Volcano

Deft filmmaking that allows the special effects to help, not be, the story combines with an actual script to make Volcano a smart, self-aware, and most of all fun disaster movie.

The secret of Volcano's success as a better-than-average disasterama is its nonstop pace.

The fun is in the mayhem, and there's plenty of it.

In a few sound bites, we get the picture and the picture's motto: the smug and selfish coast is an order of disaster-flick toast waiting to burn.

You hope against hope that the lava flowing through the city will wipe out Los Angeles and everyone in it, if only to prevent them from making more movies like this.

While disaster yarns aren't known for subtlety, there are limits, and Volcano giddily goes beyond them.

Crucial to the nature of the disaster film -- and something that Irwin Allen knew so very well -- is that films of this sort depend on an emotional hook, a peg of normalcy to hang the chaos from. Volcano offers no such hook, and as a result it plays like some La Brea dinosaur risen from the tar, all effects and no heart.

Screw Dante’s peak volcano 1997 is the superior disaster film why doesn’t this film get more praise it has thought provoking drama and thought, the charachters are compelling Tommy Lee jones is phenomenal in this movie better than the worst James Bond actor that is pierce mother$$$$$ Brosnan and the CGI is convincing with human emotions and dramatic tension you can easily relay to some of these charachters and their motives this is like a Roland emmerich film and in our perfect world it was he who made it this movie needs more attention it’s far better than other dismissed films like godzilla or Armageddon it’s better than those pieces of crap and far more compelling and not mindless. I give this disaster masterpiece an A

Volcano doesn't get any more fun than seeing it a second time. What Volcano lacks is fun, thrill, and shock. What we got instead is a plain messed-up visual effects with decent acting.

Volcano is no "Dante's Peak", but it provides a quick, cheap fix for disaster movie junkies. The special effects are the downfall here; they could've been improved greatly.

This has the most brain-dead script of all time ever. The effects are mostly a little tacky but pretty cool. Not as good effects as Dante's Peak (1997) or The Day After Tomorrow (2004). The biggest fault is the fact that the whole movie is based on the most stupid premise ever. There are moments with dogs, children and even trains that are so painfully beyond belief that you just want to stick a volcano up your own bottom. Having said that there is fun to be had knowing that this is more ridiculous than Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings combined. Not knowingly campy, this is a shame.

Volcano is a shallow, effects heavy disaster movie that looks and feels like a Roland Emmerich film, which is not meant as a complement. Volcano just feels empty of emotion, common sense and character. It substitutes all of it for special effects that are now incredibly dated leaving a film with very few redeeming features. That being said, Tommy Lee Jones is always reliable in almost anything he is in and is a entertaining lead. He is let down by Anne Heche who isn't bad, but she is miscast with her never meshing with the film. That may be because the script is awful but it's probably the fact the film feels chaotic and she is always bizarrely chirpy. In fact the films chaotic feel actually makes the whole film seem messy which isn't helped by the fact the story is borderline nonsensical. Overall it's a film that hasn't held up over time due to some terrible writing, casting and special effects. All in all it's really really bad.