Volcano

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Jacob B Volcano is a...messy disaster movie, to say the least. Mainly because I feel like it balances a fine line between being genuinely good and ironically good. With regards to the former, there are the very committed performances from Tommy Lee Jones, Don Cheadle and Keith David, lava effects that hold up reasonably well, some genuinely intense moments and a well-meaning message about working together. In the latter case, we have some laughably bad dialogue such as the actor playing TLJ's daughter's way of boasting about him beating lava and TLJ apparently not familiar with terminology such as "lava" and "magma" despite working in a profession where he should know what they are. Of course, that's not the only thing, there's also the attempts to shoehorn social commentary in a popcorn-friendly disaster movie with the film discussing racial tensions. I think Volcano's signature scene is the best example of how this film can flip-flop between being unironically good and "so bad, it's good": on the one hand, I can commend the guy for his act of heroism even as he realised he wasn't going to make it out alive coupled with reports of how genuinely traumatising the death was for younger audiences. On the other hand, the way his demise was handled ended up looking silly and more like something from The Wizard of Oz. I was expecting the guy to give the other men a thumbs up in his final moments, Terminator 2-style. To say nothing of the sheer artistic licence involved that seems to go all over the place based off of what would be more dramatic at the moment...but you can read the TV Tropes page for that. And since I doubt that I've said anything that other people haven't mentioned already, what different things do I have to say about it? Umm...you can tell this is a Fox movie from the mid-90s because the film shows the locations and time in a typewriter font because The X-Files was still one of the studio's biggest cash cows at the time. A bit of grasping at straws there but it's not as though I cared either here or there what time it was. Overall, Volcano is a film that I can happily declare one of the more underrated disaster films out there...from a certain point of view. It's certainly more entertaining than the thematically similar Pompeii. P.S. The lack of mentioning of Dante's Peak isn't me being generous, I just haven't seen it yet. P.P.S. Y'all realise that this can be considered an honourary Marvel film? I'm serious. This was the first film to have Kevin Feige's name on it. With this film and You've Got Mail, the early-installment weirdness in his filmography as his only entries outside of the superhero genre remains quite amusing to me. So, I also recommend Volcano for completionists' sake for my fellow MCU fans. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/15/25 Full Review bill k unironically one of the greatest films ever made even if that's an overstatement because volcano is the perfect disaster movie to watch its got great character development, a well written storyline, excellent special effects/CGI, great production values and impressive cinematography. there is nothing stupid about this underrated masterpiece/classic the actors are behaving seriously the movie has a point go view with underground eruptions and the movie competently creates tension and excitement within the disaster scenes this is one of Tommy lee jones better performances this movie is definitely an absolute must see and is way better than that piece of crap that was Dantes peak with pierce brosnan ( the second worst James Bond ) if you want pure entertainment that also has thought to it volcano is the movie 9/10 Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/25 Full Review Rosana B Tirando o fato de ser absurdamente exagerado e excessivamente forçado, é legalzinho, deu angustia o comportamento infantilizado da adolescente de 15 anos, com aquelas atitudes, deveriam ter coloca uma criança de 9, ficaria mais crível e digamos, dramático... Embora recheada de simbolismo, a cena final (em que todos ficam cinza e o menino diz "somos todos iguais") bem forçação de barra, mas quem liga… Sou suspeita pela parcialidade, amos filmes de desastres e afins, Regular... Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 12/30/24 Full Review Parker D This deserves a higher rating than what is has this willl forever be a disaster movie classic and one of the best to come out of its time the CGI on the lava flowing is some of the best in history the special effects were phenomenal, I loved the performances and the charachter development in this film you can easily relate to them all, the disaster scenes with the lava destruction were both thrilling and thought provoking at the same time, I also got frightened and felt bad for those who sacrificed themselves to save the lives of innocent people. The dialogue and storytelling were really good and smart it was not cheesy the effects and CGi on the lava again were outstanding they still hold up today well I can’t understand how does this not get enough appreciation and praise the way titanic and twister do it’s a masterpiece and an original disaster movie about lava flow. The direction which feels emmerich like is phenomenal, everyone did a great job making this film and in my opinion it’s one of the best of 1997 9.5/10 🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 11/06/24 Full Review Markus L Very mid, but worth a watch Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/05/24 Full Review Blobbo X Why the low rating, wonder Blobbo? You were expecting Citizen Kane? Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/23/24 Full Review Read all reviews

Volcano

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