed by Mick Jackson.
As a critic, I must remain as unbiased as possible before viewing a film. But I had mixed feelings going into "Volcano" because I knew what was going to happen. However, as routine as the film can be, I found myself genuinely interested throughout.
The film works in the spirit of all big budget Hollywood disaster movies: something strange is going on... no one knows what exactly... a strong leader calls in an expert... the expert realizes something terrible is about to happen... no one believes the expert... disaster ensues. Plus there are many other elements that are plugged in: canceled vacations, bratty daughters, offices with lots of computers and video screens, subplots of petty fighting and bigotry, and of course impressive special effects.
Tommy Lee Jones stars as Mike Roark, the director of L.A.'s Office of Emergency Management. He's about to go on vacation when some men die from some sort of geologically related accident, but there's something unusual about it. He calls in Dr. Amy Barnes (Heche), an "expert" who tells him what's going on isn't just typical earthquake stuff, but volcanic activity. It only takes a few scenes for Barnes' theory to be proven true as we see manhole covers fly into the air and fireballs engulf the sewer system and subway tunnels... then the real action starts.
And so we get scenes of total devastation with explosion after explosion and fire after fire while a river of lava slowly flows down Wilshire Boulevard, consuming everything in its path.
Films like this try to make themselves as plausible as possible by throwing in scientific jargon that makes perfect sense to us, even though we're not sure what it means. I found most of the rhetoric here to be easy to swallow, but I couldn't help feeling it was a little too convincing.
There isn't really a story here, just many scenes of teams of emergency workers, police, and firefighters doing all they can to stop the lava flow, evacuate citizens, and help the injured. Some of the individual scenes are visually impressive but quite cheesy, such as Jones and Heche dangling by a thread over the lava, or a rescuer using all his will to save someone, but not himself. There are also two stupid subplots involving racism and snobbishness that could only happen in L.A.
The characters are a bit bland and recycled though. Jones' Roark is the same character as Sam Gerard in "The Fugitive." Gaby Hoffmann is sweet at first as Roark's daughter Kelly, but becomes quite annoying by the end (not that it's entirely her fault). Heche and Cheadle are obviously going through the motions, but at least they don't over act, especially considering the situation.
I can't say much more about the film without nitpicking all its unrealistic and unbelievable aspects or describing the plot in detail. But for all the trite aspects and through all the cliches (don't think I didn't notice them), I couldn't help but be interested in seeing what happens next. The special effects did make the lava and the sense of disaster realistic, which I'm sure added to my interest.
"Volcano" certainly impressed me more than "Twister," which is strange considering how both are such movie machines. It has a few good points and makes for a fair amount of suspense, but the bad points are obvious and bring the film down. The title alone is a misnomer, there's no towering volcano here, just a little stump of one. Maybe it should have been called "The Secret Of The Ooze" (oh wait, that's already taken).
please visit Chad'z Movie Page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz/index.html
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