By Geno McGahee
In the late 90s, disaster movies were the thing. The 1996 tornado movie, TWISTER, set the tone and showed a new approach that wasn’t seen in the 1970s spree of disaster films. The CGI replaced the practical effects and it was much better, but the storylines were not. The disaster movies became a rollercoaster ride with a lot of eye candy. Following TWISTER, we had TITANIC, DANTE’S PEAK, ARMAGEDDON, DEEP IMPACT, INDEPENDENCE DAY and the 1997 film “VOLCANO.”
Mike (Tommy Lee Jones), a recently divorced father and the head of the city’s office of emergency management is trying to reconnect with his daughter, Kelly (Gaby Hoffmann). She comes over his apartment to have some quality time, but an unexpected earthquake forces Mike to go back to work to make sure everything is going alright. When he leaves his 13-year-old daughter with his neighbor, his ex-wife flips out on him, and Kelly isn’t happy either.
Second in command at the office of emergency management, Emmit (Don Cheadle), is quick to back down as Mike walks into the office. Thankfully, all of the utilities seem to be in order, but there is the potential of aftershocks and other problems. An unusual problem occurs when some city workers are doing some work in the sewer. A worker crawls out of the sewer with terrible burns and tells the people that the other workers are dead. Something strange is going on.
Amy Barnes (Anne Heche), a scientist, comes into town and speaks with Mike and notes that there is something going on and it might be a volcano. He laughs it off, but she is determined to get evidence, leading to the death of her friend. She crawls out of the hole and the city is now in flames. A volcano has gone off and all the power in the city is off. It leads to many problems, including looting. It must have been a lot of fun to be an extra in this film and be assigned the looter role. You can see the joy on their faces as they run with the big boxes by Barnes as she cries over the loss of her friend.
Large fireballs are flying out of the volcano and destroying buildings. Mike drives up with his daughter and he is trying to figure out what’s happening. He drops her off at the hospital and begins a strategy to deal with the madness. Amy insists that he evacuates the city to save millions, but he refuses. He is going to beat the volcano.
I felt bad for some of the victims in this. It’s almost like FINAL DESTINATION at times. One poor guy is lying on a stretcher, covered in gauze from head to toe, and a fire ball hits him and engulfs him in fire. His last thoughts must have been “what are the odds?” Others got screwed too like the fireman that was launched off a fire truck after it was hit by a fireball. The odds of the fireball hitting it were slim, but it got it nonetheless and it made me think about the risks that firemen take…especially those that are sitting atop the truck and really really especially the ones that are driving into a volcano.
As the group fights the volcano, Officer Ed Fox (Keith David), suggests knocking down buildings to stop the lava. Initially laughed off, it becomes the best bet and they set charges on a large skyscraper, but Kelly is following some lost little boy through the building, leading to a last second save by dad. It was to add a little tension. (Spoiler) They beat the volcano. The end.
VOLCANO came on the heels of the racial tension of the Rodney King incident and LA riots, and the production beats you over the head with it. Their heart was in the right place, but they really stretched to fit in certain elements of the story. At the time, maybe it stopped some racists from being so…racist, but this hasn’t aged well.
Tommy Lee Jones always plays the tough guy with a sensitive side very well, much like he did with THE FUGITIVE. Anne Heche gets some bad press but she does very well here as the nerdy/sexy scientist and despite the obvious age difference, she made the chemistry work with Lee Jones. I think that Heche got most of her bad press from her relationship and breakup with Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres is a power player in Hollywood. It’s not out of the question that she planted some stories against Heche. Maybe not. Perhaps it’s just my dislike for DeGeneres. How the hell is she popular?
I liked VOLCANO. It’s nothing special, but it’s silly enough and action-packed enough to keep my attention. You could do worse.
Rating: 6/10
