Dante's Peak (1997)
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Renee Smith
Director: Roger Donaldson
Synopsis: Twister's success spawned an even more wretched lot of disaster flicks....
Reviewed by: Bazid Khan & Omar Khan

 

Another one of those very typical disaster movies. All gloss and special effects with little or no actual substance. The script and performances are so predictable that one can almost forecast exactly what is going to happen next and how every character will react long before it actually does.

The scenery, locations and the volcanic eruption itself are undoubtedly top-notch, but unfortunately there is very little else to recommend.

Right from the opening scenes the film settles into a very familiar rhythm. Pierce Brosnan's girlfriend is killed during a volcanic eruption while the two attempt to escape, setting up the standard guilt-ridden hero that disaster movies seem so fond of. From then on it simply becomes a procession of familiar situations and increasingly implausible action scenes.

The performances from the cutesy young boy and girl quickly become rather nauseating. The young boy's drive up the mountainside while the volcano is erupting is almost impossible to believe.

Later, Brosnan somehow manages to drive a jeep straight through flowing lava. Although the tyres conveniently burst into flames, the vehicle itself soldiers on almost unaffected. At that point the audience is asked to abandon whatever little credibility the film still possesses.

Considering the enormous sums obviously spent on the production, the end result feels surprisingly hollow.

A complete waste of time and money.

It's rather like watching a rerun.

— Bazid Khan

Bazid is absolutely right in describing Dante's Peak as familiar because the film borrows wholeheartedly from Jaws. Its basic structure, tone and narrative progression are almost identical.

The formula has now become the stock blueprint for virtually every modern nature-based disaster film.

A small town.

Usually struggling financially.

Its future dependent upon some annual festival or tourist season that "brings in the trade" for the honest, hardworking locals.

Into this idyllic setting arrives the clever city expert armed with scientific evidence that catastrophe is just around the corner. Naturally, the townsfolk—and more importantly their superiors—dismiss him as yet another over-educated alarmist interfering with local affairs.

We've seen it all before.

The destination merely changes.

One year it's a shark.

The next it's a volcano.

Then it's an asteroid, a tornado or an earthquake.

Only the natural disaster changes while the screenplay remains almost interchangeable.

To be fair, the special effects are undeniably impressive, exactly as one would expect from a major Hollywood production with a sizeable budget. The eruption itself is mounted with considerable technical skill and the production values are consistently high.

Unfortunately, spectacle alone is never enough.

Almost everything about Dante's Peak generates an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. It is slick, efficient, conveyor-belt Hollywood filmmaking that values visual effects far above originality, intelligence or genuine suspense.

In short, it is dead on arrival.

Having said that, there is undoubtedly an audience for this sort of thing. If you're looking for an entirely undemanding evening's entertainment—something inoffensive, family-friendly and unlikely to upset anyone with excessive violence, sex or challenging ideas—you could certainly do worse.

Volcano, perhaps.