Volcano.

A volcanic eruption in downtown Los Angeles...

Release Date: Apr. 25, 1997. Running Time: 103 minutes. Screenplay: Jerome Armstrong, Billy Ray. Producer: Andrew Z. Davis, Neal H. Mortiz, Lauren Shuler Donner. Director: Mick Jacson.


THE PLOT:

A minor earthquake in Los Angeles is of no particular concern - until a group of utility workers are burned to death in a storm drain at MacArthur Park. Office of Emergency Management Director Michael Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) investigates, and discovers hot gas venting through a crack in the concrete.

The following morning, another earthquake triggers a volcanic eruption at the La Brea Tar Pits. Roark, who is conveniently driving to the office through that area with his teenage daughter (Gaby Hoffmann), jumps into action, barking orders at everyone in sight to deal with each new phase of the emergency as it develops.

With help from geologist Amy Barnes (Anne Heche), Roark hatches a plan to wall the lava off from nearby homes. But Amy believes this is just the beginning of the crisis, and she is soon proved right. Lava is flowing through the underground transit tunnels. When it runs out of a tunnel, there will be an eruption even bigger than the first!

Roark rescues his daughter (Gaby Hoffmann).

CHARACTERS:

Michael Roark: Pragmatic and stubborn, he is determined to solve each problem as it comes, and hope to buy time to solve the next problem. When objections are raised, he sharply points out that if the lava breaks through, it will leave thousands of people defenseless. "You don't like my plan? That's good - Give me another plan. But don't tell me we're backing out!" By the end of the movie, his ingenuity is as exhausted as he is, prompting one of the few good character moments when he is forced to admit that he doesn't know what to do - Which, of course, is when inspiration strikes.

Amy Barnes: The requisite volcano expert and potential love interest - despite Anne Heche being more age appropriate to be cast as Tommy Lee Jones' daughter than as a potential girlfriend. That said, the age difference is the least of the problems with the character. Heche, an actress capable of very good work, has zero credibility in this role. She's introduced with the kind of spotlight close-ups old studio heads used to push their anointed starlets, and she overacts her lines as if she wandered in from a screwball comedy. Once the crisis hits, she alternates between reeling off exposition and arguing against Roark's plans to redirect the lava - even though volcanologists in the real world have actually recommended such plans to divert flow from homes (notably in Hawaii).

Emmit Reese: Don Cheadle manages the impossible, and actually engages as Roark's deputy. With Roark stuck at the scene, Emmit manages the response from the OEM office. Cheadle wrings a few genuine chuckles out of his character's wisecracks, while also summoning enough presence to convince as the de facto director.

Norman Calder: John Corbett, fresh from Northern Exposure, appears as a real estate developer involved with the film's requisite doctor (Jacqueline Kim). Most of his scenes are in the first third of the film... But since he doesn't come across as actively despicable, he's brought back at the end to bicker with his girlfriend over her insistence on treating the patients overwhelming her hospital. Just to make sure that we understand that businessman = baddie.

Fire trucks gather at the unconvincing special effect. 
If only Banjo-Kazooie was here!

THOUGHTS:

Though Dante's Peak beat it to the theaters, expectations were much higher for Volcano. It had a higher caliber cast: Tommy Lee Jones, at the height of his stardom; Anne Heche, who after attracting attention in some sharp indie films seemed to be on the cusp of stardom; and Don Cheadle, who had earned recent plaudits for his performance as a charming psychopath in Devil in a Blue Dress. It was bigger budget, with a script that the studio insisted was meatier than your average disaster fare, with running themes involving both racial inclusion and the value of preparedness.

Volcano significantly underperformed at the box office. A few critics gave its script credit for a degree of wit absent from Dante's Peak, but the bulk of the reviews were negative. While its rival remains a film people have fond memories of (arguably, fonder than the film itself deserves), Volcano is barely remembered.

And with good reason. For all its flaws, Dante's Peak is an effective formula picture with credible performances. In my review of it, I singled out the stupid driving-on-lava scene... But outside of that scene, much of the science bore an at least passing resemblance to reality. Volcano, by contrast, has its geologist character arguing against actual valid responses to lava flow, features multiple scenes of characters surviving what should be fatal proximity to lava, and ends by dropping a building on its lead characters. Who survive, with only some photogenically-applied ash to show for their problems. Basically, this is what you'd get if you made an entire movie out of the other film's driving-on-lava scene.

After spending hours breathing in ash, having glass explode repeatedly all over them, and even having a building dropped on them? Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, and the Jones moppet go not to the hospital to make sure they aren't going to die of the various particulates now in their lungs, but instead drive home. Because glass is harmless (apparently - not a single character is cut by glass at any point in this movie), and the respiratory system loves processing ash.

But hey, fiftyish Tommy Lee scores a young blonde hot chick, so... Happy endings all around!

Oh, and those heavily-hyped positive messages? Aside from "listen to experts" (except when they're wrong), the preparedness message amounts to nothing. Meanwhile, the racial overtones are heavy-handed and a bit insulting. We are told that a racist cop is "a good man" for letting a black man go free after arresting him for no reason. At the end of the movie, a child pipes up that everyone looks the same, prompting dramatic shots of the multi-racial cast all covered with ash. Deep stuff, kid.


OVERALL:

Um... Yeah, this was dumb. And bad. And ultimately rather boring. Not only is Dante's Peak better than this... I'd actually rank The Concorde: Airport '79 as better than this. It has some do-it-yourself Mystery Science Theater value. Other than that, I'd recommend running from this Volcano. As fast as your legs can carry you.


Overall Rating: 2/10.



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