Dante's Peak (DVD)

...Harry Walton is sent to Dante's Peak, a small town in rural America, to investigate some abnormal activity in a nearby volcano. He becomes convinced that the volcano is about to erupt, but as the town has now become a desirable place to live, his views are not politically welcome and his boss asks him to back off. Despite this, the attraction between Harry and local mayoress, Rachel Wando, grows. Just as he is about to leave, more dangerous activity ...
...persuaded me to sit through Dante's Peak again. To be honest though, on second viewing, it seemed to have improved and although it is far from being a masterpiece, provided me with an entertaining couple of hours of viewing.

I like Pierce Brosnan. He always seems to play really corny roles, but he is good at what he does and I always know what to expect of him. As Harry 'Walton, he is confident in himself, but nevertheless allows a ... more

Dr Harry Walton is sent to Dante's Peak, a small town in rural America, to investigate some abnormal activity in a nearby volcano. He becomes convinced that the volcano is about to erupt, but as the town has now become a desirable place to live, his views are not politically welcome and his boss asks him to back off. Despite this, the attraction between Harry and local mayoress, Rachel Wando, grows. Just as he is about to leave, more dangerous activity is monitored - the only problem is that there isn't going to be time to evacuate the town before the volcano erupts. Even worse, Rachel's children seem to have disappeared up the mountain to rescue their stubborn grandmother. Is Harry's warning too late? And can he and Rachel rescue the children before they are buried under a tonne of lava?

Disaster films are really not my cup of tea. If I want to watch a disaster, I put the news channel on. It was literally boredom and the fact that I have seen this film before and knew it wasn't too bad that persuaded me to sit through Dante's Peak again. To be honest though, on second viewing, it seemed to have improved and although it is far from being a masterpiece, provided me with an entertaining couple of hours of viewing.

I like Pierce Brosnan. He always seems to play really corny roles, but he is good at what he does and I always know what to expect of him. As Harry 'Walton, he is confident in himself, but nevertheless allows a bit of his soft side to show through so that he is not completely annoying. He delivers his lines with the usual cheesiness, but I find him so personable, I can't bring myself to run him down too much. This isn't a great role by any stretch of the imagination, but Brosnan does the best that he can. I would have liked more time character development - we only find out the bare bones about his past and what sort of man he is - but then any more time spent on the characters would have detracted from the fact that this is ultimately an action film.

Linda Hamilton is also pretty good as mayoress Rachel Wando. Again, we don't really have time to get into her role, but when you have lava pouring out of a mountain, it is easy to forgive this. Having said that, Linda Hamilton doesn't bring anything particular to the role and virtually any good looking woman with some talent at acting in the role would have been acceptable. Her on-screen chemistry with Brosnan is okay - considering that they only have about 2 seconds to fall in love, I think they do a good enough job together.

The best part of the film for me was the suspense and atmosphere that is built up during the last part of the film when the Wandos and Harry are trying to avoid being caught by the tail of the volcano. The suspense is relentless - every time they avoided one disaster, the next one came along and it started all over again. I really felt torn between wanting to switch the TV off and burying my head in the sand and being desperate to know what was going to happen next. I also thought that the Wandos and Harry worked well together to make the viewer really want them to survive as a family, and that includes the dog.

I don't know what a volcano eruption looks like first-hand - I've never seen one and I don't want to. As such, it is very hard to tell how realistic the special effects are. I have read a number of reviews saying that this is wrong, that is wrong, but personally, I thought it looked good. I was certainly on the edge of my seat throughout the latter part of the film because I really believed I was watching a volcano erupt. I particularly liked the scenes where Harry and the Wando family are trapped underground, which I felt were particularly effective and made me feel very claustrophobic.

Despite the suspense and horror of a national disaster, there is not that much in the way of death in the film. There are deaths, but they are fairly sensitively dealt with considering the subject matter and I think that the classification of 12 is probably about right.

There is much about this film that could have been better. The screenplay isn't great - it feels like it was almost forgotten about until the last minute - and it certainly could have been much rawer and grittier. The acting could have been better - I'm sure a more talented actor than Pierce Brosnan would have brought more depth to the movie. And the character development is virtually non-existent. However, for an action film, I think it is pretty good. It didn't matter that I hardly knew the characters - I still wanted them to survive and that is the main thing, for me at least. And we certainly get plenty of action.

I can't see myself going out to buy this film on DVD, but I would certainly watch it again if I get the chance. Made back in 1997, it is still fresh enough to not be too dated, so I think that anyone who likes a good action film with plenty of suspense will enjoy this, particularly if you don't mind a bit of cheese with your action. Recommended.

The DVD is available from play.com for £3.99.

Running time: 109 minutes

Classification: 12 

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