Volcano (1997)

reviewed by
Jamie Peck


VOLCANO
RATING: **1/2 (out of ****)

20th Century Fox / 1:45 / 1997 / PG-13 (violence, language, disaster intensity) Cast: Tommy Lee Jones; Anne Heche; Don Cheadle; John Corbett; Keith David; Gaby Hoffmann; Jacqui Kim; John Carroll Lynch Director: Mick Jackson Screenplay: Jerome Armstrong; Billy Ray

The official summer movie season has begun -- in April, no less -- with the release of "Volcano," the first big-budget disaster movie since, oh, February's "Dante's Peak" ... also a film where eruption plays a major role. Because "Peak" explored very similar territory sooner (and better), "Volcano," while somewhat good on its own terms, pretty much falls into a slight category: Same taste, less filling.

The movie's premise has potential -- a vent in the earth's plates has allowed magma to begin rising towards the crust, scenic Los Angeles to be exact. Tommy Lee Jones plays Mike Roark, the head of an emergency crew that's already on edge because of recent, intense quakes. It certainly doesn't help matters that some strange activity in L.A.'s underground has nuked a team of workers. We, of course, know why it's hotter than hell down there.

Pretty seismologist Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) is called on by Roark to help figure things out; she comments that a downtown spring has upped in temperature, and it takes a geological event to make this happen. Before too long, the implicit danger becomes blatantly obvious to the city, as the La Brea Tap Pits spit out chunks of molten rock, setting fire to all surroundings, and MacArthur Park begins, well, melting in the dark.

Roark's daughter (Gaby Hoffman) is badly burned in the mass confusion, and sent to a local hospital with a dependable doctor (Jacqueline Kim) who happens to be on the scene treating injured firemen. Roark and Barnes meet up in all the ensuing commotion, and, with the help of Roark's second-in-command (Don Cheadle) at the Emergency Management command post, try to devise a plan to stop the stream of lava that's flowing down Wilshire Boulevard.

The rest of the story clunks around as Los Angeles puts its diversity aside and bands together to combat their natural enemy, and this is where "Volcano" begins to fall apart. I really could have done without the whole subplot which finds a white cop arresting a black citizen because he's creating a nuisance in telling the police to help his neighborhood out (references to Mark Fuhrman and the L.A. riots of a few years back are used comedically here) -- it's extremely obvious that the screenwriters are using mock racial tension solely for the purpose of a ridiculous scene in which both men put their differences aside and work together.

I think this is why I enjoyed "Dante's Peak" so much more. "Peak" knew it was an E-ticket and provided adrenaline-pumping action scenes with little plot or social relevance. Towards its end, "Volcano" tries to do both -- explicitly so when a little boy, who's looking for his mother, sees all of the ash-covered residents of Los Angeles and comments, "They all look the same!" "Volcano" even features a dog leaping to safety, which seems to be a staple for all recent disaster films.

Acting-wise, all is fine. Jones can play this kind of take-charge role in his sleep, and he does it extremely well. Heche, a real find in independent films, has likely found the part that will serve as her breakthrough into the leading mainstream. And Cheadle, most recently seen in "Rosewood," manages to steal most scenes he's in, even though he's confined to a desk for the film's entire run.

Put all plotting flaws aside, though, and you have some great special effects, and I suppose that this is the true reason to rush out and see "Volcano;" after all, it wouldn't have been made without them, right? (In one gruesome segment, a key character lands feet-first in lava and slowly melts like the Wicked Witch of the West -- it looks so strange and disturbing that I didn't know whether to laugh or be disgusted.) And for the record, I'd rather watch lava turn the City of Angels into an iferno than aliens blow up the White House any day.

© 1997 Jamie Peck
E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu
Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/

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